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<\/a>The sequence of words important is, yes!<\/p><\/div>Norwegian grammar has a tiny detail that always gives away foreigners: Inversion. That basically means that in some situations you have to change the word order, and if you forget to do that in those situations, well, then you sound like a foreigner\u2026 \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
There’s inversion in English too. To make a phrase like “you are happy” into a question, you simply make the subject and the verb switch places: Are you happy? (With other verbs than “to be” it gets more complicated, but let’s leave that for now.) As you know, Norwegians make questions in the same way: Du er glad<\/b> > Er du glad<\/b>?<\/p>\n
Let’s make that last example negative: Du er ikke glad<\/b> (You are not happy) > Er du ikke glad<\/b>? (Are you not happy?) Once again, Norwegian and English are like two peas in a pod.<\/p>\n
Okay, let’s turn our example into a dependent clause:<\/p>\n
Du sier at du er glad.<\/b> (You say that you are happy. \u2013 As you maybe remember from school, a dependent clause is part of a main clause. “that you are happy” cannot stand on its own.)<\/p>\n
And the negative one:<\/p>\n
Du sier at du ikke er glad.<\/b> (You say that you are not happy.)<\/p>\n
Finally we see the difference between the two languages. In Norwegian, the word “ikke” does a backwards summersault and places itself in front of<\/i> the verb in dependent clauses: Du er <\/b>ikke<\/b>\u2026<\/b> > Du sier at du <\/b>ikke<\/b> er\u2026<\/b><\/p>\n
The same goes for other words of the same kind, that is, adverbs<\/i> that somehow influence the meaning of the whole sentence, such as ofte <\/b>(often), alder <\/b>(never), alltid<\/b> (always), bare<\/b> (just):<\/p>\n
Han reiser ofte til Oslo. <\/b>(He often goes to Oslo.) > Jeg har h\u00f8rt at han ofte reiser til Oslo.<\/b> (I’ve heard that he often goes to Oslo.)<\/p>\n
Hun m\u00f8tte <\/b>plutselig<\/b> ei gammel venninne. <\/b>(She suddenly met an old friend.) > Det er hun som <\/b>plutselig<\/b> m\u00f8tte ei gammel venninne. <\/b>(That’s the one who suddenly met an old friend.)<\/p>\n
Du ringer <\/b>aldri<\/b>. <\/b>(You never call.) > Jeg forst\u00e5r ikke hvorfor du <\/b>aldri<\/b> ringer.<\/b> (I don’t understand why you never call.)<\/p>\n
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Norwegian grammar has a tiny detail that always gives away foreigners: Inversion. That basically means that in some situations you have to change the word order, and if you forget to do that in those situations, well, then you sound like a foreigner\u2026 \ud83d\ude42 There’s inversion in English too. To make a phrase like “you…<\/p>\n