En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige.

A good explanation of an exception makes the children calmer and more patient.

Breakdown of En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige.

• en: a
• barnet: the child
• og: and
• god: good
• gjøre: to make
• mer: more
• et: an
• tålmodig: patient
• på: of
• roligere: calmer
• unntaket: the exception
• forklaringen: the explanation

Questions & Answers about En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige.

In this sentence, which part is the subject, which is the verb, and which is the object?

The sentence En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige. breaks down like this:

• Subject: En god forklaring på et unntak
  (“A good explanation of an exception” – this is what is doing the action)
• Verb: gjør
  (present tense of å gjøre, “to make”)
• Object: barna
  (“the children” – they are affected by the action)
• Predicative complement (result): roligere og mer tålmodige
  (describes the new state of barna – “calmer and more patient”)

So literally: “A good explanation of an exception makes the children calmer and more patient.”

Why is it en god forklaring and not et god forklaring?

Because forklaring is a common-gender noun, not a neuter noun.

• forklaring = “explanation”
  
  • Indefinite singular: en forklaring
  • Definite singular: forklaringen

The article en is used for common gender nouns in Bokmål (traditionally “masculine/feminine” combined).

The adjective god agrees with:

• common gender singular: en god forklaring
• neuter singular: et godt svar
• plural (any gender): gode forklaringer

So et god forklaring would be ungrammatical, because et would require a neuter noun and a neuter form of the adjective (godt).

What does på mean in forklaring på et unntak, and why is it på and not om or av?

Here på literally means “on”, but in this combination it functions more like English “of”:

• en forklaring på noe = “an explanation of something”

This is a fixed collocation in Norwegian. Some common patterns:

• forklaring på problemet – explanation of the problem
• årsak til problemet – cause of the problem
• ideer om problemet – ideas about the problem

Why not om or av?

• forklaring om noe = “explanation about something”
  This would sound more like a general explanation/discussion on a topic, not about a specific exception.
• forklaring av noe is possible in some contexts (often more technical: explanation/analysis of a text, a process, a drawing, etc.), but for an exception or a situation, forklaring på et unntak is the most natural.

So forklaring på et unntak is the normal way to say “explanation of an exception.”

Why is it et unntak? What gender is unntak, and how do you form its plural?

unntak (“exception”) is a neuter noun.

Its forms in Bokmål:

• Indefinite singular: et unntak – “an exception”
• Definite singular: unntaket – “the exception”
• Indefinite plural: unntak – “exceptions”
• Definite plural: unntakene – “the exceptions”

Notice that the indefinite plural is the same as the singular: unntak.

That’s why you get et unntak and not en unntak.

What does gjør mean here, and how is å gjøre conjugated?

In this sentence, gjør means “makes”:

• gjør barna roligere = “makes the children calmer”

It’s the present tense of the verb å gjøre (“to do, to make”).

Basic conjugation of å gjøre in Bokmål:

• Infinitive: å gjøre
• Present: gjør – Jeg gjør det nå. (“I’m doing it now.”)
• Preterite (past): gjorde – Jeg gjorde det i går. (“I did it yesterday.”)
• Past participle: gjort – Jeg har gjort det. (“I have done it.”)

A useful pattern:

• gjøre noen + adjektiv = “make someone + adjective”
  
  • gjør meg glad – makes me happy
  • gjør barna roligere – makes the children calmer

Why is it barna and not barnene or just barn?

Because barna is the correct definite plural form of barn (“child”).

barn is a neuter noun with somewhat irregular forms:

• Indefinite singular: et barn – “a child”
• Definite singular: barnet – “the child”
• Indefinite plural: barn – “children”
• Definite plural: barna – “the children”

There is no form barnene in standard Bokmål; that would be wrong.

In the sentence, we want “the children”, so we must use barna, not just barn:

• barn = children (in general)
• barna = the specific children we are talking about

Why is it roligere and not mer rolig?

Both are theoretically possible, but roligere is the normal comparative form of rolig (“calm”).

For most shorter adjectives, Norwegian uses the -ere ending for the comparative:

• rolig → roligere – calm → calmer
• snill → snillere – kind → kinder
• vakker → vakrere – beautiful → more beautiful

You can say mer rolig, but for adjectives like rolig this sounds less natural; roligere is the standard and most idiomatic choice.

Superlative would be:

• roligst / den roligste – calmest / the calmest

Why is it mer tålmodige instead of tålmodigere?

The base adjective is tålmodig (“patient”).

For many longer (multi-syllable) adjectives, Norwegian prefers the analytic comparative with mer:

• tålmodig → mer tålmodig(e) – patient → more patient
• interessant → mer interessant(e) – interesting → more interesting
• komfortabel → mer komfortabel(e) – comfortable → more comfortable

So the most natural way to say “more patient” is:

• mer tålmodig (singular)
• mer tålmodige (plural, like in the sentence: barna → tålmodige)

You might occasionally see or hear tålmodigere, but mer tålmodig(e) is the standard and clearly more common form.

Why does tålmodige have an -e at the end, but roligere doesn’t?

Two different things are happening:

1. tålmodige

   • Here the comparative is formed with mer, so the adjective itself stays in the positive form, just inflected for number/definiteness.
   • barna is definite plural → adjectives agreeing with it get -e:
     • tålmodig (base form)
     • tålmodige barn – patient children
     • barna er tålmodige – the children are patient
     • barna er mer tålmodige – the children are more patient

2. roligere

   • This is the synthetic comparative form of rolig (calm → calmer).
   • In the comparative, adjectives in Bokmål normally don’t change for gender or number:
     • en roligere gutt – a calmer boy
     • et roligere barn – a calmer child
     • barna er roligere – the children are calmer

So:

• tålmodige has -e because it agrees with barna (definite plural) and is still in the basic adjective form after mer.
• roligere is already a comparative form and does not take extra endings for plural or gender.

Can the word order change? For example, could I say En god forklaring gjør barna på et unntak roligere og mer tålmodige?

You cannot move på et unntak into the middle like that.

In en god forklaring på et unntak, the prepositional phrase på et unntak belongs tightly to forklaring and should stay next to it.

Correct versions keep forklaring på et unntak together:

• En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige.
• En god forklaring på et unntak gjør at barna blir roligere og mer tålmodige.
• En god forklaring på et unntak gjør barna mer tålmodige og roligere. (you can swap the two adjectives)

But:

• En god forklaring gjør barna på et unntak roligere …
  sounds like “A good explanation makes the children on an exception calmer…”, which doesn’t make sense.

So: you can change the order of roligere and mer tålmodige, or expand the structure after gjør, but forklaring på et unntak should not be split.

Could I replace gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige with something like roer ned barna? Would the meaning change?

You could say:

• En god forklaring på et unntak roer barna ned.

This means “A good explanation of an exception calms the children down.”

The difference:

• gjør barna roligere og mer tålmodige
  
  • explicitly mentions two results: calmer and more patient
  • emphasizes a change of state and development of patience
• roer barna ned
  
  • focuses mainly on calming them down in the moment
  • does not say anything directly about patience

So roer ned is a good, natural verb here, but it is a bit less specific than listing the two adjectives.