XPost: alt.usage.english, alt.english.usage   
   From: rh@rudhar.com   
      
   Tue, 14 May 2024 09:00:48 -0000 (UTC): Antonio Marques   
    scribeva:   
      
   >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.   
      
   Of course you're joking. Yet it's good to add a link to the full   
   description of the various functions and various kinds of "er" in   
   Dutch: https://e-ans.ivdnt.org/topics/pid/ans0806lingtopic .   
      
   >As wugi says, the one with woordt feels like an exact parallel to our   
   >'vende-se [plural noun]'.   
      
   --   
   Ruud Harmsen, https://rudhar.com   
      
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