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Questions & Answers about Jeg er trøtt om morgenen.
What part of speech is trøtt, and why doesn’t it change form after er?
trøtt is an adjective used predicatively (i.e. after a linking verb). In Norwegian, predicative adjectives remain in their base (indefinite singular) form, so you don’t add endings. If you used it attributively (before a noun), you’d inflect it with the definite article: e.g. den trøtte mannen (“the tired man”).
Does trøtt mean exactly “sleepy,” or can it also mean “tired”?
trøtt covers both everyday tiredness and the need for sleep. If you want to emphasize that you’re drowsy or ready to fall asleep, you can also use søvnig, but in most contexts trøtt is perfectly natural for “tired” or “sleepy.”
Why do we say om morgenen to talk about mornings in general?
The construction om + [definite form of a part of the day] expresses habitual or recurring actions. So om morgenen literally means “in the mornings” (on a regular basis). You’ll see the same pattern with om kvelden (“in the evenings”) and om vinteren (“in the winter”).
Why is it morgenen (definite) and not morgen (indefinite)?
With om in time expressions, Norwegian uses the definite form. This signals that you’re talking about the day-part as a whole, recurring phenomenon, not “one morning” in particular.
Can the time phrase om morgenen be placed at the beginning of the sentence?
Yes. Norwegian allows you to front time adverbials for emphasis. You can say:
Om morgenen er jeg trøtt.
This simply highlights when you’re tired.
Could you say på morgenen instead of om morgenen?
You can, but it’s less common for general habits. På morgenen is more likely when referring to a specific morning or a narrower time window, e.g. “på morgenen den dagen” (“that morning”).
Can you leave out Jeg and just say Er trøtt om morgenen?
No. Norwegian is not a pro-drop language like Spanish, so you normally need an explicit subject pronoun. You’d always say Jeg er trøtt om morgenen in standard speech.
What about en morgen—could I use that instead?
No. en morgen means “a morning” (one particular day’s morning). It’s a noun phrase, not an adverbial time expression. To express “in the morning(s)” habitually, you need om morgenen.