Breakdown of Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
Questions & Answers about Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
Noen ganger literally means “some times” (as in “on some occasions”).
In practice, noen ganger and av og til both mean “sometimes”, and in most contexts you can use either one. Small nuances:
- Noen ganger can sound a bit more neutral or slightly more “countable” (as if you’re thinking of distinct occasions).
- Av og til literally means “from and to”, like saying “once in a while”.
In this sentence both would work:
- Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
- Av og til er sannheten vond for barna.
The meaning is essentially the same: Sometimes the truth is painful for the children.
Norwegian is a V2 language (verb-second), like German. This means:
- The finite verb (here er) must be the second element in a main clause.
So in:
- Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
- 1st element: Noen ganger (an adverbial = “sometimes”)
- 2nd element: er (the verb)
- 3rd element: sannheten (the subject)
Noen ganger sannheten er vond… is incorrect because the verb is not in second position.
You could also say:
- Sannheten er noen ganger vond for barna.
Here the subject comes first, but er is still in second place:
- Sannheten (subject)
- er (verb)
- noen ganger (adverbial)
Norwegian uses a suffix to mark the definite form (“the”).
- sannhet = truth (indefinite)
- sannheten = the truth (definite)
In English, you add “the” in front of the noun; in Norwegian, you usually attach -en (for masculine/feminine) or -et (for neuter) to the end.
So sannheten literally is “truth-the”, which corresponds to English “the truth”.
That’s why the sentence has sannheten: we’re talking about the truth in general, not just “truth” as an abstract, indefinite thing.
The noun sannhet is grammatically feminine (though many speakers treat many feminine nouns as masculine in everyday speech).
Adjectives in Norwegian agree partly with the gender and number of the noun:
- Masculine/feminine singular: vond
- Neuter singular: vondt
- Plural (all genders): vonde
Since sannheten is feminine singular, the adjective is:
- sannheten er vond (not vondt, not vonde)
So the agreement is:
- sannheten (feminine definite singular)
- vond (masc/fem singular form of the adjective)
Both vond and dårlig can be translated as “bad”, but they are used in different ways:
vond:
- “painful”, “hurtful”, “unpleasant”, “emotionally or physically painful”
- Example: Det gjør vondt. – It hurts.
- In this sentence, it suggests the truth is emotionally painful for the children.
dårlig:
- “bad” in the sense of “of low quality”, “not good”, “sick/unwell”
- Examples: dårlig mat (bad food), jeg føler meg dårlig (I feel unwell).
So Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna. implies that the truth can hurt the children emotionally, not that the truth is “of poor quality” (which would sound strange).
In this context, vond is primarily emotional:
- Think “painful”, “hurtful”, “hard to deal with”, “tough to hear”.
Vond can describe:
- Physical pain: Jeg har vondt i hodet. – I have a headache / My head hurts.
- Emotional pain: Det var en vond opplevelse. – That was a painful experience.
Here, because it’s about the truth and children, it is clearly about emotional pain: some truths are hard for children to hear or accept.
Both for and til can sometimes be translated as “for”, but they are used differently.
- for often means “for, for the sake of, in relation to, from the perspective of”.
- til often means “to, towards, in order to”, or “for” when you’re giving something to someone (a recipient).
In this sentence:
- vond for barna = painful *for the children
→ It describes how the truth *feels to them.
Using til here (vond til barna) would be wrong; til doesn’t fit this “from their perspective / in relation to them” meaning.
Similar examples:
- Det er vanskelig for meg. – It is difficult for me.
- Han er snill mot barna. – He is kind to the children. (Different preposition again!)
Barn is a neuter noun and is irregular:
- Singular indefinite: et barn – a child
- Singular definite: barnet – the child
- Plural indefinite: barn – children
- Plural definite: barna – the children
So barna means “the children”.
In the sentence:
- for barna = for the children
It’s already definite; you don’t add another article in front (you don’t say de barna unless you are further specifying them, like “those children” or “the children (we already talked about)”).
No, not in this meaning.
- Noen ganger = “some times / sometimes” (plural: times, occasions)
- Noen gang (singular) means “ever” in questions or negatives, like:
- Har du noen gang vært i Norge? – Have you ever been to Norway?
- Jeg har aldri noen gang sett noe sånt. – I have never ever seen anything like that.
So:
- Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna. – Sometimes the truth is painful for the children. ✅
- Noen gang er sannheten vond for barna. ❌ (ungrammatical/unnatural in standard Norwegian)
You can say Noen ganger er sannheten for barna vond, and it is grammatically possible, but:
- The most natural, neutral word order is:
Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
When you move for barna right after sannheten, it may sound a bit more marked or stylistic, as if you’re slightly emphasizing “for the children” or creating a heavier phrase “sannheten for barna” (= “the truth for the children”) and then adding vond at the end.
For everyday speech and neutral style, stick with:
- Noen ganger er sannheten vond for barna.
You mainly need to add ikke (not). A simple natural option:
- Sannheten er ikke alltid vond for barna.
– The truth is not always painful for the children.
If you want to keep noen ganger, you might say:
- Noen ganger er ikke sannheten vond for barna.
– Sometimes the truth is not painful for the children.
Note:
- ikke usually comes right after the verb in main clauses, unless something is emphasized or moved for style.