A sentence adverb (also called a modal or clausal adverb) does not describe how an action is done — it comments on the whole clause, telling the listener how sure you are, how you feel about it, or where the information came from. Han kommer is a flat statement of fact: "he's coming". Han kommer kanskje ("maybe he's coming"), han kommer nok ("he'll probably come"), and han kommer sikkert ("he's surely coming") each wrap that same fact in a layer of speaker attitude. This page covers the most common epistemic ones, their position in the sentence, and one genuine quirk that breaks Norwegian's otherwise iron-clad word-order rule.
What these adverbs do
English mostly expresses speaker certainty with whole phrases — "I suppose", "I'm pretty sure", "apparently", "of course". Norwegian packs the same meaning into single, very frequent little adverbs that slot into a fixed position in the clause. They are the texture of natural, native-sounding Norwegian; sentences without them sound oddly bald.
| Adverb | Rough meaning | Certainty |
|---|---|---|
| kanskje | maybe, perhaps | low / open |
| antakelig, trolig | presumably, probably | fairly likely |
| nok | probably; (I'd) reckon; admittedly | likely, but resigned/conceded |
| sikkert | surely, I'm sure; (also) probably | high (speaker's confident guess) |
| vel | I suppose, surely (seeking agreement) | assumed, invites confirmation |
| visstnok | apparently, reportedly | hearsay (not your own claim) |
Where they go: the mid-field slot
In a normal main clause, the sentence adverb sits right after the finite verb (and after any subject pronoun that follows it in inversion). This is the same slot that ikke lives in — if you know where ikke goes, you know where these go.
Han kommer kanskje i morgen.
He's maybe coming tomorrow.
Det blir nok regn i helga.
It'll probably rain this weekend.
Hun er sikkert hjemme nå.
She's surely home by now.
Du er vel trøtt etter den lange turen?
You must be tired after that long trip, right?
In a subordinate clause, the order flips: the sentence adverb comes before the finite verb (the BIFF/SOV-ish subordinate pattern), exactly like ikke:
Jeg tror at han kanskje kommer i morgen.
I think he might come tomorrow.
Hun sa at det nok blir regn.
She said it'll probably rain.
nok — the false friend you must reset
For English speakers nok is a trap, because it looks like it should be related to nothing in English and it has two unrelated jobs. As a sentence adverb it means "probably / I'd reckon", often with a shade of resignation or concession:
Det går nok bra til slutt.
It'll probably turn out fine in the end.
Han har nok rett, dessverre.
He's probably right, unfortunately.
The same word nok also means "enough" (Jeg har spist nok — "I've eaten enough"). Context and position separate the two: the "enough" nok is a quantity word that comes after the verb phrase or with a noun; the modal nok sits in the sentence-adverb slot. What nok never means is English "now" — that is nå. Mixing those up is the classic beginner slip.
Jeg har nok penger til kaffe, men ikke til lunsj.
I have enough money for coffee, but not for lunch.
vel — fishing for agreement
Vel (stressed, as a sentence adverb — not the unstressed vel "well") softens a statement into something between a claim and a question: "I assume X, right?" You expect the listener to agree.
Du har vel husket nøklene?
You did remember the keys, didn't you?
Det er vel ikke så farlig.
It's surely not that big a deal.
English has no single word for this; you reach for tag questions ("…, right?", "…, didn't you?"). That tag-question feeling is the meaning of vel.
The -vis adverbs: dessverre, heldigvis, forhåpentligvis
A whole family of sentence adverbs ends in -vis (or are otherwise emotive comments on the clause): they express how the speaker feels about the fact, not how likely it is.
| Adverb | English |
|---|---|
| dessverre | unfortunately |
| heldigvis | luckily, fortunately |
| forhåpentligvis | hopefully |
| naturligvis, selvfølgelig | naturally, of course |
| muligvis | possibly |
These very commonly stand at the front of the clause for emphasis — and because they are adverbs, fronting them triggers V2 inversion: the finite verb comes before the subject.
Dessverre rakk vi ikke siste buss.
Unfortunately we didn't catch the last bus.
Heldigvis var butikken fortsatt åpen.
Luckily the shop was still open.
Forhåpentligvis blir det bedre vær i morgen.
Hopefully the weather will be better tomorrow.
Notice the verb-before-subject order: Dessverre rakk vi, Heldigvis var butikken. This is the normal Norwegian rule — front anything that isn't the subject, and the verb stays in second position, so the subject gets pushed after it. (This same inversion mechanism drives the discourse connectors derfor, likevel and friends, covered on the connectors page.)
