Jeg hadde ventet en time, men bussen kom ikke.

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

• ha: to have
• en: a
• komme: to come

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?