Questions & Answers about Jeg forstår regelen nå.
Why is jeg necessary at the beginning? Can I drop the subject like in English (“Understand the rule now”)?
In Norwegian you almost always need an explicit subject pronoun. Unlike English imperatives or pro-drop languages (e.g. Spanish), you can’t omit jeg in a normal indicative sentence. Every full clause normally requires its subject.
What tense and verb form is forstår, and what’s the infinitive?
Forstår is the present tense of the verb å forstå (“to understand”). In Norwegian, the present is formed by adding -r to the infinitive stem:
- Infinitive: å forstå
- Present: forstår
- Past: forsto
- Perfect (with har): har forstått
Why is it regelen instead of regel?
Norwegian uses a suffix instead of a separate word for the definite article.
- regel = “a rule” (indefinite)
- regelen = “the rule” (definite)
Here the speaker refers to a specific rule, so they use the definite form regelen.
Why does nå (“now”) come at the end of the sentence?