Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Hun blander kaffe og melk, men jeg drikker kaffen svart. - She mixes coffee and milk, but I drink my coffee black.

kaffe = coffee (indefinite / general / an unspecified amount)
kaffen = the coffee (definite / a specific coffee, or coffee as a known/generic thing)

In Hun blander kaffe og melk, kaffe and melk are just some coffee and some milk, not specified.

In jeg drikker kaffen svart, kaffen is definite. It normally refers to:

the particular coffee that is being talked about in this situation, or
coffee as a general, known drink (like Kaffen er dyr i Norge – Coffee is expensive in Norway).

So the sentence can mean that this/that coffee she is mixing is what I drink black, or more generally that I take my coffee black.

Can I say Jeg drikker kaffe svart instead of Jeg drikker kaffen svart?

You can say Jeg drikker kaffe svart, and people will understand you. The nuance is:

Jeg drikker kaffen svart
– very idiomatic; can refer to a specific coffee or to how you generally take coffee.
Jeg drikker kaffe svart
– also possible; sounds a bit more like a general habit (I drink coffee black), but is less common than Jeg drikker svart kaffe for that meaning.

If you want the most natural-sounding version for a general preference, Norwegians very often say:

Jeg drikker svart kaffe.
(I drink black coffee.)

What is the difference between Jeg drikker kaffen svart and Jeg drikker svart kaffe?

Both can describe coffee drunk without milk, but the structure and focus differ.

Jeg drikker kaffen svart.
- Structure: [subject] + [verb] + [object] + [object complement]
- kaffen is the object, svart describes how the coffee is when you drink it.
- Similar to English: I drink the coffee black.
- Often used either:
  - for this particular coffee, or
  - as a description of how you take coffee in general.
Jeg drikker svart kaffe.
- Structure: [subject] + [verb] + [adjective] + [noun]
- svart is an attributive adjective before kaffe.
- Similar to English: I drink black coffee.
- Focus is more on the type of coffee (black coffee) that you drink.

In everyday conversation, both can express a general preference; which one is used often depends on context and personal style.

Why is svart at the very end of the sentence?

In jeg drikker kaffen svart, the word order is:

jeg (subject)
drikker (verb)
kaffen (direct object)
svart (adjective describing the object)

Here svart is not just describing coffee as a general property; it describes the resulting state of the coffee when it’s drunk – the coffee is black when I drink it.

Norwegian often puts such an adjective after the object, like English:

Jeg drikker kaffen svart. – I drink the coffee black.
Vi malte huset rødt. – We painted the house red.
Hun serverer fisken kald. – She serves the fish cold.

So svart naturally comes at the end because it is an object complement (a description of the object) rather than an adjective before the noun.

Why is it svart and not svarte or something else?

The adjective svart (black) has different forms in Bokmål:

Indefinite:
- Masculine/feminine: svart
- Neuter: svart
- Plural: svarte
Definite (and after a possessive): svarte

Examples:

en svart bil – a black car
et svart bord – a black table
svarte biler – black cars
den svarte bilen – the black car

In Jeg drikker kaffen svart, svart is used as an object complement in its base form. In this use (after verbs like drikke, male, servere, etc., describing the resulting state of the object), Norwegian uses the base form:

drikker kaffen svart – drink the coffee black
maler veggen hvit – paint the wall white
serverer kjøttet rått – serve the meat raw

So you do not say Jeg drikker kaffen svarte in this structure.

I’ve also seen sort used for “black”. What’s the difference between svart and sort?

svart and sort are near-synonyms in Bokmål and both mean black.

svart – very common in everyday speech across the country.
sort – also correct; can feel:
- slightly more formal or old-fashioned in some contexts, or
- more common in some dialects and fixed expressions.

You could say:

Jeg drikker kaffen svart.
Jeg drikker kaffen sort.

Both are grammatically correct. As a learner, using svart is perfectly safe and very natural.

What is the verb blander, and how is it conjugated?

blander is the present tense of the verb å blande (to mix).

Basic conjugation in Bokmål:

Infinitive: å blande – to mix
Present: blander – mix / mixes, is mixing
- Hun blander kaffe og melk. – She mixes coffee and milk.
Preterite (simple past): blandet or blanda – mixed
- Hun blandet kaffe og melk.
Present perfect: har blandet or har blanda – has mixed
- Hun har blandet kaffe og melk.

It’s a regular verb: infinitive -e, present -er, past -et (or colloquial -a).

Why is there no article before kaffe and melk? Why not en kaffe or en melk?

kaffe and melk are often used as mass nouns (uncountable) when you talk about them as substances:

Hun blander kaffe og melk.
– She mixes coffee and milk (some coffee, some milk).

In this mass-meaning, you usually do not use the indefinite article:

Jeg liker kaffe. – I like coffee.
Vi kjøper melk. – We buy milk.

You do use an article when you think of a unit (e.g. a cup of coffee) rather than the substance:

en kaffe – a coffee (often: a cup of coffee)
en melk – a milk (for example, a carton of milk in some contexts)

So in your sentence, you are just talking about coffee and milk as substances being mixed, so no article is needed.

What’s the difference between å blande kaffe og melk and å blande kaffe med melk?

Both are possible, but there’s a slight nuance:

blande kaffe og melk
- Lists two things that are being mixed: coffee and milk.
- Very natural in general descriptions.
blande kaffe med melk
- Grammatically fine.
- Emphasizes the idea mix coffee with (some) milk – adding milk to coffee.

In many contexts they can be used interchangeably:

Hun blander kaffe og melk.
Hun blander kaffe med melk.

Both will usually be understood as She mixes coffee and milk.

What grammatical gender do kaffe and melk have, and what are their definite forms?

In standard Bokmål:

kaffe
- Usually masculine.
- Indefinite singular: (en) kaffe
- Definite singular: kaffen
  - Jeg drikker kaffen svart.
melk
- Typically treated as masculine in Bokmål when a gender is needed.
- Indefinite singular as a substance: melk (normally no article)
- Definite singular: melken (or melka in more colloquial style)

In your sentence, both kaffe and melk are used without articles because they are mass nouns there.

How does men affect the word order? Why is it men jeg drikker, not men drikker jeg?

men is a coordinating conjunction (like og = and), joining two main clauses:

Hun blander kaffe og melk, men jeg drikker kaffen svart.

Each side of men has normal main-clause word order:

Hun blander kaffe og melk. – subject Hun, verb blander.
Jeg drikker kaffen svart. – subject Jeg, verb drikker.

With coordinating conjunctions like og, men, eller, you do not invert subject and verb simply because of the conjunction:

Hun blander kaffe og melk, og jeg drikker kaffen svart.
Hun blander kaffe og melk, men jeg drikker te.

Inversion (drikker jeg) typically happens after certain adverbs or in some questions, not after men in a normal statement.

What is the difference between hun and henne?

They are two forms of the same pronoun, like English she and her:

hun – subject form (she)
- Hun blander kaffe og melk. – She mixes coffee and milk.
henne – object form (her)
- Jeg ser henne. – I see her.
- Kaffen er til henne. – The coffee is for her.

Similarly:

jeg / meg – I / me
du / deg – you / you (object)
han / ham – he / him

In your sentence, hun is the subject of the first clause, so the subject form is used.