Å lære nye vaner er utfordrende i starten.

to be

Breakdown of Å lære nye vaner er utfordrende i starten.

• å: to
• i: in
• ny: new

Questions & Answers about Å lære nye vaner er utfordrende i starten.

What does Å mean here, and how do you pronounce the whole sentence?

• Å is the infinitive marker, equivalent to English to before a verb. It’s capitalized only because it starts the sentence.
• A quick, rough pronunciation (Eastern Norwegian-style):
  
  • Å ≈ “oh”
  • lære ≈ LAE-reh (æ like in cat)
  • nye ≈ NEE-yeh (y is a fronted “u,” like French u)
  • vaner ≈ VAH-ner
  • er ≈ ehr (very short)
  • utfordrende ≈ OOT-for-dren-deh (u like French u; tapped/trilled r)
  • i ≈ ee
  • starten ≈ STAR-ten
    Put together: roughly “oh LAE-reh NEE-yeh VAH-ner ehr OOT-for-dren-deh ee STAR-ten.”

Can an infinitive clause really be the subject in Norwegian?

Yes. Å lære nye vaner is the subject here. Norwegian main clauses have the finite verb in second position (the V2 rule), so er comes second:

• 1st element (subject): Å lære nye vaner
• 2nd element (verb): er
  You can also nominalize the infinitive by adding det: Det å lære nye vaner er utfordrende i starten. Both are correct.

Could I also say: Det er utfordrende å lære nye vaner i starten?