Urskiven ligger under urglasset.

The watch face lies under the watch glass.

Breakdown of Urskiven ligger under urglasset.

• under: under
• ligge: to lie (be located)
• urskiven: the watch face
• urglasset: the watch glass

Questions & Answers about Urskiven ligger under urglasset.

Why are urskiven and urglasset written as single words?

Because Norwegian normally writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• ur
  • skive → urskive
• ur
  • glass → urglass

This is much more standard in Norwegian than in English, where we might write watch face as two words. In Norwegian, compounds are usually closed up into one word.

What do the endings -en and -et mean?

They are the definite singular endings, roughly corresponding to the in English.

So:

• urskive → urskiven = the dial / the watch face
• urglass → urglasset = the watch glass / the crystal

Instead of putting a separate word before the noun, Norwegian often adds the definite article to the end of the noun.

Why is it urskiven and not urskiva?

Both can be possible in Bokmål, depending on style and noun gender usage.

The noun skive is often treated as feminine, so you may see:

• ei urskive → urskiva

But in Bokmål, many feminine nouns can also take masculine/common-style forms:

• en urskive → urskiven

So urskiven is perfectly normal. Urskiva would also sound natural for many speakers.