Breakdown of Mandag morgen er rolig, men temperaturen er allerede høy.
være
to be
men
but
morgenen
the morning
allerede
already
rolig
calm
mandagen
the Monday
temperaturen
the temperature
høy
high
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Norwegian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Mandag morgen er rolig, men temperaturen er allerede høy.
Why is Mandag capitalized here? I thought weekdays are normally lowercase in Norwegian.
In Norwegian, days of the week are only capitalized when they begin a sentence. Here Mandag is the sentence’s first word, so it’s uppercase. Elsewhere in the sentence you would write mandag.
Why is there no article or på before Mandag morgen?
For general time expressions, Norwegian often drops articles and prepositions. Mandag morgen er rolig reads like a headline—“Monday morning is calm.” If you want a more conversational phrasing meaning “on Monday morning,” you can say på mandag morgen.
Why is temperaturen in the definite form instead of en temperatur?
The definite form (temperaturen) refers to the specific temperature we’re discussing—the current one. Temperaturen er allerede høy means “the temperature is already high.” Saying en temperatur (“a temperature”) would imply any temperature, which doesn’t fit here.
Why does allerede come before høy instead of at the end?
Norwegian follows a verb-second rule: short adverbs of time like allerede usually go right after the finite verb (er). So you get er allerede høy. You can also say er høy allerede, but that shifts the emphasis onto allerede.
Is the comma before men mandatory?
No. Norwegian comma rules are more relaxed than English. A comma before men is optional—use it for clarity if you like, but you could also write Mandag morgen er rolig men temperaturen er allerede høy without any comma.
Why are the adjectives rolig and høy uninflected after er?
After the copula er (to be), adjectives remain in their base form regardless of gender or number. When used attributively (before a noun), they do inflect: en rolig morgen, to rolige morgener, et høyt fjell, etc.
What’s the nuance between morgen and formiddag?
Morgen covers early morning hours (from waking up until about 10–11 AM). Formiddag refers to the late morning (roughly 10 AM to noon). They overlap, but in everyday speech people usually stick with morgen for the whole morning.