Questions & Answers about Stuen er lys om morgenen.
Why is stuen in the definite form? Could we use the indefinite en stue instead?
Norwegian marks definiteness with a suffix on the noun. stuen = “the living room.” We use the definite form here because we’re talking about a specific living room (e.g. the one in your house). If you want to speak about any living room in general, you would say:
- En stue er lys om morgenen. (“A living room is bright in the morning.”)
What does om morgenen mean, and why not i morgen?
- om morgenen = “in the morning” (habitual/general statement about mornings).
- i morgen = “tomorrow.”
So - Stuen er lys om morgenen. means “The living room is bright in the morning” (as a recurring fact).
- I morgen er stuen lys. would mean “Tomorrow the living room will be bright.”
Why do we use om here? Is it a preposition?
Yes. In Bokmål, om is the standard preposition for talking about habitual times of day:
- om morgenen (“in the morning”)
- om ettermiddagen (“in the afternoon”)
- om kvelden (“in the evening”)
- om natten (“at night”)
You don’t drop om, and you generally don’t use på for these time expressions.
Why is the adjective lys not lyst?