Breakdown of Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden.
Questions & Answers about Jeg lager kaffe i mellomtiden.
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.”
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)
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.
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.”
- 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.
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.
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.
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)
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.
It’s a compound:
- mellom = between
- tid = time
- -en = the (definite singular) So i mellomtiden literally means “in the between-time.”
No comma is needed (and usually not used) after short fronted adverbials in Norwegian:
- ✔ I mellomtiden lager jeg kaffe.
- ✘ I mellomtiden, lager jeg kaffe.
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.
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.
Neutral. Alternatives:
- imens (also neutral; a bit shorter)
- så lenge (“for now/meanwhile,” slightly more colloquial depending on context): Jeg lager kaffe så lenge.