Han bor i fjerde etasje.

Bor is the present tense of å bo, which means to live or to reside somewhere.

So Han bor i fjerde etasje uses bo because it is talking about where he lives, not just where he happens to be at the moment.

Compare:

• Han bor i fjerde etasje = that is where he lives.
• Han er i fjerde etasje = he is on the fourth floor right now.

Because fire means four, while fjerde means fourth.

Norwegian uses an ordinal number here, just like English does in fourth floor.

• fire = four
• fjerde = fourth

So fjerde etasje means fourth floor.

This is a preposition difference between the two languages. Norwegian normally says i fjerde etasje, even though English says on the fourth floor.

Prepositions often do not match directly across languages, so it is best to learn this as a natural Norwegian expression:

• bo i første etasje
• bo i andre etasje
• bo i fjerde etasje

Even if on feels more logical from English, i is the normal Norwegian choice here.

In Norwegian, location expressions like this often appear without an article and without a definite noun ending.

So i fjerde etasje is the normal, natural way to say on the fourth floor.

If you want to be more specific or contrast one floor with another, you can say:

• i den fjerde etasjen

That version is more definite and more explicit, but in an ordinary statement about where someone lives, i fjerde etasje is usually preferred.

Etasje is normally a common gender noun in Bokmål.

Its basic forms are:

• en etasje = a floor
• etasjen = the floor
• etasjer = floors
• etasjene = the floors

In the sentence Han bor i fjerde etasje, you do not see the article, but it is still useful to know the noun’s forms.

Not always, depending on which kind of English you speak.

In Norwegian, første etasje is usually the street/ground level of the building. That matches American usage fairly well, where this is also usually called the first floor.

But British English often calls that level the ground floor, so the numbering may feel different to a British learner.

So fjerde etasje is usually straightforward for Americans, but British speakers should be careful about floor-number conventions.

Usually, no. Ordinal numbers like fjerde are generally the same form across different genders and numbers.

For example:

• den fjerde dagen
• det fjerde huset
• de fjerde sidene

So in fjerde etasje, fjerde stays the same.

That is simpler than many ordinary adjectives, which often change form in Norwegian.

Yes, you can.

Norwegian often allows a different word order if you want to put emphasis on the place first. So both of these are possible:

• Han bor i fjerde etasje.
• I fjerde etasje bor han.

The second version sounds more marked or stylistic. It brings the location into focus.

A useful grammar point here is that Norwegian keeps the verb in second position, so when I fjerde etasje comes first, bor must come before han.

Usually, bor is the best choice if you are talking about someone’s home.

For example:

• Han bor i fjerde etasje = he lives on the fourth floor.

If you use er, the meaning changes:

• Han er i fjerde etasje = he is on the fourth floor.

So bo is about residence, while være is about location at a particular moment.