Hun ble forlovet.

Ble is the past tense of bli, which often means become or get. In this sentence, Hun ble forlovet means she got engaged.

If you used var, the meaning would be more like she was engaged, describing a state rather than the moment or change into that state.

So:

• Hun ble forlovet = she got engaged
• Hun var forlovet = she was engaged

Here, forlovet functions like an adjective or past participle meaning engaged.

It comes from the idea of engagement, and after bli it describes the new state someone enters:

• bli forlovet = to become engaged / to get engaged

This is very common in Norwegian: bli + adjective/past participle.

Yes, it has a passive-like structure, even though in English we usually translate it actively as She got engaged.

Literally, it looks a bit like She became engaged. Norwegian often uses bli + past participle to express something happening to someone or a change of state.

In everyday use, though, learners should usually think of ble forlovet as a fixed and natural way to say got engaged.

Yes, Hun forlovet seg is possible, and it means something like She got engaged as well.

But Hun ble forlovet is often more neutral and common when simply stating the result.
Hun forlovet seg uses the reflexive verb å forlove seg, which puts a little more focus on the action itself.

So both can work, but ble forlovet is a very natural phrasing.

No. The sentence does not say who the other person is.

If you want to add that, you can say:

• Hun ble forlovet med ham. = She got engaged to him.
• Hun ble forlovet med kjæresten sin. = She got engaged to her boyfriend.

The basic sentence only tells us that the engagement happened.

Because Norwegian expresses that idea through ble, from bli.

English often says got engaged, where got shows a change of state. Norwegian uses ble in exactly that kind of situation:

• ble syk = got sick
• ble sint = got angry
• ble forlovet = got engaged

So ble is doing the job that got does in English.

The key forms are:

• å bli = to become / to get
• ble = became / got
• forlovet = engaged

So the full expression is:

• å bli forlovet = to get engaged

That is the form you would normally learn in a vocabulary list.

You put ikke after the verb:

• Hun ble ikke forlovet. = She did not get engaged.

That is standard word order in a simple main clause: subject + verb + ikke + rest.

You would usually say:

• Hun har blitt forlovet.

This is the present perfect.

Compare:

• Hun ble forlovet. = She got engaged.
• Hun har blitt forlovet. = She has gotten engaged / She has got engaged.

The second form is often used when the engagement is relevant now or is recent news.

Forlovet means engaged.
Gift means married.

So:

• Hun ble forlovet. = She got engaged.
• Hun ble gift. = She got married.

This is an important distinction, since English learners sometimes confuse the two stages.

No, this is normal Norwegian main-clause word order:

• Hun = subject
• ble = verb
• forlovet = complement

So it follows the usual pattern: subject first, then the finite verb.

Ble is usually pronounced approximately like English bleh, but shorter and cleaner, with a Norwegian vowel sound that may vary a little by dialect.

A rough learner-friendly guide is:

• ble ≈ bleh

And forlovet is roughly:

• for-LO-veh(t)

The stress is typically on the lo part: forLOVet.