Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Bilen skal bli malt blå i helgen. - The car will be painted blue this weekend.

skal expresses a future action (“will”) and bli + past participle forms the passive voice. Together, skal bli malt literally means “will be painted.”

Why do we use bli here instead of være to form the passive?

In Norwegian, the passive can be made with bli + past participle or with the -s passive on the verb. være + past participle (e.g. er malt) describes a state (“is painted”), while bli emphasises the action or process of becoming painted.

Could we instead say Bilen skal males blå i helgen? How does that differ?

Yes. males is the -s passive form of male. It’s more compact and common in written Norwegian. The bli-passive (bli malt) often highlights the process or change. In most contexts, both versions are correct and interchangeable, with only a slight nuance in emphasis.

Why is the verb form malt and not malet or malte?

malt is the past participle (supine) of the verb male. Norwegian weak verbs often form the participle by dropping the infinitive -e and adding -t.

male → preterite malte (“painted” in past tense)
supine/past participle malt (used in perfect and passive)

What role does blå play here, and why isn’t it inflected as blått or blåe?

blå is a resultative complement (an object complement) specifying the end state of bilen. In resultative constructions, the adjective remains in its base (uninflected) form, so you don’t add -t or -e.

Why do we use i helgen instead of på helgen or denne helgen?

i helgen is the standard idiom for “this weekend.”

på helger (plural) means “on weekends” in general.
You can say denne helgen for emphasis (“this very weekend”), but if you keep i, it becomes i denne helgen, or you can simply start with denne helgen at the front.

Can i helgen be moved to the beginning of the sentence? What happens to word order then?

Yes. In Norwegian V2 word order, if you place the time adverbial first, the finite verb moves to second position. You get:
I helgen skal bilen bli malt blå.

What difference does it make if we say Bilen blir malt blå i helgen instead of Bilen skal bli malt blå i helgen?

blir malt in the present tense can imply a scheduled or inevitable future action when context is clear (“is being/will be painted”). skal bli malt explicitly marks a planned future action (“will be painted as scheduled”).