Breakdown of Det kommer an på om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
Questions & Answers about Det kommer an på om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
What does det kommer an på mean, and is it one fixed expression?
Yes. Å komme an på is a set expression meaning to depend on.
So:
- Det kommer an på X = It depends on X
- Det kommer an på om ... = It depends on whether ...
You should learn kommer an på as a unit, not as three separate words with a literal meaning.
Why is there a det at the beginning?
Here, det is a dummy subject, similar to English it in It depends on ...
It does not refer to a specific thing. It is just required to fill the subject position in the sentence.
So:
- Det kommer an på ... = It depends on ...
This is very common in Norwegian.
What does om mean here?
Here, om means whether.
So:
- om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet = whether the audiogram shows the hearing loss
Be careful: om can mean different things in different contexts, for example:
- about
- if / whether
- in (with time expressions in some cases)
In this sentence, it clearly means whether.
Why is the word order om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet and not something like om viser audiogrammet ...?
Because om introduces a subordinate clause. In Norwegian, subordinate clauses do not use the normal main-clause verb-second pattern.
Main clause:
- Audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
Subordinate clause after om:
- ... om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
If you added ikke, you could see the subordinate-clause pattern more clearly:
- Main clause: Audiogrammet viser ikke hørselstapet.
- Subordinate clause: ... om audiogrammet ikke viser hørselstapet.
That placement of ikke is a very useful clue that you are in a subordinate clause.
Why do audiogrammet and hørselstapet end in -et?
What are the genders of audiogram and hørselstap?
Which word is the subject, and which word is the object in the clause om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet?
In that clause:
- audiogrammet is the subject
- viser is the verb
- hørselstapet is the object
So the structure is:
- audiogrammet = the thing doing the showing
- viser = shows
- hørselstapet = the thing being shown
This follows normal Norwegian sentence structure.
Does viser literally mean shows, or could it be translated differently here?
Literally, viser means shows.
But in medical or technical contexts, English might also use:
- shows
- indicates
- reveals
So depending on style, audiogrammet viser hørselstapet could be understood as:
- the audiogram shows the hearing loss
- the audiogram indicates the hearing loss
The Norwegian verb itself is still simply viser.
Is det kommer an på the only way to say this in Norwegian?
No. Another common way is det avhenger av.
For example:
- Det kommer an på om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
- Det avhenger av om audiogrammet viser hørselstapet.
Both mean roughly the same thing: It depends on whether the audiogram shows the hearing loss.
In many everyday situations, det kommer an på sounds very natural and common.
Is an på separable, or do I always have to keep those words together?
You should think of å komme an på as a multi-word verb/expression. The pieces belong together, but in actual sentences they appear in the normal Norwegian pattern around the finite verb:
- infinitive: å komme an på
- present: kommer an på
- past: kom an på
Examples:
- Det kommer an på.
- Det kom an på været.
So yes, it is one expression, but in finite forms the verb changes as usual:
- komme
- kommer
- kom
- har kommet
The important part is to remember that the meaning depend on comes from the whole expression, not from komme alone.
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