Learn Hardcore Norwegian: På lørdag arrangerer byen en fest under stjernene for alle besøkende. - On Saturday the city organizes a party under the stars for all visitors.

På lørdag literally means “on Saturday.” The preposition på is the standard way to talk about specific days of the week in Norwegian: på mandag, på tirsdag, etc. While you might sometimes hear the day alone in casual speech, using på is the most common and grammatically correct form for “on [day].”

Why is the verb arrangerer in the present tense if the event is in the future?

In Norwegian, the present tense can describe future planned events, much like English “I’m meeting him tomorrow.” So På lørdag arrangerer byen… uses the present tense to indicate a scheduled event on Saturday.

What are the subject and object in arrangerer byen en fest, and why is there no preposition before en fest?

arrangerer is a transitive verb meaning “to organize.” The subject is byen (“the city”) and the direct object is en fest (“a party”). Transitive verbs take their object directly without a preposition, just like in kjøper en bok (“buys a book”).

Why is it byen instead of en by?

byen is the definite form of by (“city”), so it means “the city.” If you wrote en by arrangerer…, it would mean “a city is organizing…,” which doesn’t refer to a specific known city. Here we mean “the city” you’re talking about.

Why is stjernene in the definite form (“the stars”) rather than stjerner?

Expressions like “under the stars” commonly use the definite plural to convey the idea of the sky full of stars. under stjernene is idiomatic. Using the indefinite stjerner would sound like “under some stars,” which isn’t the usual way to describe an outdoor party under the night sky.

What does besøkende mean, and why isn’t it declined like a regular noun?

Besøkende is a present participle from besøke (“to visit”) used as a noun meaning “visitors.” Participles used as nouns in Norwegian are indeclinable in the indefinite, so the form besøkende works for both singular and plural indefinite. Context tells you it refers to “all visitors.”

Why is the phrase for alle besøkende and not til alle besøkende?

The preposition for in this context means “intended for” or “for the benefit of,” so for alle besøkende translates to “for all visitors.” Using til would suggest motion or direction (“to the visitors”), which isn’t the intended meaning here.

How does the word order work with på lørdag at the beginning of the sentence?

Norwegian follows the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in the second position. Starting with the adverbial På lørdag (position 1) puts the verb arrangerer in position 2, so the subject byen follows it. The structure is:

På lørdag
arrangerer
byen
…en fest under stjernene for alle besøkende.