XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: no_email@invalid.invalid   
      
   Ruud Harmsen  wrote:   
   > 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.   
      
   I thought slapping an 'er' anywhere automatically made anything good dutch.   
      
   As wugi says, the one with woordt feels like an exact parallel to our   
   'vende-se [plural noun]'.   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)