Hun leser en bok hver dag.

She reads a book every day.

Breakdown of Hun leser en bok hver dag.

• hun: she
• en: a
• boken: the book
• lese: to read

Questions & Answers about Hun leser en bok hver dag.

Why is the subject pronoun hun necessary? Can you drop it like in Spanish?

Norwegian is not a pro-drop language, so you must always include the subject. Even if context makes it clear, you need hun for ‘she’.

Why is the verb leser spelled with -er? In English we say “reads.”

In Norwegian you form the present tense by adding -er to the infinitive stem of all verbs (for regular verbs). There’s no auxiliary “does”; you simply say leser for both “reads” and “is reading.”

Why do we say en bok instead of just bok?

Singular countable nouns require an indefinite article. en is the common-gender indefinite article (neuter nouns get et). So en bok means “a book.” Without en, the phrase would be ungrammatical.

Why is bok (a feminine noun) taking en instead of ei?

In Bokmål, feminine (common-gender) nouns can optionally use en instead of the specialized feminine article ei. Both ei bok and en bok are correct, but en bok is more common. In Nynorsk you’d normally say ei bok.

What does hver dag literally mean, and why is it two separate words?