"Har det skjedd ham noe?"

Translation: Has something happened to him?

[olivia.leggio]

Why is the word order so weird?

[Ingebj]

Weird?? Perfectly normal! People would understand if you wrote: "Har noe skjedd (med) ham?" instead.

[ojosabiertos]

In lordoftherabbits' defense, "Has it happened him something" is a very weird word order for an English speaker.

[olivia.leggio]

okay, thanks. I was just wondering why it wasn't written the way you did

[Ingebj]

Okay, I would say both are normal translations, about equally good

[GiacomoLamanuzzi]

I agree, would have thought something more like "har noen skjed pa/til ham

[JaneJustice]

It's a bit frustrating one! 'Has it resulted in something for him' - that is how I come to understand it )

[ArtemBondartsov]

If I said it in the affirmative way "det har skjedd ham noe", would it be understood the same "something has happened to him"?

[uxSY4nUr]

I guess yes, but I'm not sure (Norwegian is not my mother tongue).

[6.4PDyZD1nBvAxjj]

Why is "det" there? Why not "Har noe skjedd ham?"

[uxSY4nUr]

In Norwegian and Swedish, "det" is sometimes used as a kind of dummy with no meaning of its own. The most typical examples in Norwegian are sentences starting with "det er", "det finnes", "det sitter", "det står", "det ligger".

[AndrsSzala5]

So how would you exactly translate "å skje" in this sentence? Because 'happen' doesn't seem to work, 'cause "it has happened him something" is not something you would say as an English speaker.

[uxSY4nUr]

"å skje" exactly translates to "to happen", but "det" is used in a special way that has no exact counterpart in English and cannot be translated to "it" here.