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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Ulykken var grusom. - The accident was awful.

Hardcore Norwegian
/Taking a pottery workshop
/Ulykken var grusom.

Ulykken var grusom.

Word

Ulykken var grusom.

Meaning

The accident was awful.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Norwegian

Lesson

Taking a pottery workshop

Breakdown of Ulykken var grusom.

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Questions & Answers about Ulykken var grusom.

Why is ulykken one word instead of having a separate word for the?

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

ulykke = accident
ulykken = the accident

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

A useful extra point: if you put an adjective before the noun, Norwegian often uses double definiteness:

den grusomme ulykken = the gruesome/horrible accident

Could this also be ulykka var grusom?

Yes, in Bokmål that is also possible. Ulykke is a noun that can take either the more common-gender-style forms or feminine forms, depending on writing style and preference.

Possible forms include:

en ulykke / ulykken
ei ulykke / ulykka

So ulykken var grusom and ulykka var grusom can both be correct in Bokmål. The version with ulykken is very common.

What does var mean here?

Var is the past tense of være, which means to be.

So:

er = is/am/are
var = was/were

This sentence is therefore in the past tense.

Does var change depending on the subject, like was and were in English?

No. Norwegian verbs do not change for person or number the way English verbs sometimes do.

So you say:

jeg var = I was
du var = you were
han var = he was
vi var = we were

The form var stays the same.

Why is it grusom and not grusomt or grusomme?

Because the adjective agrees with the noun it describes.

Here, ulykken is singular and not neuter, so the adjective takes the form grusom.

Compare:

en bil er rød = common gender singular
et hus er rødt = neuter singular
biler er røde = plural

The same pattern applies here:

ulykken var grusom
det var grusomt
ulykkene var grusomme

Since grusom comes after var, it is a predicate adjective.

Is grusom the same as English gruesome?

They are related, and sometimes they overlap, but they are not always identical in use.

Norwegian grusom can mean things like:

gruesome
horrible
terrible
awful

In Ulykken var grusom, it most naturally means something like horrific or terrible, not necessarily only bloody/gory.

Why is there no article before grusom?

Because grusom is just an adjective here, not a noun phrase.

After være (to be), Norwegian often uses an adjective directly:

Ulykken var grusom

You would use an article only if there were a noun after the adjective, for example:

Det var en grusom ulykke = It was a horrible accident

So grusom here works like English horrible in The accident was horrible.

What is the word order in this sentence?

This is the basic pattern:

subject + verb + complement

So:

Ulykken = subject
var = finite verb
grusom = predicate adjective/complement

The sentence also follows the Norwegian V2 rule, which means the finite verb normally comes in the second position in a main clause. Since the subject comes first here, the word order looks very similar to English.

For example:

Ulykken var grusom
Dessverre var ulykken grusom

In both cases, the finite verb var stays in second position.

How is ulykken pronounced, especially the y?

The hardest sound for English speakers is usually y. It is a rounded front vowel that English does not really have.

A few helpful pronunciation points:

the stress in ulykken falls on LYK
the stress in grusom falls on GRU
the double kk in ulykken means the vowel before it is short

So the sentence should not be read with an English y sound. If you are practicing pronunciation, y is one of the sounds worth listening to carefully in native recordings.

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