Breakdown of Han sjekker resultatet på telefonen.
han
he
på
on
sjekke
to check
telefonen
the phone
resultatet
the result
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Questions & Answers about Han sjekker resultatet på telefonen.
Why does telefonen have no separate article like “the”?
In Norwegian Bokmål, the definite article is usually a suffix attached to the noun. So telefon (“a phone”) + -en = telefonen (“the phone”). You won’t see a separate word for the before a singular common noun.
What does the -et at the end of resultatet signify?
Resultat is a neuter noun. To make it definite in the singular you add -et: resultatet = “the result.” Common (masculine/feminine) nouns take -en or -a, neuter nouns take -et or -a depending on dialect and style.
Why is there no possessive pronoun (“his”) before telefonen?
When it’s clear from context who owns the phone, Norwegian often drops the possessive. Here Han sjekker resultatet på telefonen is understood as “He checks the result on his phone.” If you need to specify, you can say på telefonen hans (“on his phone”) or på sin telefon (using the reflexive sin because the subject and possessor are the same).
How is the verb sjekker formed and conjugated in the present tense?
Å sjekke (“to check”) is a weak verb, borrowed from English. In the present tense you add -r to the infinitive stem:
jeg sjekker, du sjekker, han/hun sjekker, vi sjekker, dere sjekker, de sjekker.
Why is the preposition på used with telefonen instead of i?
You use på telefonen (“on the phone”) when referring to something displayed or accessed on the screen of the device. Saying i telefonen would imply something physically inside the phone’s casing.
Why does sjekker appear in the second position in the clause?
Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 word order rule: the finite verb must come second. If you start with the subject Han, the verb sjekker follows immediately: [Han] (1) [sjekker] (2) …