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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Medisinen reduserer lidelsen. - The medicine reduces the suffering.

Hardcore Norwegian
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/Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

The medicine reduces the suffering.

Breakdown of Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

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Questions & Answers about Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

Why are medisinen and lidelsen written as one word instead of the medicine and the suffering?

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word before it.

en medisin = a medicine
medisinen = the medicine
en lidelse = a suffering / an affliction
lidelsen = the suffering / the affliction

So -en at the end works like the here.

What form of the verb is reduserer?

Reduserer is the present tense of å redusere = to reduce.

Examples:

jeg reduserer = I reduce / am reducing
du reduserer = you reduce / are reducing
medisinen reduserer = the medicine reduces / is reducing

A useful point for English speakers: Norwegian does not change the verb form depending on the subject the way English does. The same present-tense form is used with all subjects.

What is the basic word order in this sentence?

The sentence follows the normal main-clause word order:

Subject + Verb + Object

Medisinen = subject
reduserer = verb
lidelsen = object

So literally:

The medicine reduces the suffering.

This is the most straightforward sentence pattern in Norwegian.

Why is there no separate word for the in front of the nouns?

Because Norwegian usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun.

In English:

the medicine
the suffering

In Norwegian:

medisinen
lidelsen

A separate determiner can also appear in some other structures, especially with adjectives:

den gode medisinen = the good medicine

Here you get both:

den before the adjective
-en on the noun

But in your sentence, there is no adjective, so the noun ending alone is enough.

What gender are medisin and lidelse?

Both are normally common gender nouns in Bokmål, so they take en in the indefinite singular and -en in the definite singular.

en medisin → medisinen
en lidelse → lidelsen

For a learner, it is good to memorize nouns together with their article:

en medisin
en lidelse

Does lidelse only mean suffering, or can it mean something else too?

It can mean a few closely related things depending on context.

Common meanings include:

suffering
affliction
disorder
sometimes illness/condition, especially in medical or formal contexts

So lidelsen could refer to:

suffering in a general sense, or
a specific medical or psychological condition

In this sentence, the exact nuance depends on the context, but grammatically it works the same way.

Can reduserer mean both reduces and is reducing?

Yes. Norwegian present tense often covers both ideas.

So Medisinen reduserer lidelsen can mean:

The medicine reduces the suffering
The medicine is reducing the suffering

Context tells you which is more natural.

If you want to make the ongoing aspect more explicit, Norwegian can also use other constructions, but the simple present is very common.

How would I say this sentence in an indefinite form?

You could make the nouns indefinite like this:

En medisin reduserer en lidelse.

That would mean something like: A medicine reduces a suffering/an affliction.

But this sounds more general or less natural in many contexts than the definite version. The original sentence:

Medisinen reduserer lidelsen

usually suggests a specific medicine and a specific suffering/condition already known from the context.

How is Medisinen reduserer lidelsen pronounced?

A rough pronunciation guide for English speakers could be:

meh-dee-see-nen reh-doo-SEHR-ehr LEE-dehl-sen

A few helpful notes:

medisinen has stress on the si syllable
reduserer has stress on se
lidelsen has stress on li
Norwegian r sounds vary by dialect, so pronunciation can differ

This is only an approximation, but it can help you get started.

If I move another word to the front, does the verb stay in the same place?

No. Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule, which means the finite verb usually stays in the second position.

Your sentence:

Medisinen reduserer lidelsen.

If you put a time word first:

I dag reduserer medisinen lidelsen.
= Today, the medicine reduces the suffering.

Notice that reduserer still comes second. This is a very important Norwegian word-order rule.

Could this sentence also be translated more generally as Medicine reduces suffering?

Not usually from this exact form.

Because both nouns are definite:

medisinen = the medicine
lidelsen = the suffering

So the sentence most naturally refers to something specific.

If you want a more general statement like Medicine reduces suffering, Norwegian would often use a different structure, for example:

Medisin reduserer lidelse.
or
Medisiner reduserer lidelse.

The best choice depends on context and style, but the original sentence is most naturally understood as specific rather than general.

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