Breakdown of Han sender en e-post til kontoret og spør om ledig time.
han
he
en
a
til
to
om
about
og
and
kontoret
the office
sende
to send
e-posten
the email
spørre
to ask
ledig
available
timen
the appointment
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Questions & Answers about Han sender en e-post til kontoret og spør om ledig time.
Why is e-post hyphenated, and what does it literally mean?
E-post is a compound of e (short for elektronisk) and post. The hyphen shows that it’s a loan formation meaning “electronic mail.”
What does ledig mean in this context?
Ledig means “free” or “available” when talking about time slots. So ledig time is a “free appointment slot.”
Why do we say en e-post instead of omitting the article?
The indefinite article en marks that it’s one (unspecified) email. If you omitted en, it might sound like you’re talking about email as a general concept, not sending a specific message.
Why is kontoret in the definite form (with ‑et)?
We’re referring to a specific office—the recipient’s workplace—so we use the definite form kontoret (“the office”) rather than et kontor (“an office”).
Why use til kontoret and not på kontoret?
Til indicates direction or destination (“to the office”). På kontoret would focus on location (“at the office”), which doesn’t fit “sending to.”
Why does en e-post come before til kontoret? Could we say sender til kontoret en e-post?
In Norwegian, indefinite objects normally precede adverbial or prepositional phrases. You could reorder it, but sender en e-post til kontoret is the natural word order.
Why isn’t han repeated before spør om ledig time?
When two verbs share the same subject, you connect them with og and omit the second han. The subject stays implicit in the second clause.
Why is om used with spør? Could we say spør etter ledig time?
Spør om is used to ask “about” or “whether” something is available—spør om ledig time = ask if there is a free slot. Spør etter tends to mean “ask for” something concrete you expect to receive (“spør etter en regning” = ask for a bill).
I notice there’s no en before ledig time. Is that correct, or should it be en ledig time?
Both are possible. In everyday speech spør om ledig time is common and concise. If you want to be extra clear, you can say spør om en ledig time, which is equally correct.