The Impersonal Passive with Det
When you want to describe an ongoing activity without focusing on who is doing the work, Swedish uses an elegant structure: the placeholder det paired with an s-passive verb. This is incredibly useful for describing bustling background activities, like the preparations for a grand banquet.
To form the present tense s-passive, you generally replace the active present tense -r with an -s (for example, lagar becomes lagas, and putsar becomes putsas).
| A lot of food is being cooked in the kitchen for the banquet. | Det lagas mycket mat i köket till banketten. |
| Cutlery is being polished behind the scenes. | Det putsas bestick bakom kulisserna. |
Actions with Objects
In these presentational sentences, det acts as the formal subject. The actual items being prepared or handled come after the passive verb. English often translates this as "[Items] are being [verb]ed."
| Both starters and main courses are being prepared for the guests. | Det förbereds både förrätter och huvudrätter till gästerna. |
| A beautiful banquet is being arranged for the king. | Det arrangeras en vacker bankett för kungen. |
Actions Without Objects
One of the most unique features of the Swedish impersonal passive is that it can be used with verbs that don't take an object at all, such as "to run" or "to clean". By combining det with the passive form of these verbs, you simply state that a general action is occurring in the environment.
| The chef is in a hurry, so there is a lot of running in the kitchen. | Kocken har bråttom, så det springs mycket i köket. |
| Washing up and cleaning are being done behind the scenes. | Det diskas och städas bakom kulisserna. |