The big exception: fronted kanskje
Here is the one place Norwegian's word order genuinely wobbles. By the V2 rule, fronting kanskje should invert the clause — and it can:
Kanskje kommer han i dag.
Maybe he'll come today.
But unlike every other sentence adverb, kanskje is also allowed to NOT invert when fronted — the subject can stay in front of the verb, as if kanskje weren't really occupying the first slot at all:
Kanskje han kommer i dag.
Maybe he'll come today.
Both Kanskje kommer han and Kanskje han kommer are correct, common, and mean the same thing. This is a real exception, not a regional sloppiness. The reason is that kanskje behaves half like a plain adverb (which would force inversion) and half like a reduced "maybe (that)…" — historically kan skje "(it) can happen" — which leaves the following clause with its own normal subject-first order. So your brain can parse Kanskje [han kommer] as "Maybe [he's coming]", subject and all intact.
When kanskje is not fronted but sits in its mid-field slot, there is no issue at all — it behaves like any other sentence adverb:
Han kommer kanskje litt senere enn avtalt.
He'll maybe come a bit later than agreed.
Common Mistakes
Always inverting after fronted kanskje (over-applying V2). Both orders exist; the non-inverted one is in fact extremely common in speech.
❌ Insisting only 'Kanskje kommer han' is correct
Incorrect — 'Kanskje han kommer' is equally correct and very common.
✅ Kanskje han kommer i dag. / Kanskje kommer han i dag.
Maybe he'll come today. (both word orders fine)
Failing to invert after a fronted -vis adverb. Dessverre, heldigvis and the rest are ordinary adverbs and DO force inversion.
❌ Dessverre vi rakk ikke bussen.
Incorrect — fronting forces V2: verb before subject.
✅ Dessverre rakk vi ikke bussen.
Unfortunately we didn't catch the bus.
Translating nok as "now". Nok is "probably / enough"; "now" is nå.
❌ reading 'Det går nok bra' as 'It's going well now'
Incorrect — nok means 'probably', not 'now': it'll probably turn out fine.
✅ Det går nok bra.
It'll probably turn out fine.
Putting the sentence adverb after the verb in a subordinate clause. In subordinate clauses it goes before the finite verb.
❌ Jeg tror at han kommer kanskje.
Incorrect — in a subordinate clause the adverb precedes the verb.
✅ Jeg tror at han kanskje kommer.
I think he might come.
Key Takeaways
- Sentence adverbs (kanskje, nok, vel, sikkert, visstnok, dessverre, heldigvis) color the whole clause with certainty, feeling or source.
- They share the ikke slot: after the finite verb in a main clause, before it in a subordinate clause.
- Fronting most of them (especially the -vis adverbs) triggers V2 inversion (Dessverre rakk vi…).
- kanskje is the exception: fronted, it may invert or keep subject-first — both Kanskje kommer han and Kanskje han kommer are correct.
- nok = "probably/enough" (never "now"); vel = an agreement-seeking tag ("…, right?").
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- The Modal Particles (småord): OverviewB1 — The system behind Norwegian's tiny unstressed attitude-words — jo, nok, vel, da, nå, altså. Where they sit (the middle field, alongside ikke), why they're unstressed, how they stack, and why English handles the same job with intonation and tag questions instead of words.
- Placing ikke and Sentence Adverbs (Main Clause)A2 — In a main clause ikke and adverbs like alltid, aldri, ofte and kanskje sit right after the finite verb — but before a non-finite verb and before the object — so their position is fixed by the verb, not the object, the reverse of English.
- Reportative skal and skulle: 'Is Said To'C1 — How skal and skulle mark hearsay — han skal være rik means 'he is reportedly rich', not 'he will be rich' — a grammaticalised evidential with no clean English equivalent, central to reading Norwegian news and gossip.
- Adverbs: OverviewA2 — A map of the Norwegian adverb system — manner adverbs from the neuter -t form, the static/directional place adverbs, time and degree adverbs, and the special sentence-adverb class whose placement is ruled by word order.
- The Particle nok: 'Probably / I Reckon'B1 — The modal particle nok hedges a claim to 'probably / I expect / I should think' — and often reassures: det går nok bra, 'it'll be fine, don't worry'. How to tell the probability-particle nok apart from the identical-looking quantifier nok ('enough'), and why it's never 'now'.