Breakdown of Barna leker i bakgården, mens vi drikker te på balkongen.
Questions & Answers about Barna leker i bakgården, mens vi drikker te på balkongen.
Norwegian usually marks definiteness with an ending, not a separate “the.” The noun barn (child) is neuter and irregular:
- Singular indefinite: et barn
- Singular definite: barnet
- Plural indefinite: barn
- Plural definite: barna (= the children)
So Barna on its own already means the children. If you say de barna, it means those children (not just “the children”).
Here it’s the verb leker (present tense of å leke, to play): Barna leker … = “The children are playing …” Context tells you which it is:
- Verb: Barna leker i bakgården. (The children are playing…)
- Noun (plural of “toy”): Barna har mange leker. (The children have many toys.)
Norwegian distinguishes two verbs:
- å leke: kids playing, pretend play, free play. Example: Barna leker i hagen.
- å spille: playing structured games/sports/instruments. Examples: spille fotball, spille sjakk, spille gitar.
So kids “play” outside = leker; they “play soccer” = spiller fotball.
Prepositions depend on how Norwegians conceptualize the place:
- i is used for enclosed or area-like spaces you’re “inside”: i bakgården, i hagen, i parken.
- på is used for surfaces and platforms/appendages: på balkongen, på terrassen, på verandaen.
Saying i balkongen or på bakgården is not idiomatic.
- bakgård: a courtyard/backyard area typically behind or between buildings in a town or apartment block.
- hage: a garden/yard attached to a house, usually green and private.
So i bakgården evokes an urban courtyard; i hagen is more like a suburban garden/yard.
Yes. In standard written Norwegian you put a comma between a main clause and a following subordinate clause:
- Barna leker i bakgården, mens vi drikker te på balkongen. If the mens-clause comes first, put a comma after it:
- Mens vi drikker te på balkongen, leker barna i bakgården.
Yes. Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule (the verb in second position). When a subordinate clause comes first, the verb of the following main clause still goes in position 2, so you get inversion:
- Mens vi drikker te på balkongen, leker barna i bakgården. (not: … barna leker …)
- In a main clause, ikke comes after the finite verb: Barna leker ikke i bakgården.; Vi drikker ikke te.
- In a subordinate clause, ikke comes before the finite verb: mens vi ikke drikker te på balkongen.
- en bakgård (a backyard/courtyard) → bakgården (the backyard/courtyard) [masculine]
- en balkong (a balcony) → balkongen (the balcony) [masculine]
- et barn (a child) → barnet (the child) → barn (children) → barna (the children) [neuter, irregular plural definite -a]
Norwegian uses the simple present to cover both English simple and continuous:
- Barna leker = “The children play/are playing.”
- Vi drikker te = “We drink/are drinking tea.”
If you really want to stress something ongoing right now, you can add nå (now) or use holder på å
- infinitive in specific contexts, but the plain present is the default.
- samtidig som works like mens: Barna leker …, samtidig som vi drikker te …
- imens is an adverb meaning “in the meantime” and starts a new clause/sentence: Barna leker i bakgården. Imens drikker vi te på balkongen. Don’t say mens at.
- å in gården sounds like the vowel in English “law.”
- In many dialects, rd in gården becomes a single retroflex sound; you’ll hear something like a tapped/retroflex r+d.
- rn in barna often becomes a retroflex nasal in Eastern Norwegian.
- kk in drikker is a long k; pronounce it clearly as two k’s.
- ng in balkongen is the English “ng” sound. Stress: Bárna, lék-er; compound bákgården (main stress on the first part); balkóngen (stress on -kong-). Dialects vary.