Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Hun tror at alder ikke alltid sier noe om hvor voksen du er. - She thinks that age does not always say anything about how adult you are.

But in writing and in standard/learner Norwegian, you should include at here. It works much like English "that", but is dropped less often in writing than English "that" is.

Why is it just alder and not en alder or alderen?

Alder is a mass/abstract noun here, referring to the concept of age in general, not to a specific age.

alder = (the concept of) age
en alder = an age (a specific age, e.g. "en alder på 15 år")
alderen = the age (a specific, known age)

In the sentence:

Hun tror at alder ikke alltid sier noe om ...

we are talking about age as a general factor, so Norwegian uses the bare singular (no article). English often uses "age" the same way:

Age doesn’t always say something about how mature you are.

If you said alderen here, it would sound like you were talking about some specific, already-known age, which doesn’t fit the general statement.

Why is the word order alder ikke alltid sier and not something like alder sier ikke alltid after at?

This has to do with Norwegian word order rules in subordinate clauses.

In a main clause, the verb is usually in second position (the V2 rule):
- Alder sier ikke alltid noe om ...
In a subordinate clause introduced by at, the verb does not have to be second. The typical order is:
- Subject – Adverb – Verb
- at alder ikke alltid sier noe om ...

So:

Main clause: Alder sier ikke alltid ...
Subordinate clause: at alder ikke alltid sier ...

Putting ikke alltid after sier here (at alder sier ikke alltid ...) is not wrong, but the neutral, most natural word order in a subordinate clause is subject – adverb – verb:

at alder ikke alltid sier ...

As a learner, you can remember:

Main clause: Verb in second place
Subordinate clause (after at, fordi, hvis, etc.): Subject – (time/negation) – Verb

What exactly does sier noe om mean here? It looks like "says something about", but the English translation is more like "shows" or "indicates".

Literal meaning:

sier noe om = says something about

But in Norwegian, the expression å si (noe) om noe is an idiomatic way to mean:

to reveal something about,
to indicate something about,
to tell you something about.

So:

Alder sier ikke alltid noe om hvor voksen du er.
= Age doesn’t always say anything about / tell you anything about / indicate how mature you are.

Other similar phrases:

Dette sier mye om deg. – This says a lot about you.
Karakterene sier ikke alt om hvor flink du er. – Grades don’t say everything about how good you are.

So the translation "shows" or "is a good indicator of" catches the function of sier noe om, even if the literal words are "say something about".

What is going on in hvor voksen du er? Why use hvor with an adjective like voksen?

In Norwegian, hvor + adjective is used to express degree/how X something is, not only questions like "where":

hvor gammel du er – how old you are
hvor stor det er – how big it is
hvor vanskelig det er – how difficult it is
hvor voksen du er – how mature/grown-up you are

So here:

hvor voksen du er = how mature/grown-up you are

Grammatically, it’s an indirect question clause (or "embedded question"):

Direct question: Hvor voksen er du? – How mature are you?
Embedded: ... om hvor voksen du er. – ... about how mature you are.

Voksen here is an adjective describing du:

du er voksen – you are (a) grown-up / mature
hvor voksen du er – how grown-up/mature you are

In English we would probably say "how mature you are" rather than "how adult you are". Does voksen mean both "adult" and "mature"?

Yes. Voksen has two closely related uses:

Literal, age-based:
- en voksen person – an adult person (not a child)
- voksne – adults
Figurative, about maturity:
- Han er veldig voksen for alderen. – He is very mature for his age.
- Det handler om hvor voksen du er. – It’s about how mature you are.

In hvor voksen du er, the figurative sense "mature" is clearly intended, because the whole sentence says age doesn’t automatically reflect your maturity.

So depending on context, voksen can mean:

"adult" (status/age)
"mature" (behaviour/attitude)

Why does the sentence switch from hun to du? Why not keep hun all the way through?

The shift is intentional and quite natural in Norwegian.

Hun tror – She thinks
... om hvor voksen du er. – ... about how mature you are.

Here, du is a generic "you", like English informal "you" meaning "a person / people in general", for example:

Age doesn’t always say something about how mature you are.
(not you specifically, but people in general)

Norwegian could also use man for generic "one":

Hvor voksen man er. – How mature one is.

Differences:

du: more direct, personal, common in spoken and informal written language.
man: more neutral, a bit more formal or written style.

