Breakdown of Han bliver pludselig meget bleg og svimmel.
han
he
og
and
blive
to stay / to become
pludselig
suddenly
meget
very; much, a lot
svimmel
dizzy
bleg
pale
Questions & Answers about Han bliver pludselig meget bleg og svimmel.
Why is 'gets' translated as bliver here instead of får?
In English, 'to get' can mean receiving something ('I get a letter') or changing state ('I get tired'). In Danish, at få is only used for receiving things. When 'get' means 'to become', you must use at blive. Since he is changing state to pale and dizzy, we use bliver.
I remember at blive also means 'to stay'. How do we know it means 'becomes' here?
It is all about the context! When bliver is followed by adjectives that describe a physical change, like bleg (pale), syg (sick), or svimmel (dizzy), it almost always means 'to become'. To explicitly say someone 'stays pale', Danes would often use a different word like forbliver.
Why do the adjectives bleg and svimmel not have any endings here?
Adjectives in Danish change their ending based on the gender and number of the noun they describe. Here, they describe han (he), which is singular and follows the common gender rules. Therefore, they take the basic dictionary form with no extra -t or -e endings.
Could we put pludselig at the start of the sentence, like we do in English?
Yes, but you must remember the Danish V2 rule, which says the verb must be the second idea in the main sentence. If you start with pludselig, the verb bliver must come right after it, swapping places with han. The sentence would then be: Pludselig bliver han meget bleg og svimmel.
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