Advanced Passive: Agents, Impersonal, få-passive | Norwegian Grammar

You already know the two basic Norwegian passives: the s-passive (Døra åpnes klokka ni — "the door opens/is opened at nine") and the bli-passive (Døra ble åpnet av vaktmesteren — "the door was opened by the caretaker"). This page covers what comes after: how to name the agent, how to passivise a verb that has no object at all, how to passivise verbs with two objects, and the distinctly Scandinavian få-passive that puts the recipient in the spotlight. These are the structures English-facing resources routinely skip — partly because two of them have no English equivalent. For the basic choice between the two passives, see the s-passive and the bli-passive.

The agent phrase: av, not med

When you want to say who performed the action of a passive verb, you add an agent phrase introduced by av ("by"). The agent is the logical doer that the passive demoted from subject position.

Huset ble malt av naboen i fjor sommer.

The house was painted by the neighbour last summer.

Boka ble skrevet av en ukjent forfatter på 1700-tallet.

The book was written by an unknown author in the 1700s. (formal)

Vinneren ble kåret av en enstemmig jury.

The winner was chosen by a unanimous jury. (formal)

The preposition is av and only av. English speakers reliably reach for med ("with") because "by" and "with" feel close in meaning, but med marks an instrument, not an agent. Malt med en rull means "painted with a roller" (the tool); malt av naboen means "painted by the neighbour" (the person). Mixing them up produces a sentence that is either nonsense or comic.

Veggen ble malt av Per med en bred kost.

The wall was painted by Per with a wide brush. (av = agent, med = instrument)

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av = agent (the doer), med = instrument (the tool). One sentence can hold both: malt *av maleren med en rull. If you can replace the noun with "by means of," it's *med; if it answers "by whom," it's av.

Note that Norwegian, like English, usually leaves the agent out. The whole point of the passive is often to suppress the doer — because it is unknown, irrelevant, or obvious. Døra ble åpnet ("the door was opened") with no agent is the default; add av X only when the doer genuinely matters.

The impersonal passive: passivising the unpassivisable

Here is the structure with no English equivalent, and the reason this page exists. Norwegian can build a passive out of a verb that has no object at all — an intransitive verb describing an activity. The result has no logical subject, so the slot is filled by the dummy det ("it/there"), and the sentence describes the activity as simply happening, with no one named as doing it.

Det danses hver lørdag på samfunnshuset.

There's dancing every Saturday at the community hall.

Det ble danset hele natten i bryllupet.

They danced all night at the wedding. (lit. 'it was danced')

Det blir snakket mye om dette i avisene for tiden.

There's a lot of talk about this in the papers at the moment.

English cannot do this. There is no English sentence "it is danced" or "it is worked." Where Norwegian says det danses, English must switch to an active sentence with a vague subject — "people dance," "they danced," "there's dancing." The Norwegian impersonal passive is a way of stating that an activity takes place while pointedly refusing to say who is responsible. It is extremely common with verbs of activity (danse, snakke, jobbe, røyke, le, synge, banne) and on signs and in official prose.

Det røykes ikke her.

No smoking here. (lit. 'it is not smoked here')

Her må det jobbes, ikke prates!

Work needs doing here, not chatting! (informal)

Det ble ledd og sunget rundt bålet til langt på natt.

There was laughing and singing around the fire until late at night. (literary)

Note that the det here is the expletive/dummy det — it does not refer to anything. The verb stays singular regardless. This same det appears in the presentative construction (Det kommer en buss); see the presentative det.

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The impersonal passive is Norwegian's way of saying "X-ing happens" with nobody named. Reach for it on signs (det røykes ikke her), in reports of collective activity (det danses, det jobbes hardt), and whenever English would say "there is X-ing going on." There is no English passive to copy — you must learn the pattern as its own thing.

Recipient promotion: passivising ditransitive verbs

A ditransitive verb takes two objects — typically a recipient and a thing (gi noen noe, "give someone something"; tilby noen noe, "offer someone something"). When you passivise such a verb, Norwegian lets the recipient become the subject, exactly as English does ("she was offered the job"). This surprises learners who expect only the thing to be passivisable.

Hun ble tilbudt jobben allerede på første intervju.

She was offered the job already at the first interview.

Alle ansatte ble lovet en bonus før jul.

All the employees were promised a bonus before Christmas.

Han ble nektet adgang til lokalet.

He was denied entry to the premises. (formal)

In Hun ble tilbudt jobben, the person (hun) is the grammatical subject and the thing (jobben) stays as a leftover object after the verb. This recipient-as-subject pattern is the everyday way Norwegian reports being given, offered, promised, awarded, or denied something — and it is the natural bridge to the next structure.

The få-passive: the recipient does the receiving

Alongside the bli-passive, Norwegian has a second recipient passive built with the verb få ("get/receive"). The structure is få + object + past participle, and it casts the subject as the beneficiary or recipient of the action — the one to whom something was done, often to their advantage or detriment. It is everywhere in everyday and administrative Norwegian.

