Tilbakeleveringen skjer før lånetiden slutter.

before

Breakdown of Tilbakeleveringen skjer før lånetiden slutter.

• skje: to happen
• slutte: to end
• lånetiden: the loan period

Questions & Answers about Tilbakeleveringen skjer før lånetiden slutter.

Why is tilbakeleveringen one long word?

Because Norwegian very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

Here, tilbakelevering is made from:

• tilbake = back
• levering = delivery / handing in

So tilbakelevering means something like returning or handing back.

Then -en is added at the end to make it definite, so tilbakeleveringen means the return or the handing back.

This kind of long compound is completely normal in Norwegian.

Why does tilbakeleveringen end in -en?

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun.

In English, you usually put the before the noun:

• the return

In Norwegian, the definiteness is often added to the end:

• tilbakelevering = return
• tilbakeleveringen = the return

So Norwegian often expresses the as a suffix instead of a separate word.

What does skjer mean here, and why is that verb used?