Jeg har en venn som skriver musikk.

I have a friend who writes music.

Breakdown of Jeg har en venn som skriver musikk.

• jeg: I
• ha: to have
• en: a
• skrive: to write
• musikken: the music
• vennen: the friend
• som: who

Questions & Answers about Jeg har en venn som skriver musikk.

What is the function of som in this sentence?

In this case, som acts as a relative pronoun meaning “who,” “which,” or “that.” It introduces the clause that gives more information about en venn. Unlike English, which uses who for people and that or which for things, Norwegian uses som universally for both people and things in relative clauses.

Why do we use har here? Can it express anything else?

har is the present tense of å ha (“to have”) and is used here to indicate possession—“I have a friend.” It can also function as an auxiliary verb to form perfect tenses (e.g., jeg har spist – “I have eaten”), but in simple statements of possession like this one, it just means “have.”

What tense is skriver, and is there a continuous form in Norwegian?

skriver is the present tense of å skrive (“to write”). Norwegian does not have a separate continuous or progressive aspect (like English “is writing”). Instead, the simple present (skriver) covers both “writes” and “is writing.” Context tells you if it’s habitual or in progress.

Why is there no article before musikk?

musikk is an uncountable noun in Norwegian, just like in English. You don’t say “a music” or “the music” when speaking generally about music. If you want to specify “the music,” you can say musikken.

What grammatical gender is venn, and how would the definite form look?

venn is a common-gender noun in Bokmål (so it takes en in the indefinite singular: en venn). The definite singular is vennen (“the friend”), and the indefinite plural is venner (“friends”).

Why does skriver come right after som, instead of at the end like in other subordinate clauses?

Relative clauses introduced by som follow the main-clause (V2) word order in Norwegian, so the verb appears in second position within that clause. Other subordinate clauses introduced by conjunctions like at or fordi use the V3 pattern and put the verb at the end, but som-clauses are special.

Could you use a different verb than skriver to say “write music”?

Yes. skrive musikk is common and colloquial, but for “compose music” you can use komponere:
Jeg har en venn som komponerer musikk.
Both are correct; komponere is a bit more formal and specifically means composing.