Hun kunne se byen fra vinduet.

she

Breakdown of Hun kunne se byen fra vinduet.

• se: to see
• fra: from
• vinduet: the window

Questions & Answers about Hun kunne se byen fra vinduet.

Why is kunne used instead of kan here? What tense does it represent?

kunne is the past-tense form of kan, so it means “could” rather than “can.” The sentence is in past tense, indicating that she was able to see the city at that moment in the past.

Why is there no å before se in kunne se?

In Norwegian, after modal verbs (like kan, må, vil, skal, kunne), you use the bare infinitive of the main verb without å. So it’s kunne se (“be able to see”) rather than kunne å se.

Why is byen in its definite form instead of just en by?

The sentence refers to a specific city she is looking at, so you need the definite form. For a common‐gender noun like by (“city”), you add ‐en to make it definite singular: byen (“the city”).

Why is vinduet definite, and how do you form its definite form?

“Vindu” is a neuter noun. Its indefinite singular is et vindu (“a window”). To make it definite singular, you add ‐et, giving vinduet (“the window”).

Why do we use fra here instead of av or gjennom?