Breakdown of Læreren skriver i en notatbok.
en
a
i
in
skrive
to write
notatboken
the notebook
læreren
the teacher
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Questions & Answers about Læreren skriver i en notatbok.
What does the -en suffix on læreren mean?
It marks the noun as definite, so læreren translates to the teacher. Norwegian often adds the definite article as a suffix instead of placing the before the noun.
What tense is skriver?
skriver is the present tense of å skrive (to write). In English it’s writes or is writing. Past tense would be skrev, and present perfect is har skrevet.
Why is there i en notatbok instead of just i notatbok?
When using a countable noun like notatbok (notebook), you normally include an article. i en notatbok means in a notebook. Leaving out the article (i notatbok) sounds unnatural here.
Why is the preposition i used and not på?
i means in, indicating that the writing happens inside the notebook’s pages. You’d use på (on) for surfaces, e.g. skrive på tavlen (write on the board).
How do I say in the notebook instead of in a notebook?
Make the noun definite by adding the suffix: i notatboken (standard Bokmål). You can also encounter i notatboka, a more dialectal/feminine form.
Is notatbok a compound word?
Yes: notat (note) + bok (book) = notatbok (notebook). Many Norwegian nouns form compounds by directly joining words.
Why is notatbok paired with en and not ei?
In modern Bokmål, masculine and feminine nouns use the common gender en form. You might see ei notatbok in Nynorsk or older Bokmål, but everyday Bokmål uses en for common gender.
Is skriver i en notatbok using skriver transitively or intransitively?
Here it’s intransitive—there’s no direct object (the verb isn’t writing something). Instead, there’s a prepositional phrase i en notatbok showing location. If you had a direct object, it’d look like læreren skriver et brev.
How would you form a question: “Is the teacher writing in a notebook?”
Invert verb and subject: Skriver læreren i en notatbok? That’s the standard yes/no question structure in Norwegian: Verb–Subject–Object.