Tre barn leker ute i hagen.

the child

Breakdown of Tre barn leker ute i hagen.

• i: in
• leke: to play
• ute: outside

Questions & Answers about Tre barn leker ute i hagen.

What tense is leker, and how does it relate to English “are playing”?

leker is the simple present tense of å leke (to play). Norwegian does not have a separate present‐progressive form like English. So you use leker for both “play” and “are playing.” In English you’d often translate it as “are playing,” but grammatically it’s just present tense.

Why isn’t there an article before hagen?

In Norwegian you indicate definiteness by adding a suffix to the noun, not by using a separate word. hage is “garden,” and hagen (with -en) means “the garden.” That’s why you say i hagen for “in the garden,” not i en hagen (which would mean “in a garden”).

What part of speech is ute, and why is it placed after the verb?

ute is an adverb meaning “out” or “outside.” In a main clause the typical word order is Subject – Verb – Adverb, so you get tre barn leker ute. The adverb then often combines with a prepositional phrase (i hagen) to give full location information.

Why does barn stay the same in the plural?

barn is an irregular neuter noun that has identical singular and plural forms. You say et barn (one child), to barn (two children), tre barn (three children), etc. There’s no extra ending for the plural.