Breakdown of Tom spør hvordan jeg egentlig kunne huske alle detaljene i filmen.
Questions & Answers about Tom spør hvordan jeg egentlig kunne huske alle detaljene i filmen.
In Norwegian, indirect questions (subordinate clauses) follow “subordinate word order.” That means:
- The conjunction (hvordan) comes first.
- Then the subject (jeg).
- Any adverbs or objects (egentlig…, alle detaljene…, i filmen).
- Finally the verbs (kunne
- huske).
In a direct question you’d invert subject and verb (e.g. Hvordan kunne jeg huske…?), but in this indirect question you keep the verbs at the end.
- huske).
Egentlig here functions as an intensifier meaning “actually” or “in fact.” It signals a bit of surprise or emphasis on the speaker’s ability:
• “Tom asks how I actually could remember all the details…”
It softens the question too, making it less blunt than leaving it out.
• Kunne huske is the simple past for ability: “could remember.”
• Kunne ha husket would be a past conditional (“could have remembered”) used for counterfactual or hypothetical situations.
Here you’re simply reporting that you were able to remember at that time, so the simple past kunne huske is correct.
• i means “in” and is used for something contained within something else—here, details contained in the film.
• You might also see på filmen (“on the film”) in some dialects or older usage, but i filmen is the most common and neutral way to say “in the movie.”
You can use either, depending on context:
• Tom spør (“Tom asks”) is present tense. It can be used for a current or habitual question, or as a “historical present” to make storytelling more vivid.
• Tom spurte (“Tom asked”) is simple past and is perfectly fine if you want a straightforward past narration.
Direct question: invert subject and the first verb.
Example:
Hvordan kunne jeg egentlig huske alle detaljene i filmen?
Here hvordan + kunne + jeg … contrasts with the indirect order where jeg comes right after hvordan and kunne moves to the end.
• spør is pronounced [spør], where “ø” is a close-mid front rounded vowel—similar to the vowel in the French word “peu.”
• In English transcription you might see something like “spuhr,” but aim to round your lips while keeping the tongue forward.