Breakdown of På den ene siden tid; på den andre siden penger.
Questions & Answers about På den ene siden tid; på den andre siden penger.
Not really. It is an elliptical expression, meaning some words are left out because they are understood from context.
A fuller version could be something like:
På den ene siden er det tid; på den andre siden er det penger.
or
På den ene siden har du tid; på den andre siden har du penger.
In Norwegian, this kind of shortened structure is common in headings, notes, and contrastive, rhetorical writing.
It sets up a contrast between two sides of an issue, just like English on the one hand ... on the other hand ...
So this pattern is not just about physical sides. Very often it introduces two contrasting considerations, arguments, or values.
It is a very common fixed expression in Norwegian.
Because Norwegian normally uses a definite determiner before an adjective + noun phrase.
So you get:
- den ene siden
- den andre siden
This is the usual pattern in Bokmål:
- den store bilen = the big car
- det gamle huset = the old house
So den is there because the phrase is definite: the one side / the other side.