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Jeg ser en bil til venstre.

Jeg ser en bil til venstre.
I see a car to the left.
FromLesson 19inHardcore Norwegian

Breakdown of Jeg ser en bil til venstre.

jeg
I
en
a
bilen
the car
se
to see
til venstre
to the left

Questions & Answers about Jeg ser en bil til venstre.

Why is en bil preceded by en and not et or ei?
bil is a masculine noun in Bokmål, so it takes the masculine indefinite article en (“a”). Neuter nouns use et, and some feminine nouns can take ei in dialectal or Nynorsk forms.
What part of speech is til in til venstre, and what does the phrase do?
til is a preposition that, combined with venstre, forms a prepositional phrase. Here it functions as an adverbial of direction/place, meaning “to the left.”
Why can’t I just say på venstre instead of til venstre?
på venstre by itself is incomplete. If you want “on the left side,” you say på venstre side. For general direction or position “to the left,” Norwegian uses the fixed expression til venstre.
Can I move til venstre to the beginning of the sentence?

Yes. Norwegian follows the V2 (verb-second) rule. If you start with the adverbial Til venstre, the finite verb comes next, then the subject:
• Til venstre ser jeg en bil.

How would I say “I see the car to the left” (using the definite “the car”)?

You use the definite form bilen (car+definite suffix):
• Jeg ser bilen til venstre.

How do you pronounce ser?

It’s pronounced s like in English “see”
• e is a long /eː/
• r is typically a tapped or uvular sound, depending on dialect

Is til venstre used for both static location and motion?

Yes. For static position:
• Bilen står til venstre. (“The car stands/is to the left.”)
For motion toward that side:
• Kjør til venstre. (“Drive/turn to the left.”)

What’s the equivalent phrase for “to the right”?

You simply switch to høyre:
• Jeg ser en bil til høyre. (“I see a car to the right.”)

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