Jeg hadde ventet en time, men bussen kom ikke.

I had waited an hour, but the bus did not come.

Breakdown of Jeg hadde ventet en time, men bussen kom ikke.

• jeg: I
• ha: to have
• en: a
• komme: to come
• men: but
• ikke: not
• bussen: the bus
• vente: to wait
• timen: the hour

Questions & Answers about Jeg hadde ventet en time, men bussen kom ikke.

What tense is hadde ventet, and how do you form the past perfect in Norwegian?

hadde ventet is the past perfect tense (pluskvamperfektum). You form it with the past tense of å ha (hadde) + the past participle of the main verb (ventet).
Example: Jeg hadde ventet = “I had waited.”
Use past perfect to show that one action was completed before another past event.

Could I just say Jeg ventet en time? What’s the difference between that and Jeg hadde ventet en time?

Yes, Jeg ventet en time (simple past) means “I waited an hour.”
Jeg hadde ventet en time (past perfect) emphasizes that the waiting was already finished when the next event happened (the bus not coming). In narratives, past perfect often sets the scene or clarifies the sequence of multiple past actions.

Why is there no i before en time? Shouldn’t we say i en time?

In Norwegian you can express duration with or without the preposition i. Both are correct:
• ventet i en time = waited for an hour
• ventet en time = waited an hour
Dropping i is especially common in perfect and past perfect forms.

Why is it en time and not ett time?

Norwegian nouns have two main article forms for singular:
• en = common gender (masculine/feminine)
• et = neuter
The noun time (“hour”) is common gender, so it takes en.

Why do we use bussen instead of en buss?

The speaker refers to a specific bus, so they use the definite form. For common-gender nouns you add -en:
• Indefinite: en buss (“a bus”)
• Definite: bussen (“the bus”)

Why is ikke placed after kom instead of before, as in English “did not come”?

Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule (verb-second). Negation ikke usually comes immediately after the verb. Structure here is:
men (conjunction) – bussen (subject) – kom (verb) – ikke (negation).

Why is the verb kom in simple past, and not har kommet (present perfect)?

Simple past (preterite) describes completed past events in a story. bussen kom = “the bus came” (or didn’t) at that past time.
Present perfect (har kommet) emphasizes relevance to now (“has come”). In a past narrative, use kom.

How would you translate “I had been waiting for an hour”? Does Norwegian have a continuous tense?

Norwegian doesn’t have a separate continuous aspect. You use the same past perfect form:
Jeg hadde ventet en time can cover both “I had waited an hour” and “I had been waiting for an hour.” Context tells you it was an ongoing action.