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Faren drikker kaffe.

Faren drikker kaffe.
The father drinks coffee.
FromLesson 15inHardcore Norwegian
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Breakdown of Faren drikker kaffe.

drikke
to drink
kaffen
the coffee
faren
the father
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Questions & Answers about Faren drikker kaffe.

What does Faren mean, and why is there an -en ending?

Faren is the definite singular of far (father). In Norwegian, you don’t use a separate word like the; instead you attach the definite article as a suffix. For a common-gender noun like far, you add -en:
far (a father) → faren (the father).

How do you say “a father drinks coffee” instead of “the father drinks coffee”?

Use the indefinite article en before the noun:
En far drikker kaffe.
Here en = “a” and far remains in its basic (indefinite) form.

What is the infinitive of drikker, and how is its present tense formed?

The infinitive is å drikke (to drink). To form the present tense, most Norwegian verbs simply add -r to the infinitive stem:
drikke → drikker (“drinks”).

Why is there no article before kaffe in Faren drikker kaffe?

When talking about coffee in general (a mass or uncountable noun), Norwegian omits the article:
drikker kaffe = “drinks coffee” (in general).
If you mean one cup, you’d say drikker en kaffe (“drinks a coffee”).

When would you choose drikker en kaffe rather than drikker kaffe?
Use drikker en kaffe when you refer to a single serving (one cup) of coffee. Use drikker kaffe to express the action of drinking coffee in general or habitually.
What is the typical word order in a Norwegian main clause?
Norwegian follows Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order, just like English. In Faren drikker kaffe, Faren is the subject, drikker is the verb, and kaffe is the object.
How do you turn Faren drikker kaffe into a yes/no question?

Invert the verb and the subject:
Drikker faren kaffe?
(Does the father drink coffee?)

How would you say “My father drinks coffee”?

You can say Min far drikker kaffe. Here min is the possessive adjective placed before the noun.
Alternatively, colloquially you might hear Faren min drikker kaffe (“my father drinks coffee”), where faren is definite and min follows as a post-positive possessive.

Why is kaffe not capitalized in Norwegian?
Unlike German, Norwegian doesn’t capitalize common nouns. Only the first word of a sentence and proper names receive a capital letter, so kaffe stays lowercase.