Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Vi møtes på fortauet foran huset og går sammen til kafeen. - We meet on the sidewalk in front of the house and walk together to the café.

Grammatically, møtes is a present tense -s form. Historically, -s forms are related to passives, but in modern Norwegian they often have special meanings:

Passive voice:
- Boka leses av mange. – The book is read by many.
Reciprocal / mutual actions:
- Vi møtes. – We meet each other.
- De ringes hver dag. – They call each other every day.
Middle voice / reflexive‑like meaning:
- Døra lukkes automatisk. – The door closes automatically.

In your sentence, møtes is present tense with a reciprocal meaning, not a true passive.

Could I say Vi møter på fortauet instead of Vi møtes på fortauet?

No, Vi møter på fortauet sounds wrong to a native speaker, because møte (without -s) normally needs an object:

Vi møter vennene våre på fortauet. – We meet our friends on the pavement.

If you remove the object, and you mean “we meet each other”, you should use møtes:

Vi møtes på fortauet. – We meet (each other) on the pavement.

So:

møter → typically “meet someone”
møtes → “meet each other”

Why is it på fortauet and not i fortauet or ved fortauet?

Norwegian prepositions with places don’t always match English exactly. With fortau (pavement/sidewalk), you almost always use på:

på fortauet – on the pavement / on the sidewalk

Some rough guidelines:

på is used for surfaces and many open areas:
- på bordet – on the table
- på gata – in the street
- på skolen – at school
- på fortauet – on the pavement
i fortauet would literally mean inside the pavement, which is strange.
ved fortauet (by/next to the pavement) could be grammatical, but it changes the meaning: you’re standing next to it, not on it. It’s not natural in this context for “meeting on the sidewalk”.

So på fortauet is the normal, idiomatic choice.

Why are fortauet, huset, and kafeen all in the definite form?

Norwegian uses the definite form of nouns (with the ending -en / -et / -a) more frequently than English uses the.

In your sentence:

fortauet – the pavement / the sidewalk
huset – the house
kafeen – the café

We use definite here because the speaker has specific places in mind, known to both speaker and listener:

på fortauet foran huset – on the pavement in front of the house (the one we both know)
til kafeen – to the café (again, a particular one we both know or have mentioned before)

Norwegian marks definiteness mostly on the noun itself rather than with a separate word like English the:

et hus – a house
huset – the house

So this sentence assumes shared knowledge of that house, that pavement, and that café.

What are the genders and basic forms of fortau, hus, and kafé/kafe?

All three are neuter or masculine nouns, but they behave slightly differently:

fortau (neuter – a pavement/sidewalk)
- Indefinite singular: et fortau
- Definite singular: fortauet
- Indefinite plural: fortau
- Definite plural: fortauene
hus (neuter – a house)
- Indefinite singular: et hus
- Definite singular: huset
- Indefinite plural: hus
- Definite plural: husene
kafé / kafe (usually masculine – a café)
Two common written variants:
- With accent:
  - Indefinite: en kafé
  - Definite: kaféen
- Without accent:
  - Indefinite: en kafe
  - Definite: kafeen

In your sentence you see kafeen, which corresponds to en kafe in the dictionary.

What’s the difference between foran huset and utenfor huset?

Both can be translated as in front of the house, but there’s a nuance:

foran huset – in front of the house (more about position in front of a “front side” or a front area)
utenfor huset – outside the house (emphasises being outside vs inside)

Often both are possible, but:

If you want to stress that you are not inside, you’d use utenfor:
- Vi venter utenfor huset. – We’re waiting outside the house.
If you mean specifically in front of the front side or at the front, foran is more precise:
- Bilen står foran huset. – The car is (parked) in front of the house.

In your sentence, foran huset fits well with a specific meeting point in front of the house, on the sidewalk.

Could I say Vi møtes foran huset på fortauet instead? Does the word order matter?

You can say Vi møtes foran huset på fortauet, and it’s grammatically correct. Both versions are possible:

Vi møtes på fortauet foran huset ...
Vi møtes foran huset på fortauet ...

