Vi kjøpte kveldsmat i supermarkedet for en time siden.

We bought supper in the supermarket an hour ago.

Breakdown of Vi kjøpte kveldsmat i supermarkedet for en time siden.

• vi: we
• i: in
• kjøpe: to buy
• supermarkedet: the supermarket
• kveldsmaten: the supper
• for en time siden: an hour ago

Questions & Answers about Vi kjøpte kveldsmat i supermarkedet for en time siden.

What does kveldsmat mean, and how is it different from middag?

kveldsmat literally means “evening food” or “supper,” but it’s usually lighter than middag. In Norway middag is the main hot meal, typically eaten in the early evening (around 16–19), whereas kveldsmat is a smaller meal or snack you have later, often bread, cheese, leftovers or something cold.

Why is the past tense kjøpte used instead of a perfect tense like in English (“we have bought”)?

Norwegian uses the simple past (preterite) much like English does for completed actions with a time reference. So Vi kjøpte… for en time siden is normal. You would use perfect (har kjøpt) if you care about the current result rather than specifying when it happened. Adding for en time siden locks it to a finished point in the past, so preterite is preferred.

Why is supermarkedet in the definite form, and why do we use i before it?

Here you’re talking about a specific store (the supermarket), so you use the definite form supermarkedet (“the supermarket”). The preposition i means “in” and is the standard way to say you went into or shopped in a building or place: i butikken, i banken, i supermarkedet.

How does for en time siden translate, and why is for necessary?

for en time siden = “an hour ago.” Literally it’s “for one hour since.” In Norwegian you combine for + [time period] + siden to express how long ago something happened. Without for, the phrase would sound incomplete or overly clipped. You sometimes hear just en time siden in colloquial speech, but the full form is for en time siden.

Can I move the time expression for en time siden to the beginning of the sentence? How does word order work?

Yes. Norwegian follows the V2 rule (verb-second). If you place the time expression first, the main verb must stay second, so you get:
For en time siden kjøpte vi kveldsmat i supermarkedet.
Notice kjøpte remains in second position, then the subject vi, then the rest.

Why doesn’t kveldsmat have an article like en or noe in front of it?

kveldsmat is an uncountable meal noun here, referring to the concept of evening food in general. You wouldn’t say en kveldsmat unless you treat it like a countable item (which is unusual). If you want to say “some evening food,” you could use noe kveldsmat, but with verbs like kjøpte you often omit the article.

Why is it en time and not ett time?

Norwegian has two indefinite articles: en for common-gender nouns and ett for neuter nouns. time (“hour”) is a common-gender noun, so it takes en. You would only use ett with neuter words like ett hus (“one house”).

What if I said Vi har kjøpt kveldsmat i supermarkedet for en time siden—would that be correct?

Grammatically it’s not wrong, but it’s uncommon. Combining perfect (har kjøpt) with a specific past time marker (for en time siden) feels redundant, since perfect focuses on present relevance. Native speakers prefer simple past kjøpte when you specify for en time siden.