Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Lunsjpausen gjør oss blide og mette. - The lunch break makes us cheerful and full.

The suffix -en marks the definite singular, so Lunsjpausen means the lunch break. Norwegian often uses the definite form for generic, well-known things (here, the lunch break as a daily routine). Without the ending: en lunsjpause (a lunch break). For a generic plural you could say Lunsjpauser gjør oss … (Lunch breaks make us …).

Why is Lunsjpausen written as one word?

Norwegian strongly prefers compound nouns to be written together: lunsj + pause + -en → Lunsjpausen. Don’t write lunsj pausen.

What does gjør mean, and what tense is it?

gjør is the present tense of å gjøre (to do/make). It’s used here in the causative sense: gjøre + object + adjective = make someone/something be in a state.

Principal forms: gjør (present), gjorde (past), gjort (past participle).

Why is it oss and not vi?

Because oss is the object form of vi (we). After gjøre, the person affected is an object: gjør oss (makes us), not gjør vi.

Why do blide and mette end in -e?

They agree with the plural object oss. In predicative position (after a verb), adjectives take:

singular: no -e (e.g., blid, mett)
plural: -e (e.g., blide, mette)

Could I say blid og mett instead?

Not with oss, because oss is plural and the adjectives must be plural (blide, mette). With a singular object, you would use singular adjectives:

gjør meg blid og mett (makes me cheerful and full)
gjør ham/henne blid og mett (makes him/her …)

Can I use glade instead of blide?

Yes, but there’s a nuance:

blid/blide = cheerful, smiling, pleasant in manner (outward demeanor).
glad/glade = happy, pleased (inner feeling). Both work here; blide highlights a cheerful mood.

Why mett/mette and not full/fulle?

Use mett/mette for “full (from eating), satiated.” full/fulle often means “drunk” in Norwegian. So say Jeg er mett, not Jeg er full, after a meal.

Is the word order fixed? Can I say gjør blide og mette oss?

Keep the normal order: verb + object + predicative adjectives.

Natural: gjør oss blide og mette
Not natural: gjør blide og mette oss

How do I negate this sentence?

Place ikke after the object in the neutral reading:

Lunsjpausen gjør oss ikke blide eller mette. For “neither … nor,” use:
Lunsjpausen gjør oss verken blide eller mette. If you want to emphasize that it’s specifically “us” who aren’t affected, you can say: Lunsjpausen gjør ikke oss blide …

How else could I express the same idea?

Vi blir blide og mette av lunsjpausen. (We become cheerful and full from the lunch break.)
Lunsjpausen gjør at vi blir blide og mette. (The lunch break makes it so that we become …)
Etter lunsjpausen er vi blide og mette. (After the lunch break, we are …)

How do you pronounce the words?

Approximate (Eastern Norwegian):

Lunsjpausen: [ˈlʉnʂˌpæʉsən] (the sj is a sh-like sound; au is a diphthong)
gjør: [jøːr] (the gj is like English y)
oss: [ɔs]
blide: [ˈbliːdə]
og: [o] (often reduced in speech)
mette: [ˈmɛtə] Pronunciation varies by dialect.

What gender is lunsjpause, and is lunsjpausa also correct?

pause can be masculine or feminine in Bokmål. So both are possible:

masculine: en lunsjpause → lunsjpausen
feminine: ei lunsjpause → lunsjpausa The sentence uses the masculine form. lunsjpausa is also accepted in Bokmål (and is standard in Nynorsk).

Are the adjectives here definite or indefinite?

Predicative adjectives (after verbs like være, bli, gjøre) don’t take the definite form; they only agree in number (and sometimes gender). So:

De er blide. (They are cheerful.)
Hun er blid. In our sentence, blide and mette are plural forms agreeing with oss, not definite forms.