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Breakdown of Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden.
jeg
I
kaffen
the coffee
lage
to make
i mellomtiden
in the meantime
Questions & Answers about Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden.
What tense is lager, and can it mean “am making” as well as “make”?
It’s the Norwegian present tense, which covers both English simple present and present continuous. So Jeg lager kaffe can mean both “I make coffee” and “I am making coffee.” If you want to highlight that it’s happening right now, you can add:
- Nå lager jeg kaffe. (Now I’m making coffee.)
- Jeg holder på å lage kaffe. (I’m in the middle of making coffee.) — extra explicit, more like “I’m busy making coffee.”
Why is it lage/lager and not gjøre/gjør?
Norwegian uses lage for making/preparing things (food, drinks, objects). Gjøre means “to do” (tasks, actions, activities). So:
- ✔ lage kaffe, lage middag, lage en plan
- ✔ gjøre lekser, gjøre en jobb
- ✘ gjøre kaffe (unnatural)
Can I move i mellomtiden to the front?
Yes. Then you must follow the V2 word-order rule (the finite verb goes in second position):
- I mellomtiden lager jeg kaffe. Word order changes, but the meaning stays the same.
Is i mellomtiden one word or three? I’ve seen different spellings.
Write it as three words: i mellomtiden. Alternatives:
- i mellomtida (equally correct Bokmål variant using the -a definite form)
- imens (one word; means “meanwhile”) Avoid forms like “imellomtiden” or “i mellom tiden.”
What’s the difference between i mellomtiden and mens?
- i mellomtiden is an adverbial meaning “in the meantime/meanwhile” and can stand alone as a clause element: Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden.
- mens is a conjunction meaning “while” and must link two clauses: Mens du ringer, lager jeg kaffe. / Jeg lager kaffe mens du ringer.
Where would ikke (not) go?
Place ikke after the finite verb in main clauses.
- Neutral order: Jeg lager ikke kaffe i mellomtiden.
- Fronted adverbial (V2 still applies): I mellomtiden lager jeg ikke kaffe.
Do I need the preposition i? Can I just say mellomtiden?
Keep the i. It’s a fixed phrase: i mellomtiden. You don’t normally use mellomtiden on its own.
Is kaffe countable? Why no article?
Kaffe is typically a mass noun, so no article is needed: Jeg lager kaffe.
- Specific/definite: Jeg lager kaffen. (“I’m making the coffee [we talked about].”)
- In cafés/conversation, you’ll hear countable uses: en kaffe (“a coffee” = a cup), to kaffe (“two coffees”) — informal/elliptical for “two cups of coffee.”
- More explicit: en kopp kaffe, to kopper kaffe.
Could I say something more idiomatic like “put on some coffee”?
Yes, common alternatives include:
- Jeg setter på kaffe. / Jeg setter over kaffe. (“I’ll put on some coffee.”)
- Jeg trakter kaffe. (using a drip machine)
- Jeg brygger kaffe. (generic “brew coffee”)
- Jeg koker kaffe. (boiled coffee style)
How do you pronounce the sentence?
Approximate guide (standard East Norwegian):
- Jeg ≈ “yai” or “yei”
- lager ≈ “LAH-ger” (hard g; r tapped)
- kaffe ≈ “KAH-feh” (double f = longer f)
- i ≈ “ee”
- mellomtiden ≈ “MEL-lom-tee-den” (primary stress on MEL, long “tee”) Full sentence: stress typically on LA in lager, KA in kaffe, and MEL in mellomtiden.
What does mellomtiden literally mean?
It’s a compound:
- mellom = between
- tid = time
- -en = the (definite singular) So i mellomtiden literally means “in the between-time.”
Is it okay to start with I mellomtiden and add a comma like in English?
No comma is needed (and usually not used) after short fronted adverbials in Norwegian:
- ✔ I mellomtiden lager jeg kaffe.
- ✘ I mellomtiden, lager jeg kaffe.
Is Norwegian a “drop-subject” language? Can I omit jeg?
No. You generally need the subject pronoun. Lager kaffe i mellomtiden sounds incomplete in standard Norwegian.
Could lager be confused with the noun “warehouse” (et lager)?
Only in writing without context. Here, lager is clearly a verb (present tense of lage). The noun would appear with an article or other noun morphology: et lager, lagre (plural), etc.
If I mean a future plan (“I’ll make coffee in the meantime”), should I use skal?
You can use simple present or skal:
- Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden. (common for near-future plans)
- Jeg skal lage kaffe i mellomtiden. (slightly more explicit intention/plan) Both are natural; choice depends on how planned/decided it feels.
How do I put this in the past?
Two accepted preterite forms in Bokmål:
- Jeg lagde kaffe i mellomtiden.
- Jeg laget kaffe i mellomtiden. Past participle with perfect:
- Jeg har laget/lagd kaffe i mellomtiden. Note: lagt is from legge (“to lay”), not from lage.
Is i mellomtiden formal, neutral, or informal? Any quick alternatives?
Neutral. Alternatives:
- imens (also neutral; a bit shorter)
- så lenge (“for now/meanwhile,” slightly more colloquial depending on context): Jeg lager kaffe så lenge.
Why is jeg not capitalized like English “I”?
Norwegian doesn’t capitalize personal pronouns in the middle of a sentence. You capitalize Jeg only when it starts the sentence, just like any other word at the beginning.
Are there dialect or Nynorsk variants?
Yes. In Nynorsk you’d typically see: Eg lagar kaffe i mellomtida. Many dialects also pronounce jeg more like “jæ” or even use eg in speech. All variants mean the same thing.
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