Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Våren er mild, men tåke dekker bakken denne kvelden. - The spring is mild, but fog covers the ground this evening.

In Norwegian you normally talk about seasons in the definite form when stating general facts. So instead of saying vår er mild, you say våren er mild (“spring is mild”). The same pattern applies to the other seasons: sommeren, høsten, vinteren.

Why is the adjective mild not inflected (no -e or -t)?

Because mild here is a predicate adjective following the verb er. Predicate adjectives in Norwegian do not take any extra endings. If you put the adjective in front of a noun, you would inflect it:

Indefinite: en mild vår
Definite: den milde våren

Why is there a comma before men? Do I have to include it?

A comma before a coordinating conjunction like men is optional in modern Bokmål. Traditional rules often placed a comma to separate two full clauses, but the “light comma” system lets you omit it if the sentence is short and clear. Including the comma here is perfectly acceptable and helps signal the contrast.

Why isn’t there an article before tåke (why not en tåke or tåken)?

Here tåke is used as a general or “mass” noun—“fog” rather than “a fog” or “the fog.” In English we say “fog covers the ground,” without “a,” and Norwegian can do the same. If you wanted to refer to a specific fog, you could use the definite form (tåken dekker bakken), but for a general atmospheric condition, no article is fine.

What form is dekker, and why is there no infinitive marker?

Dekker is simply the present‐tense, third‐person singular form of å dekke (“to cover”). Norwegian does not use an infinitive marker like “to” in English. You just conjugate the verb directly:

jeg dekker
du dekker
han/hun dekker

Why is bakken in the definite form rather than bakke?

Because we’re talking about “the ground” in a general, familiar sense—what you stand on—so Norwegian uses the definite form bakken (“the ground”). If you said en bakke, it would mean “a hill” or “a slope,” which isn’t what we mean here.

Why use denne kvelden instead of i kveld or simply kvelden?

Denne kvelden literally means “this evening” and is used as a noun phrase at the end of the sentence to set the time more narratively. I kveld is more common in everyday speech (“tonight”), but denne kvelden emphasizes that particular evening. You also choose denne (not dette) because kvelden is common gender (en-word).

Can I move denne kvelden to the front, like Denne kvelden dekker tåke bakken? What changes?

Yes. Norwegian main‐clause word order lets you start with a time expression and then invert subject and verb:

Denne kvelden dekker tåke bakken.
That construction places extra emphasis on when it happens. The original, neutral order is subject–verb–object–time: Tåke dekker bakken denne kvelden.

How do I pronounce the letter å in words like våren and tåke?

The Norwegian å is a long “o” sound, somewhat like the vowel in English “talk” or “saw.” In IPA:

våren [ˈvoːɾən]
tåke [ˈtoːkə]
Make it a clear, rounded “o” and roll or flap the r slightly.