Alternatives to the Passive
Alternatives to the Passive
Dutch dislikes a heavy passive and has several ways around it that English lacks: laten zich, vallen te and zijn te all produce a passive meaning with an active verb, and a generic je does the rest.
Grammar Comparison
Grammar Comparison
laten zich + infinitive: 'can be done'
Dat laat zich makkelijk verklaren.
That can easily be explained.
This construction pairs laten with a reflexive pronoun to say something lends itself to being done. Dat laat zich raden means 'that can be guessed'. English has to switch to a modal passive — 'can be explained' — while Dutch keeps an active verb whose subject is the thing acted upon. It belongs to careful written register.
vallen te and zijn te express possibility passively
Er valt niets aan te doen. Het huis is te koop.
Nothing can be done about it. The house is for sale.
vallen te plus infinitive states what can or cannot be done: Dat valt te verwachten ('that is to be expected'), Er valt veel te zien. zijn te plus infinitive does something similar with a flavour of availability or feasibility: is te koop, is te huur, is niet te geloven. Both are compact and idiomatic where a full passive would be clumsy.
Generic je and ze avoid naming an agent
Dat zeg je niet. Ze hebben de weg afgesloten.
You don't say that. The road has been closed.
je as a generic pronoun means 'one, people in general' and is far more common than men in speech. ze with no antecedent means an unspecified 'they' — the authorities, the company, whoever did it. Both let Dutch keep an active verb where English would default to a passive, and choosing them over worden is usually what makes a sentence sound native.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- English
- can be (lends itself to)
- English
- That is to be expected
- English
- Nothing can be done about it
- English
- for sale
- English
- for rent
- English
- unbelievable
- English
- to explain
- English
- to close off
- English
- available
- English
- feasible
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