Kan inte någon göra något åt det?

Sentence Discussions Swedish
#1
English Translation

Can’t anyone do anything about it?

är detta mer korrekt enligt ordföljd? ‘‘kan någon inte göra något åt det?’’

#2

I might be completely wrong (I’m not a native speaker). To me, it seems:

  • Your sentence asks that at least one person does not do something about it.
  • The original sentence asks that at least one person does something about it.

Your sentence:

  • It’s okay if everyone votes for it, as long as one person votes against it.

The original sentence:

  • We need at least one person voting for it.
#3

To me, a native, the two sentences mean basically the same: it’s a request for somebody (anybody) to something about it. As such, they both essentially boil down to “Finns det någon som kan göra något åt det?”, and the negation is used to make the question into a request. Then it feels more natural to put the negation before “någon”. I think this is similar to how it works in English.

You could use “låta bli”: “Kan inte någon låta bli att göra något åt det?”.

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