The meaning is basically the same, but the focus shifts slightly:

på fortauet foran huset: first emphasises on the pavement, then specifies which pavement: the one in front of the house.
foran huset på fortauet: first emphasises in front of the house, then adds on the pavement.

Native speakers would probably prefer your original version, but both are understandable and correct.

Why is it og går sammen til kafeen and not og går vi sammen til kafeen?

In a simple main clause, Norwegian word order is:

Subject – Verb – (other stuff)
Vi går sammen til kafeen.

When you connect two verbs with og that share the same subject, you normally don’t repeat the subject:

Vi møtes ... og går sammen til kafeen.
– We meet ... and (we) walk together to the café.

Saying og går vi sammen would introduce a new main clause and would sound like a change of topic or emphasis, and in most everyday contexts it just sounds odd here.

So the natural pattern is:

Vi [verb1] ... og [verb2] ...
Vi møtes ... og går ...

Can I move sammen and say og går til kafeen sammen? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, you can say both:

Vi møtes ... og går sammen til kafeen.
Vi møtes ... og går til kafeen sammen.

Both mean we walk together to the café. The difference is tiny and mostly about rhythm and emphasis:

går sammen til kafeen – slightly more focus on the fact that you’re together while walking.
går til kafeen sammen – slightly more focus on going to the café, and adding that you’re doing this together.

Both are perfectly normal; native speakers use both word orders.

Does går always mean “walk”, or can it also mean just “go”?

Gå / går can mean both to walk and to go, depending on context.

Physically walking (the usual meaning):
- Vi går til kafeen. – We walk to the café.
General “go” meaning, more abstract or idiomatic:
- Hvordan går det? – How’s it going?
- Det går bra. – It’s going well.
- Filmen går på kino. – The movie is showing at the cinema.

If you want to emphasise “going” in a general sense (especially by car, bus, plane, etc.), you often use dra / drar or other verbs:

Vi drar til kafeen. – We’re going (heading) to the café.
Vi kjører til kafeen. – We drive to the café.

In your sentence, går sammen til kafeen is most naturally understood as walking together to the café.

The sentence is in the present tense. Does Vi møtes ... og går ... refer to the present or the future?

Norwegian present tense is often used for planned future events, just like in English:

English: We’re meeting on the sidewalk and walking together to the café.
Norwegian: Vi møtes på fortauet ... og går sammen til kafeen.

Depending on context, this Norwegian sentence can mean:

A habitual action / general statement:
- We (usually) meet on the pavement and walk together to the café.
A planned event in the (near) future:
- (Tomorrow) we’re meeting on the pavement and then walking together to the café.

If you want to be more explicitly future‑oriented, you can add skal:

Vi skal møtes på fortauet ... og gå sammen til kafeen. – We’re going to meet ... and walk ...

Why is it til kafeen and not på kafeen or i kafeen?

The preposition changes the meaning:

til kafeen – to the café (movement towards the café)
på kafeen – at the café (being there, usually inside or as a guest)
i kafeen – in the café (physically inside the building)

So:

Vi går sammen til kafeen. – We walk together to the café.
Vi sitter på kafeen. – We’re at the café (having coffee etc.).
Det er mange folk i kafeen. – There are many people in the café.

In your sentence, the key idea is the movement from the house to the café, so til is the correct choice.

Is kafeen the same as kaféen? Which spelling is correct?

Both forms are accepted, but they correspond to slightly different dictionary entries:

kafé (with accent) → kaféen in the definite form.
kafe (without accent) → kafeen in the definite form.

In practice:

Many people write kafé / kaféen.
Others write kafe / kafeen.

Both are common and understood everywhere. Your sentence uses kafeen (without accent), which is perfectly fine.

What does sammen add to the sentence? Could we just say ... og går til kafeen?

Sammen means together.

Vi går til kafeen. – We go/walk to the café.
Vi går sammen til kafeen. – We go/walk together to the café.

Without sammen, it could still be understood that you go together (because the subject is vi = we), but sammen makes it explicit and can contrast with other possibilities (e.g. going separately).

So yes, you can say:

Vi møtes på fortauet foran huset og går til kafeen.

It’s correct, but sammen makes it clearer that you don’t split up after meeting.