Breakdown of Uten passord kan ingen endre oppdateringen på datamaskinen.
Questions & Answers about Uten passord kan ingen endre oppdateringen på datamaskinen.
In Norwegian you can front (move to the start) an adverbial phrase like uten passord (“without a password”) to emphasise the condition. Because of the V2‐word‐order rule, the finite verb kan then must come immediately after:
Fronted element (uten passord) → Finite verb (kan) → Subject (ingen) → Rest of clause
After words like uten, Norwegian typically uses the bare noun to express “without [noun]” in general. Saying uten et passord is grammatically correct and would emphasise “without a single password,” but most speakers simply use uten passord for brevity and natural flow.
Norwegian main clauses obey the V2 (verb‐second) rule: the finite verb must occupy the second position. Since uten passord is first, the verb kan comes second, and the subject ingen follows:
- uten passord
- kan
- ingen
- endre oppdateringen ...
If you remove or move uten passord, you could say Ingen kan endre oppdateringen ..., with ingen then in first position.
When you use a modal verb like kan, the following verb is in the bare infinitive form (no å). That’s why it’s kan endre and not kan å endre.
These two verbs have different nuances:
- endre = to change or modify something that already exists
- oppdatere = to update (bring up to date)
Here the meaning is “modify the update,” so endre is the better choice. Using oppdatere oppdateringen would even sound redundant (“update the update”).
The suffix -en makes the noun definite: “the update.” It indicates you’re talking about a specific update on the computer, not updates in general.
In Norwegian, på is used with platforms or devices (computer, phone, tablet) to mean “on [the device].” Using i would imply “inside the physical hardware,” which isn’t the intended meaning here.