Breakdown of Kunden lod sig ikke narre af sælgeren.
ikke
not
lade
to let
kunden
the customer
sig
oneself / himself / herself / themselves
Questions & Answers about Kunden lod sig ikke narre af sælgeren.
Why is it narre instead of the passive form narres?
In the lade sig construction, Danish always uses the active infinitive form of the verb, even though the meaning translates to a passive in English. You say lade sig narre (literally "let oneself fool"), which means "let oneself be fooled".
Since narre is an active verb form here, why do we use af (by) for the seller?
Even though the verb form is active, the phrase lade sig narre functions logically as a passive. Because the customer is the one receiving the action, the person actually doing the fooling (the agent) is introduced with af, just as it would be in a regular passive sentence.
Why is the negative word ikke placed after sig?
In Danish main clauses, short, unstressed object pronouns like sig almost always jump ahead of central adverbs like ikke. Saying Kunden lod ikke sig narre would sound very unnatural.
If the subject was plural (Kunderne), would sig change?
No, it would stay exactly the same. The reflexive pronoun sig is used for all third-person subjects, regardless of whether they are singular (he/she/it) or plural (they).