Svartiden var kort, ikke sant?

to be

Breakdown of Svartiden var kort, ikke sant?

• kort: short
• ikke sant: right? (isn't that so?)
• svartiden: the response time

Questions & Answers about Svartiden var kort, ikke sant?

What is svartiden made up of?

It is a compound noun, which is very common in Norwegian.

• svar = answer / reply / response
• tid = time
• svartid = response time
• svartiden = the response time

Norwegian usually writes compounds as one word, so svartiden is correct, not svar tiden.

Why is there no separate word for the?

Because Norwegian often adds definiteness to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

• svartid = response time
• svartiden = the response time

So the ending -en is doing the job that the does in English.

Why does it say var and not er?

Var is the past tense of å være = to be.

• er = is
• var = was

So Svartiden var kort means the response time was short, not is short. It refers to a past situation or a completed event.

What does kort mean here?