So these are all possible, with slightly different style:

Hun tror at alder ikke alltid sier noe om hvor voksen du er.
Hun tror at alder ikke alltid sier noe om hvor voksen man er.

Keeping hun inside the clause (... om hvor voksen hun er) would change the meaning: then it’s about her own maturity, not people in general.

Could we say Hun mener at ... or Hun synes at ... instead of Hun tror at ...? What’s the difference?

All three verbs exist, but they’re not interchangeable:

tro
- Literally: to believe (often with an element of uncertainty or assumption).
- Hun tror at ... – She thinks/believes that ... (her belief, not presented as a strongly argued opinion).
mene
- To mean, to have an opinion (often more deliberate, considered).
- Hun mener at alder ikke alltid sier noe om ...
  – She is of the opinion that age doesn’t always say something about ...
synes
- To feel, to think (subjective impression, often about experiences, qualities).
- Hun synes at alder ikke alltid sier noe om ...
  – She feels/thinks (from her subjective point of view) that age doesn’t always say something about ...

In everyday speech, tro, synes, and mene can all sometimes be translated as "think" in English, but:

tro – belief/assumption ("I think this is true, but I’m not 100% sure")
mene – considered opinion ("My view is that ...")
synes – personal feeling/assessment ("I find that ...")

In this sentence, tror is very natural, but mener and synes could also be used, with slightly different nuance in how strongly and how subjectively she holds the view.

Why is it ikke alltid and not alltid ikke? Is there a difference in meaning between ikke alltid and alltid ikke?

Yes, there is a similar contrast to English "not always" vs "always not":

ikke alltid = not always
- There are some exceptions; sometimes yes, sometimes no.
- Alder sier ikke alltid noe om ...
  – Age doesn’t always say something about ...
alltid ikke = always not (very unusual / almost never used like this)
- Would mean something like "always never", but this word order is basically not idiomatic in modern Norwegian for this meaning.

So:

ikke alltid is the natural way to express "not always".
alltid ikke sounds wrong in this kind of sentence.

The logic:

ikke alltid negates the frequency:
- Not every time → sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn’t.
If you really wanted to say something like "it never says anything", you’d use:
- Alder sier aldri noe om ... – Age never says anything about ...

So the sentence’s key idea is: "not always" (there are exceptions), which is why ikke alltid is used.

Is ikke always placed before alltid like this, or can the order change?

In this expression, ikke alltid is the normal, natural order.

General tendencies:

ikke (not) usually comes before adverbs of frequency like alltid (always), ofte (often), sjelden (seldom) when you want to negate the frequency:
- Jeg er ikke alltid trøtt. – I am not always tired.
- Han kommer ikke ofte. – He doesn’t come often.
- Vi spiser ikke sjelden der. – We don’t eat there rarely. (This particular one is odd stylistically, but shows the pattern.)

Changing the order often either:

sounds unnatural, or
changes the nuance/meaning.

So you should learn ikke alltid as the standard way to say "not always", just like in this sentence:

alder ikke alltid sier noe om ...

Is it possible to say Hun tror alder ikke alltid sier noe om ... without at in standard Norwegian?

In colloquial spoken Norwegian, you will sometimes hear at dropped:

Jeg tror det går bra. → Jeg tror det går bra. (here it’s usually kept)
Jeg tror (at) han kommer senere. – Many people say it both ways.

In your sentence, it can be dropped in informal speech:

Hun tror alder ikke alltid sier noe om hvor voksen du er.

But in standard written Norwegian and for learners, it is better and more natural to keep at:

✅ Hun tror at alder ikke alltid sier noe om hvor voksen du er.

As a rule for learners:
After verbs like tro, mene, synes, vite, håpe, etc., include at in writing unless you have a very good reason not to.

What grammatical forms does voksen have? Is it always the same, or does it change?

Voksen can be both an adjective and a noun, and it has different forms.

As an adjective ("grown-up", "mature")

Basic form (masc/fem/sg indefinite): voksen
- en voksen mann – a grown-up man
- hun er voksen – she is grown-up/mature
Neuter singular: voksent
- et voksent barn – a very mature child (for its age)
Plural (all genders): voksne
- voksne mennesker – grown-up people / adults

As a noun ("adult")

Singular: en voksen
- en voksen – an adult
Definite singular: den voksne
- den voksne – the adult
Plural: voksne
- voksne – adults
Definite plural: de voksne
- de voksne – the adults

In the sentence hvor voksen du er, it’s the adjective form describing du (you): "how grown-up/mature you are".