Breakdown of Speilet dugger når dusjen er varm.
være
to be
når
when
dusjen
the shower
varm
hot
speilet
the mirror
dugge
to fog up
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Questions & Answers about Speilet dugger når dusjen er varm.
Why is dugger used here, and what does it mean?
dugger is the present-tense form of the intransitive verb å dugge, meaning “to fog up” or “to mist over.” In this sentence the mirror itself is the subject, so we literally say “the mirror fogs up.”
What part of speech is når, and why do we use når here instead of da?
når is a subordinating conjunction meaning “when.” We use når for general or habitual situations (whenever X happens…). By contrast, da is reserved for a single, specific event in the past (“when X happened then…”).
Why is dusjen in the definite form instead of saying en dusj?
In Norwegian it’s common to use the definite form when talking about a specific object in a general statement. Here you mean “the shower (in this bathroom).” Hence en dusj (a shower) becomes dusjen (the shower) by adding the suffix -en.
Why is varm used here instead of varmt?
Adjectives in predicative position (after verbs like er, blir etc.) stay in their basic form and do not take gender or number endings. So you always say dusjen er varm. (If you used the adjective attributively before an et-word, you would add -t, e.g. et varmt bad.)
If we move the når clause to the front, do we have to change the word order in the main clause?
Yes. When a subordinate clause (with når, fordi, etc.) starts a sentence, the following main clause must invert—verb comes before subject. Your sentence would become:
Når dusjen er varm, dugger speilet.
Should there be a comma before når in “Speilet dugger når dusjen er varm”?
No comma is needed. Modern Norwegian typically omits commas before subordinate conjunctions when the clause follows the main clause. Writing
Speilet dugger når dusjen er varm
is perfectly correct.
When you say dusjen er varm, does that refer to the water temperature or to the shower fixture itself?
Colloquially dusjen often stands for the warm shower water. It doesn’t literally mean the showerhead or glass doors are hot— speakers shorthand it to mean “the shower (water) is hot.”
How would you say “the mirror fogged up” in the past tense?
The simple past of å dugge is dugget. For example:
Speilet dugget i går.
If you want the present perfect:
Speilet har dugget.