arbetades

Arbetades is a finite verb form in Swedish that expresses the past passive voice of the verb arbeta, meaning to work. It indicates that an action was performed on the subject by an actor, where the agent is either unknown or not stated. The form is typically found in formal, factual, or historical writing and in news reporting when describing processes rather than specifying who carried them out.

Formation and use: Arbetades is the imperfect past passive form, produced by adding the des suffix to the verb stem. Like other finite forms, it agrees with neither person nor number in Swedish, so the same form can be used with singular or plural subjects. The subject of the sentence is the thing that was worked on, while the agent is omitted or introduced in a following av-phrase (for example av myndigheterna).

Examples:

- Under 1990-talet arbetades flera förslag igenom av riksdagen.

- Fabriken arbetades i tre skift under krisen.

Relation to other passive forms: Swedish forms of the passive include present passive, exemplified by arbetas (the work is being done), and various ways to express the perfect passive with auxiliary har plus a participle. Arbetades is specifically the past tense, passive variant, whereas active forms would use arbetade.

Etymology and context: The form derives from the verb arbeta with the common Swedish passive suffix -des, fitting a broader pattern of -es like passives. It is most commonly encountered in written Swedish and in texts describing historical or procedural developments, rather than in casual spoken language. See also passive voice, Swedish grammar.