Teatersporten er riktignok vanskelig, men oppvarmingsleken er morsom.

to be

Breakdown of Teatersporten er riktignok vanskelig, men oppvarmingsleken er morsom.

• vanskelig: difficult
• morsom: funny
• oppvarmingsleken: the warm-up game

Questions & Answers about Teatersporten er riktignok vanskelig, men oppvarmingsleken er morsom.

Why do teatersporten and oppvarmingsleken end in -en instead of using a separate word for the?

In Bokmål, the definite article is usually attached to the noun as a suffix.

• teatersport → teatersporten
• oppvarmingslek → oppvarmingsleken

So -en here means the for a singular common-gender noun. That is why Norwegian normally says teatersporten rather than using a separate word before the noun.

A separate word like den is mainly used in other structures, especially when an adjective comes before the noun, for example den morsomme leken.

What does riktignok mean here?

Riktignok is a concessive adverb. It means something like:

• admittedly
• to be sure
• it is true that

It signals that the speaker accepts one point before contrasting it with another point. So the structure is basically:

Yes, this is true, but...

That fits well with the following men.

Why is riktignok placed after er?