Breakdown of I løbet af eftersøgningen lykkes det for sporhunden at finde barnet.
det
it (neuter)
barnet
the child
finde
to find
at
to
lykkes
to succeed
for
for (preposition)
i løbet af
during
eftersøgningen
the search
sporhunden
the tracking dog
Questions & Answers about I løbet af eftersøgningen lykkes det for sporhunden at finde barnet.
Why is the subject det instead of the dog (sporhunden)?
This sentence uses the impersonal frame for expressing success. In Danish, you don't typically say that the dog succeeds directly. Instead, you say 'it succeeds for the dog' by using the dummy pronoun det as the grammatical subject, followed by lykkes and then for plus the person or animal doing the action.
Why is the verb lykkes placed before the subject det?
This is due to the Danish V2 (verb-second) rule. The sentence starts with the long prepositional phrase I løbet af eftersøgningen (During the search). Because this phrase takes up the first position, the verb lykkes must come second, which pushes the subject det into the third position.
Does the 's' at the end of lykkes mean it is a passive verb?
No, lykkes is a deponent verb (also called an s-verb). This means it always ends in an 's' in all its forms, but it has an active meaning. In this sentence, lykkes is simply the present tense form meaning 'succeeds' or 'manages to'.
Could I leave out for and just say det lykkes sporhunden?
Yes, in Danish it is actually very common to drop for in this construction, making the person or animal an indirect object: I løbet af eftersøgningen lykkes det sporhunden at finde barnet. Both versions are correct and widely used, though including for can sometimes make the grammatical roles slightly clearer.
What is the difference between i løbet af and under for saying 'during' here?
Both mean 'during,' and you could use under eftersøgningen perfectly well in this sentence. I løbet af literally means 'in the course of' and often implies that an event happened at some specific point within a duration of time, whereas under can sometimes imply the action spanned the entire time. In this context, however, they are largely interchangeable.
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