English Translation
He was hit hard in the face.
“Han blev slagen” is the correct answer because this form of the passive voice is formed by “att bli” and the past participle of the verb. And “slagen” is the past participle of “att slå”.
“Slagen” though seems like an exception to the usual rule to form the past participle … if there even is a rule.
Similar to “träffad” in “jag blev träffad”, one could’ve expected “slagad” to be the past participle. But that isn’t the case.
Is there a rule to form the past participle, or do I have to learn the past participle for each verb individually by heart?
As a native speaker, I don’t know about the rules but I can confirm that the passive form of slå (, slog, slagit) is slagen). May I ask how you arrived at *“slagad”?
I removed “en” from “slagen” and added “ad” to “slag”.
I had this idea because this (adding “ad”) is how it seems to work for “träffad” (past participle of “att träffa”).
Of course this ignores all rules and exceptions, and was just a naive intuitive approach, generalizing from one single example (“träffad”) to a rule.
But the rule is to use the past participle, and that is “slagen”.
So I guess my question really was, how can I keep track of how to form the past participle for the many verbs.
Swedish verbs can be organized into a few groups, based on their conjugation pattern, with different rules for how to form the passive. I hope you can find a Swedish grammar reference that explains this in detail.
This sentence was one of the cases where, while I was (publicly) phrasing my question, I determined what it really is that I need to ask.
To form the past participle, and thus the “att bli” passive voice, you need to look at the supine of a verb:
- If the supine ends with “it”, you replace “it” with “en”.
- supine: Jag har slagit …
- passive: Jag blev slagen …
- Otherwise remove the last “e” from the past tense form of the verb.
- supine: Jag har träffat …
- past tense: Jag träffade …
- passive: Jag blev träffad …
This algorithm is incomplete. For example, the verb might be irregular.
Thank you for the guidance, @morbrorper.