Hun bor i femte etasje.

Breakdown of Hun bor i femte etasje.

hun
she
bo
to live
i
on
etasjen
the floor
femte
fifth

Questions & Answers about Hun bor i femte etasje.

Why is it bor and not bo?

Å bo is the infinitive, meaning to live / to reside.
In a normal present-tense sentence, Norwegian uses the present form bor:

  • å bo = to live
  • bor = live / lives

So Hun bor ... means She lives ...

What does hun mean, and when is it capitalized?

Hun means she.

It is only capitalized here because it is the first word in the sentence. In the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written hun, not Hun.

Does bo mean live as in be alive?

No. Bo means to live somewhere / reside.

If you mean to be alive, Norwegian usually uses leve.

So:

  • Hun bor i Oslo. = She lives in Oslo.
  • Hun lever fortsatt. = She is still alive.
Why does Norwegian use i here when English says on the fifth floor?

This is just a difference between the two languages.

In Norwegian, you normally say i femte etasje. Even though English uses on with floors, Norwegian usually uses i in this expression.

So the natural Norwegian pattern is:

  • i første etasje
  • i andre etasje
  • i femte etasje
Can I say på femte etasje instead?

For standard Norwegian, i femte etasje is the normal and safest choice.

A learner should use i, not , in this kind of sentence.

Why is it femte and not fem?

Because femte is an ordinal number: fifth.

  • fem = five
  • femte = fifth

When talking about floors, dates, rankings, and similar things, Norwegian uses ordinal numbers:

  • første etasje = first floor
  • andre etasje = second floor
  • femte etasje = fifth floor
Why is there no article, like den or the, in i femte etasje?

Norwegian often uses this kind of bare expression after a preposition when talking about location in a floor:

  • i første etasje
  • i tredje etasje
  • i femte etasje

This is the normal, neutral way to say it.

You can also hear or read i den femte etasjen, but that sounds more specific or more marked, as if you are emphasizing that particular floor. For everyday use, i femte etasje is the most natural choice.

Why is it etasje and not etasjen?

For the same reason: Norwegian often uses the noun without the definite ending in this fixed type of expression.

  • etasje = floor / story
  • etasjen = the floor

In ordinary location phrases with ordinal numbers, Norwegian usually prefers:

  • i femte etasje

rather than:

  • i den femte etasjen

Both can be possible in context, but the first one is the standard everyday form.

What kind of noun is etasje?

Etasje is a common-gender noun.

Its basic forms are:

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

In this sentence, it appears in the expression i femte etasje.

Does floor numbering in Norwegian match English exactly?

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

In Norwegian, første etasje is usually the ground/street level. That matches American usage more closely than British usage.

So femte etasje is:

  • usually fifth floor in American English
  • often fourth floor in British English terms

So the grammar of the Norwegian sentence stays the same, but the most natural English translation may depend on your dialect of English.

What is the basic word order in this sentence?

The sentence follows normal Norwegian main-clause word order:

  • Hun = subject
  • bor = verb
  • i femte etasje = place expression

So it is:

Subject + Verb + Place

This is very common in simple Norwegian statements.

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