Breakdown of Jeg arkiverer e-posten etter at jeg har lest den.
jeg
I
ha
to have
lese
to read
den
it
e-posten
the email
etter at
after
arkivere
to archive
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Questions & Answers about Jeg arkiverer e-posten etter at jeg har lest den.
Why is arkiverer in the present tense instead of a future tense?
In Norwegian the present tense often covers:
- Habits or routines (“I archive each email after reading it”).
- Near future or planned actions (“I’ll archive it soon”).
You only need to add skal (will) if you want to stress the future: - Jeg skal arkivere e-posten etter at jeg har lest den.
What does etter at mean, and why do we use both words?
Etter at is a subordinating conjunction meaning after (introducing a clause).
- Etter alone is a preposition needing a noun or noun phrase, not a full clause.
- Adding at turns it into a conjunction, allowing a complete clause: etter at jeg har lest den.
Why is the auxiliary har placed before lest, and why does lest come at the end?
This is the present perfect tense in Norwegian:
- har (auxiliary verb)
- lest (past participle)
That order holds in both main and subordinate clauses.
Why do we use den at the end? Could we use det instead?
Den is a personal pronoun referring back to e-posten.
- E-post is a common-gender noun (en e-post), so its pronoun is den.
- Det is used for neuter-gender nouns (et-words).
Can I omit at and write Jeg arkiverer e-posten etter jeg har lest den?
No. Without at, etter functions as a preposition and can’t introduce a full clause.
If you want a shorter form, you could use etterpå:
- Etterpå arkiverer jeg e-posten.
What happens to word order if I start the sentence with the subordinate clause?
You must still obey the verb-second rule in main clauses:
- Subordinate clause (no inversion): Etter at jeg har lest den,
- Main clause (V2): arkiverer jeg e-posten.
Complete: Etter at jeg har lest den, arkiverer jeg e-posten.
Why is e-posten written with a hyphen?
Norwegian uses hyphens in some loanwords when adding a prefix, especially e- for electronic terms.
- Base form: e-post (en e-post)
- Definite form adds -en: e-posten