Questions & Answers about Jeg må justere lyden på radioen.
What does må mean and what role does it play in this sentence?
Må is a modal verb expressing necessity or obligation. It corresponds to English must or have to. As a modal, it’s the only verb that gets conjugated here (it stays må for all persons) and is followed by a bare infinitive (justere).
Why is justere in the infinitive form, without å or to?
After modals like må, Norwegian drops the particle å and uses the bare infinitive. So where English says must adjust (bare infinitive), Norwegian says må justere (also bare infinitive).
What does lyden mean, and why does it end in -en?
Lyd means sound. Adding -en makes it the definite singular: lyden = the sound. Norwegian marks definiteness with a suffix instead of a separate article.
Why is lyden definite here? Could it be indefinite?
We’re talking about a specific sound—the one coming from the radio. That specificity requires the definite form. If you wanted to talk about any sound in general, you’d use the indefinite en lyd (“a sound”).