XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: rh@rudhar.com   
      
   Sat, 11 May 2024 22:42:51 +0200: wugi  scribeva:   
   >Funnily a similar thing happens in Dutch, in cases where a normal   
   >passive sounds awkward, and a preceding impersonal form is preferred.   
   >Example:   
   >   
   >Aardappelen worden daar graag gegeten.   
   >Potatoes are popular (being eaten "gladly") over there.   
   >(The "normal" passive has already this awkwardness, that the adverb   
   >'graag' describes not the mood of the potatoes, but that of their eaters!)   
   >   
   >Better:   
   >Er worden daar graag aardappelen gegeten.   
      
   Doesn't sound better to me.   
      
   >There are potatoes being eaten "gladly" over there.   
   >(with our versatile 'er' particle, < 'daar', there)   
   >   
   >The preceding form even allows an "impersonal passive" (of intransitive   
   >verbs!):   
   >Er wordt daar veel gedanst.   
   >There is much dancing (being often danced) over there.   
   >(Nothing definite is "being" danced...)   
   >   
   >Now the parallel with "vende-se barcos":   
   >*Er _wordt_ daar graag aardappelen gegeten.   
   >There _is_ being eaten "gladly" potatoes over there...   
   >Supposedly ungrammatical, but meseems slowly replacing the former.   
   >   
   >> I have no idea if something similar happens in spanish.   
   >   
   >See before.   
      
   --   
   Ruud Harmsen, https://rudhar.com   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)