Neste uke flytter professoren til en ny avdeling på universitetet.

Next week the professor moves to a new department at the university.

Breakdown of Neste uke flytter professoren til en ny avdeling på universitetet.

• en: a
• til: to
• ny: new
• på: at

Questions & Answers about Neste uke flytter professoren til en ny avdeling på universitetet.

Why does flytter come before professoren in this sentence?

Norwegian main clauses follow the “verb-second” (V2) rule. When you start with an adverbial like neste uke, the finite verb must be the second element, so you get:

1. Neste uke (adverbial)
2. flytter (verb)
3. professoren (subject)

Why is it neste uke and not neste uken or i neste uke?

– neste is a determiner that takes an indefinite noun, so uke stays in the indefinite form.
– You can optionally add the preposition i (i neste uke), but native speakers often drop it and simply say neste uke for “next week.” Saying neste uken would be ungrammatical, because neste requires the indefinite form.

What sense of time does flytter express here? Is it present or future?

Literally, flytter is the present tense of “to move.” In Norwegian you often use the present tense with a clear future time adverbial (here neste uke) to talk about the future. You could also say:
– Professoren skal flytte til en ny avdeling neste uke.
Both sentences mean “The professor will move to a new department next week.”

Why do we use til before en ny avdeling? And why en ny?