Husnøkkelen ligger ved velkomsthilsenen.

The house key lies by the welcome message.

Breakdown of Husnøkkelen ligger ved velkomsthilsenen.

• ved: at
• ligge: to lie (be located)
• husnøkkelen: the house key
• velkomsthilsenen: the welcome message

Questions & Answers about Husnøkkelen ligger ved velkomsthilsenen.

Why is husnøkkelen one word?

Norwegian very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

• hus = house
• nøkkel = key
• husnøkkel = house key

Then the definite ending is added to the whole compound:

• husnøkkel = a house key
• husnøkkelen = the house key

This is much more natural in Norwegian than keeping the words separate.

Why do both nouns end in -en?

The ending -en is the definite form, roughly the same as English the.

So:

• husnøkkelen = the house key
• velkomsthilsenen = the welcome greeting

In Norwegian, definiteness is usually built into the noun itself instead of using a separate word like the.

Why is it ligger and not er?

Norwegian often prefers a position verb where English would simply use is.

Here, ligger means lies / is lying / is located, and it is commonly used for things that are resting somewhere, especially objects that are flat or just placed somewhere.

So Husnøkkelen ligger ... sounds more natural than Husnøkkelen er ... when talking about where the key is.

Common related verbs are:

• ligge = lie
• stå = stand
• sitte = sit

Norwegian uses these a lot more than English does.