Tom legger sitt pass og sin pilleeske i samme lomme.

Tom puts his passport and his pill box in the same pocket.

Breakdown of Tom legger sitt pass og sin pilleeske i samme lomme.

• Tom: Tom
• i: in
• og: and
• legge: to put
• passet: the passport
• sin: his
• samme: same
• sitt: his
• pilleesken: the pill box
• lommen: the pocket

Questions & Answers about Tom legger sitt pass og sin pilleeske i samme lomme.

Why does the sentence use sitt with pass but sin with pilleeske?

In Norwegian the reflexive possessive pronoun must agree in gender (and number) with the noun it modifies:

• pass is a neuter noun (et pass) → sitt pass
• pilleeske is common gender (en/ei pilleeske) → sin pilleeske

Reflexive forms:
• sin = common‐gender singular
• sitt = neuter‐gender singular
• sine = plural (all genders)

When should I use sin / sitt / sine instead of hans / hennes?

• sin / sitt / sine always refers back to the subject of the sentence (“his own,” “her own,” “their own”).
• hans / hennes refers to some other male/female person, not the subject.

Example:
– Tom legger sitt pass. (Tom places his own passport.)
– Hvis Kari låner boka til Lise, kan hun ikke bruke hennes notater. (Here hennes = Lise’s notes, not Kari’s.)

Why are there no articles et or en before pass and pilleeske here?

When a noun is directly preceded by a possessive pronoun (sin/sitt/sine, min/mitt/mine, etc.), you do not use the indefinite article in Norwegian. The possessive pronoun itself functions as the determiner:
• en pilleeske → sin pilleeske (not en sin pilleeske)
• et pass → sitt pass (not et sitt pass)

Why is pilleeske written as one word with two e’s?

• It’s a compound noun: pille (pill) + eske (box).
• In Bokmål compounds are normally written as one word.
• The final -e of the first element (pille) is kept, and the initial e of the second element (eske) is also kept, resulting in pilleeske.

What does i samme lomme mean, and why not just i lomma?

• samme = “same.” i samme lomme means “in the same pocket” (as something else).
• If you said i lomma, you’d just say “in the pocket” without emphasizing that both items go into the same pocket.

Why doesn’t lomme take a definite ending (-a or ‑en) here?

When you use a determiner like samme, you do not add a separate article or a definite suffix. So you get:
• i samme lomme (not i samme lomma or i samme lommen)

This is similar to other determiners (hver, begge, ingen):
• hver dag (not hver dagen)
• begge sider (not begge sidene)

Why is the verb legger placed after Tom rather than at the end of the sentence?

Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (here legger) must come in the second position.
Word order: Subject (Tom) – Verb (legger) – Object/theme – Other elements

If I move i samme lomme to the front of the sentence, what happens to word order?

You still follow V2, so the finite verb stays in second place. The subject then follows the verb:
• I samme lomme legger Tom sitt pass og sin pilleeske.

Can I use sine to cover both objects (passport and pill case) as a plural possessive?

Not naturally, because you’re talking about two separate items of different genders. You could only use sine if you referred to multiple items collectively (all the same gender or grouped):
• Tom legger sine eiendeler i samme lomme. (his belongings)

But with specific, individually named items you match each pronoun to its noun’s gender: sitt pass og sin pilleeske.