Jeg kjører forsiktig på den glatte veien om morgenen.

I drive carefully on the slippery road in the morning.

Breakdown of Jeg kjører forsiktig på den glatte veien om morgenen.

• jeg: I
• morgenen: the morning
• på: on
• forsiktig: carefully
• om: in
• veien: the road
• glatt: slippery
• kjøre: to drive

Questions & Answers about Jeg kjører forsiktig på den glatte veien om morgenen.

What does kjører mean here, and why is it used instead of a simple “drive”?

• kjører is the present tense of kjøre, which means “to drive.”
• In Norwegian there’s no separate continuous/progressive form (“I am driving” vs. “I drive”); jeg kjører can mean both “I drive” (habitually) and “I am driving” (right now), depending on context.
• Here it suggests a habitual action: “I drive carefully … in the mornings.”

Why is forsiktig not changing form? Shouldn’t adjectives agree with the subject?

• forsiktig is used as an adverb modifying kjører (“drive carefully”), so it remains uninflected.
• If you wanted the adjective form (“a careful driver”), you’d say en forsiktig sjåfør, where forsiktig describes a noun.

Why do we say på den glatte veien and not i den glatte veien?

• Norwegian uses på with many surfaces or routes: på veien = “on the road.”
• i would imply “inside” something enclosed, which doesn’t work for roads.
• Other examples: gå på gaten (“walk on the street”), reise på toget (“travel by train”).

Why is it den glatte veien and not glatte vei or en glatt vei?

1. vei is common gender; its indefinite singular is en vei, definite is veien.
2. With a definite noun you need the article den before an adjective:
   
   • den + adjective (with -e ending) + noun-definite → den glatte veien.
3. You could also say en glatt vei (an uncovered adjective on an indefinite noun).

What’s the rule for inflecting glatt to glatte?

• Adjectives before a definite noun take an -e ending: den glatte veien.
• Before an indefinite common-gender noun they stay in base form: en glatt vei.
• Neuter indefinite gets no -e either: et glatt gulv (“a slippery floor”).

Why is it om morgenen and not just morgenen or på morgenen?

• om morgenen literally means “in the mornings” (habitual time).
• om
  • time of day expresses a recurring period:
    • om kvelden = “in the evenings”
    • om natten = “at night”
• på morgenen is also used regionally but om morgenen is more standard for recurring actions.

Is the order [verb] forsiktig på … om … fixed, or can I switch the prepositional phrases?

• Basic order in Norwegian tends to be: Subject – Verb – Adverb – Object/Complements – Time – Place, but it’s fairly flexible.
• You could say:
  • Jeg kjører om morgenen forsiktig på den glatte veien. (less common)
  • Om morgenen kjører jeg forsiktig på den glatte veien. (time adverbial fronted for emphasis)
• Fronting a phrase (moving it to the start) is common to shift focus.