De sender meldinger til hverandre når bussen er sen.

to be

Breakdown of De sender meldinger til hverandre når bussen er sen.

• til: to
• de: they
• når: when

Questions & Answers about De sender meldinger til hverandre når bussen er sen.

Why is it De and not Dem?

De is the subject pronoun (they). Dem is the object form (them), so it cannot be used as the subject of the sentence. Note: De with a capital D can also be the archaic/formal “you,” but here it clearly means “they.” It’s capitalized anyway because it begins the sentence.

Why does sender end with -r?

That’s the regular present tense ending in Norwegian Bokmål. The infinitive is å sende, present is sender, preterite is sendte, and past participle is sendt.

Why is meldinger plural? Could I use singular melding?

Plural (meldinger) suggests they generally send more than one message or do so repeatedly. Singular (melding) would mean one message each time. Both are grammatically fine; choose based on meaning. The plural ending here is the regular -er: melding → meldinger.

Do I need til before hverandre, or can I say De sender hverandre meldinger?