Questions & Answers about Han ble nylig forfremmet.
What tense is ble forfremmet?
It is the simple past passive.
- ble = past tense of å bli (to become / to get)
- forfremmet = past participle of å forfremme (to promote)
So Han ble forfremmet literally means something like He got promoted or He was promoted.
Why is it ble and not var?
In Norwegian, a very common way to make the passive is:
- bli + past participle
So:
- Han ble forfremmet = He was/got promoted
Using var would usually describe a state, not the event itself.
Compare:
- Han ble forfremmet. = the promotion happened
- Han var forfremmet. = not the normal way to express this idea
If you want to focus on the resulting state, Norwegian more often uses:
- Han er forfremmet. = He is promoted / He has been promoted (depending on context)
Why is han used instead of ham?
Because han is the subject of the sentence.
- Han = he
- Ham = him
In Han ble nylig forfremmet, the person is the one the sentence is about grammatically, so Norwegian uses han.