# All Nordic languages : " he is helped a lot "



## J.F. de TROYES

Just a basic question.  I am unsure whether these passive sentences are correct and usual :

Swedish : 1. Han hjälpes mycket
              2. Han blir hjälpet mycket

Norwegian : 1. Han hjelpes mye
                 2. Han blir hjulpet mye

Danish :  1. Han hjælpes meget
             2. Han bliver hjælpet meget 

Thanks for your answers.


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## bicontinental

Danish:_ "Han hjælpes_ af sine forældre" is a grammatically correct passive form; it sounds quite formal to my ear, (maybe even slightly dated). The more common and colloquial way to say this would be _"han bliver *hjulpet* _af sine forældre" (please note the irregular past participle)

Bic.


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## mosletha

I think the Norwegian sentences are both correct and common. I can also add a Norwegian nynorsk variant: Han vert mykje hjelpt.


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## JohanIII

In Swedish you drop the e in both.
But they are rather quirky.
Depending on context you would rather use _hjälpsam_, _få hjälp_, _hjälpa till_.


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## raumar

This question may be less simple than it seems. In the Norwegian case, I  agree with Mosletha that both alternatives are correct, and that both  are used. But I am not so sure if both alternatives are common.  Bicontinental's objections to "hjælpes" in Danish may apply to Norway as  well. 

This may depend on the context, as Johan says on the  Swedish case. If we are talking about the amount of help he gets from  somebody, I would prefer "Han blir hjulpet mye av foreldrene sine" to  "Han hjelpes mye ...". But the simplest (and maybe the most used) way to  express this in Norwegian would be to drop the passive form, and write  "Han får mye hjelp av ..."

If "He is helped a lot" means that he  finds something useful, neither of the alternatives sound quite right.  In that case, we might say, for example,  "Han er godt hjulpet av...",  "Han har stor nytte av...", or that something "er til stor hjelp for  ham".


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## J.F. de TROYES

raumar said:


> This may depend on the context, as Johan says on the Swedish case. If we are talking about the amount of help he gets from somebody, I would prefer "Han blir hjulpet mye av foreldrene sine" to "Han hjelpes mye ...". But the simplest (and maybe the most used) way to express this in Norwegian would be to drop the passive form, and write "Han får mye hjelp av ..."



Actually that's what I have in mind. I understand that the active voice is more common in such a sentence. But when a passive  is used , can you say that the analytic form with the auxiliary _bli_ is rather preferred to the passive marker _-s_ ?


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## myšlenka

J.F. de TROYES said:


> Actually that's what I have in mind. I understand that the active voice is more common in such a sentence. But when a passive  is used , can you say that the analytic form with the auxiliary _bli_ is rather preferred to the passive marker _-s_ ?


 I don't have any statistical figures to support this, but my guess is that the synthetic passive is preferred if a modal (skulle, måtte, kunne, ville, burde) is involved. The analytic passive is preferred elsewhere. Thus, "han blir hjulpet mye" is probably preferred to "han hjelpes mye".

I also think that the synthetic passive is preferred (or even obligatory) when the idea of a specific agent is somewhat unnatural. These cases would be very similar to French passive constructions with _se_.

1a) Det vises ikke. - Ça se voit pas.
1b) Det blir ikke vist. - Ça n'est/sera pas montré.
2a) Hvordan uttales det? - Comment ça se prononce?
2b) Hvordan blir det uttalt? - Comment ça se prononce?

In 1a) the synthetic passive is obligatory. In fact it's impossible to construct it with _bli_ while retaining the same meaning (1b). 2a) and 2b) are more or less equivalent, but I strongly prefer 2a).


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## raumar

myšlenka said:


> I don't have any statistical figures to support this, but my guess is that the synthetic passive is preferred if a modal (skulle, måtte, kunne, ville, burde) is involved. The analytic passive is preferred elsewhere. Thus, "han blir hjulpet mye" is probably preferred to "han hjelpes mye".



I agree. Thanks Myšlenka, you expressed this more clearly than I would have done.


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## J.F. de TROYES

I am aware of how it may be difficult for a native speaker to explain what is a matter of intuition . You've made it ; thanks all for your help.


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