Han fikk utbetalt lønna allerede den 20.

He had his wages paid out already on the 20th.

Hun fikk tildelt en pris for forskningen sin.

She was awarded a prize for her research.

Vi fikk utdelt papirene da vi kom inn.

We had the papers handed out to us when we came in.

Pasienten fikk fjernet svulsten samme dag.

The patient had the tumour removed the same day. (formal)

Compare bli and få on the same content:

Papirene *ble utdelt.* — "The papers were handed out." (neutral; focus on the papers)
Vi *fikk utdelt papirene.* — "We had the papers handed out to us." (focus on us as recipients)

The English closest equivalent is the "have something done" construction (had his wages paid out, had the tumour removed), but Norwegian's få-passive is far more common and more neutral than English "have," which often implies you arranged it. Note få is irregular: present får, preterite fikk, supine fått. See the modal/causative få.

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Use the få-passive when the subject is the recipient or beneficiary of the action: Jeg fikk reparert sykkelen ("I got my bike repaired / had my bike repaired"). Use the bli-passive when the focus is the thing itself: Sykkelen ble reparert ("the bike was repaired").

Passives combine freely with modal verbs. The modal takes the finite slot and the lexical verb appears as a passive infinitive — almost always the s-passive infinitive (-es), because the bli-passive infinitive after a modal sounds heavy.

Dette må gjøres i dag, ellers rekker vi det ikke.

This has to be done today, or we won't make it in time.

Søknaden kan ikke behandles før alle papirene er på plass.

The application cannot be processed until all the documents are in place. (formal)

Fenomenet kan rett og slett ikke forklares med dagens teori.

The phenomenon simply cannot be explained with current theory. (academic)

So the recipe is modal (finite) + verb-es (passive infinitive): må gjøres, kan behandles, bør unngås, skal leveres. This is the workhorse passive of instructions, regulations, and academic prose, where there is no need (or no wish) to name an agent.

Choosing among them

When several passives are available, the focus decides:

You want to focus on…	Use	Example
the affected thing (event)	bli-passive	Huset ble solgt.
the affected thing (general/timeless)	s-passive	Huset selges nå.
the recipient/beneficiary	få-passive	Han fikk solgt huset.
an activity, no doer at all	impersonal passive	Det danses her.
obligation/possibility	modal + s-passive	Huset må selges.

For the underlying s-versus-bli decision, see the s-passive and the bli-passive.

Common Mistakes

❌ Huset ble malt med naboen.

Incorrect — med marks an instrument; the agent takes av.

✅ Huset ble malt av naboen.

The house was painted by the neighbour.

The agent of a passive is introduced by av. Med means "with" in the instrumental sense (the tool), so malt med naboen literally says you painted using the neighbour as a brush.

❌ Det er danset hver lørdag her.

Awkward — the impersonal activity passive normally uses s-passive (danses) or bli (ble danset), not er + participle.

✅ Det danses hver lørdag her.

There's dancing here every Saturday.

For the impersonal activity passive, use the s-form (det danses, det røykes, det jobbes) for the general timeless reading, or bli for a specific event (det ble danset hele natten). The er + participle "state" passive does not fit an ongoing activity.

❌ Jobben ble tilbudt henne, men hun ble tilbudt ikke nok lønn.

Word order — inside the clause ikke goes before the verb; and recipient promotion is fine, but watch the order.

✅ Hun ble tilbudt jobben, men hun ble ikke tilbudt nok lønn.

She was offered the job, but she wasn't offered enough pay.

Recipient promotion (hun ble tilbudt jobben) is correct and idiomatic. The error here is the adverb placement: ikke precedes the verb cluster in the main clause too when it negates it — ble ikke tilbudt, not ble tilbudt ikke.

❌ Han ble utbetalt lønna den 20.

Wrong passive — for a recipient getting something paid out, Norwegian prefers the få-passive.

✅ Han fikk utbetalt lønna den 20.

He had his wages paid out on the 20th.

When the subject is the recipient of money, documents, or a benefit, the natural structure is få + object + participle, not a bare bli-passive on the person.

❌ Dette må bli gjort i dag.

Heavy/unidiomatic — after a modal, use the s-passive infinitive.

✅ Dette må gjøres i dag.

This has to be done today.

After a modal verb, the passive infinitive is normally the -es form: må gjøres, kan løses, bør unngås. Må bli gjort is grammatical but clunky and rarely chosen.

Key Takeaways

The agent of a passive is av (the doer), never med (which marks the instrument).
The impersonal passive (det danses, det røykes, det jobbes) passivises even intransitive activity verbs with a dummy det and no agent — a structure English cannot copy.
Ditransitive verbs promote the recipient to subject: hun ble tilbudt jobben.
The få-passive (han fikk utbetalt lønna) puts the recipient/beneficiary in subject position; it is far more common than English "have something done."
After a modal, use the s-passive infinitive: må gjøres, kan ikke forklares.

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