Breakdown of Telefonen trenger en lader fordi batteriet er tomt.
være
to be
en
a
trenge
to need
fordi
because
tom
empty
telefonen
the phone
batteriet
the battery
laderen
the charger
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Questions & Answers about Telefonen trenger en lader fordi batteriet er tomt.
What is the role of the verb trenger here, and how does it compare to the English need?
The verb trenger is a transitive verb meaning “to need.” Like English need, it takes a direct object without any preposition:
Telefonen trenger en lader = “The phone needs a charger.”
Why is it telefonen and not en telefon?
Telefonen is the definite form of telefon (phone). In Norwegian you attach the definite article as a suffix (-en for common-gender nouns). Here we refer to a specific phone, so we say telefonen = “the phone.”
Why do we say en lader and not just lader or ladderen?
En lader is the indefinite singular form (“a charger”).
- Lader by itself is just the stem and isn’t used alone in singular.
- Laderen would be the definite form (“the charger”).
Since we’re saying the phone needs a (unspecified) charger, we use en lader.
Why is batteriet definite?
Batteriet uses the suffix -et because batteri is a neuter noun and we want “the battery.” We use the definite form since it’s the (known) battery of that specific phone.
Why is the adjective tom written as tomt in batteriet er tomt?
Neuter nouns take an extra -t on predicate adjectives. Since batteri is neuter, tom becomes tomt when describing batteriet.
Why doesn’t the clause introduced by fordi trigger inversion like main clauses in Norwegian?
Fordi is a subordinating conjunction (“because”), so the clause that follows keeps normal Subject–Verb–Object (SVO) order:
batteriet er tomt.
In main clauses without such conjunctions, Norwegian enforces V2 word order (verb in second position).
Can I use other words for “because,” like for or siden, and would that change the word order?
Yes:
- For can mean “because” (more formal or literary):
Telefonen trenger en lader, for batteriet er tomt. - Siden means “since” and also keeps SVO order:
Telefonen trenger en lader siden batteriet er tomt.
Could you drop the article and say Telefonen trenger lader?
No. In Norwegian, singular countable nouns normally require an article (en, ei, et) in both definite and indefinite forms. You must say en lader for “a charger.”