Paret drikker kaffe sammen hver morgen.

The couple drinks coffee together every morning.

Breakdown of Paret drikker kaffe sammen hver morgen.

• drikke: to drink
• hver: every
• morgenen: the morning
• sammen: together
• kaffen: the coffee
• paret: the couple

Questions & Answers about Paret drikker kaffe sammen hver morgen.

What does paret mean, and why doesn’t it have a separate article?

paret is the definite form of par (“couple”). In Norwegian you don’t use a separate word for “the” here; instead you add the suffix -et to make it definite.
• par = “a couple”
• paret = “the couple”

Why is the verb form drikker the same for both singular and plural subjects?

In Norwegian present tense, almost all verbs use the same form for every person and number. Compare:
• Jeg drikker
• Du drikker
• Han/hun drikker
• Vi/ dere/ de drikker
So whether the subject is singular or plural, the present-tense form stays drikker.

Why is there no article before kaffe? Couldn’t it be kaffen?

When you talk about coffee in general (an uncountable substance), you leave out the article: kaffe = “coffee.”
If you mean a specific batch or pot of coffee, you’d use the definite form: kaffen = “the coffee.”

What part of speech is sammen, and what role does it play here?

sammen is an adverb meaning “together.” It’s a manner adverb that tells us how the couple drinks coffee. Placed after the object, it modifies the verb phrase drikker kaffe.

What does hver morgen mean, and how does it differ from om morgenen?

• hver morgen = “every morning,” emphasizing each individual morning.
• om morgenen = “in the mornings,” describing a habitual action more generally.
Both are correct, but hver morgen is more direct when you want “every single morning.”

Can we place hver morgen at the beginning of the sentence? How would the word order change?

Yes. Norwegian follows a V2 (verb-second) rule. If you start with hver morgen, you invert verb and subject:
 Hver morgen drikker paret kaffe sammen.
Here the verb drikker stays in second position, and the subject paret follows.

Could we use a pronoun instead of paret? If so, how?

Yes. Replace paret with de (“they”):
 De drikker kaffe sammen hver morgen.
De is the general 3rd-person plural subject pronoun.

Why are sammen and hver morgen placed after kaffe, and not before it?

In a Norwegian main clause you get:

1. Subject (paret)
2. Verb (drikker)
3. Object (kaffe)
4. Adverbials (manner sammen, time hver morgen)
   Putting adverbials after the object is most natural here. You could front the time (see previous question), but if you leave the subject in place, the adverbials follow the object.