Vi pynter stuen med blomster.

We decorate the living room with flowers.

Breakdown of Vi pynter stuen med blomster.

• vi: we
• med: with
• stuen: the living room
• blomsten: the flower
• pynte: to decorate

Questions & Answers about Vi pynter stuen med blomster.

What does pynter mean in this sentence, and how is it formed from the infinitive?

pynter is the present tense form of the verb å pynte, which means to decorate or adorn. Norwegian forms the present tense of most verbs by adding -r to the infinitive: å pynte → pynter.

Why is the verb in the present tense – if I want to say “we decorated,” what form should I use?

The present tense (pynter) indicates an action happening now or regularly. To express a past action, use the preterite pyntet:
Vi pyntet stuen med blomster (“We decorated the living room with flowers”).

What does stuen mean, and why is it not just stue?

Stue is the indefinite singular noun for “a living room.” To say “the living room,” you add the definite suffix -n to form stuen. So stuen literally means “the living room.”

What is the gender of stue, and how does that affect its forms?

Stue is a feminine noun (en stue). The indefinite form is stue, and the definite form is stuen. In informal speech or some dialects you may also see ei stua (indef.) / stua (def.), but the distinction between indefinite vs. definite remains.

Why do we use the preposition med before blomster?

Norwegian uses med (with) when expressing that something is decorated using a material or instrument. Here, pynte … med means “decorate … with,” so Vi pynter stuen med blomster = “We decorate the living room with flowers.”

Why is blomster in the plural indefinite rather than the definite blomstene or singular blomsten?

Blomster is the indefinite plural of blomst (“a flower”). Since the sentence implies decorating with unspecified flowers in general, you use the indefinite plural. If you wanted to refer to specific flowers you’ve already mentioned, you would say med blomstene (“with the flowers”).

Could you swap med blomster to the front of the sentence? What happens to word order if you do?

Norwegian normally follows verb-second (V2) word order. If you start with med blomster, you must invert subject and verb:
Med blomster pynter vi stuen.
This is grammatically correct but shifts the emphasis onto the flowers.

Is there a more formal alternative to pynte for “to decorate”?

Yes, you can use the more formal verb dekorere, borrowed from Latin. So Vi dekorerer stuen med blomster conveys the same meaning in a slightly higher register.