Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Jeg merker at humøret hennes blir bedre når hun tegner lenge og henger tegningen på veggen. - I notice that her mood gets better when she draws for a long time and hangs the drawing on the wall.

Jeg merker at …
- Slightly more direct, often about something you feel or experience.
- Can sound a bit more informal and immediate.
Jeg legger merke til at …
- Literally “I lay notice to that …”
- Can sound a bit more neutral or observational, like you’re consciously paying attention.

In most everyday situations, you can use either jeg merker at or jeg legger merke til at without a big difference in meaning.

Why is the word order at humøret hennes blir bedre and not something like at blir humøret hennes bedre?

In Norwegian:

Main clauses (independent sentences) usually have verb in 2nd position (V2 word order).
- Example: Humøret hennes blir bedre.
  (Humøret = 1st element, blir = 2nd element.)
Subordinate clauses (introduced by at, når, fordi, hvis, etc.) do not follow the V2 rule.
The order is typically:
- [subordinator] + subject + verb + (rest)

So:

at humøret hennes blir bedre is:
- at (subordinator “that”)
- humøret hennes (subject)
- blir (verb)
- bedre (complement)

✗ at blir humøret hennes bedre is wrong in normal Norwegian because it puts the verb before the subject in a subordinate clause.

Why do we say humøret hennes and not just humør hennes or hennes humør?

Humøret hennes literally means “the mood of her / her mood”.

Key points:

Humøret is the definite form:
- humør = mood (indefinite)
- humøret = the mood (definite)
Hennes is the 3rd person singular possessive (“her” / “hers”).
In Norwegian, with 3rd‑person possessives (hans, hennes, deres), the most neutral, common pattern is:
- [definite noun] + [possessive]
  - humøret hennes = her mood
  - boka hans = his book

Humør hennes without the definite ending is basically wrong in standard Norwegian.

You can say hennes humør, but:

hennes humør is grammatically correct but sounds more emphatic or contrastive:
- like “her mood” (as opposed to someone else’s).
humøret hennes is the normal, everyday form.

Why is humøret in the definite form when we already have hennes? Isn’t that “double definiteness”?

Yes, this is exactly the phenomenon called double definiteness, and it’s normal in Norwegian.

Pattern with 3rd‑person possessive:

[definite noun] + [possessive]
- humøret hennes = her mood
- bilen hans = his car
- vennene deres = their friends

The noun itself takes the definite ending (-en, -a, -et) and you add the possessive after it. This is standard grammar.

So humøret hennes is correct and natural, not redundant.

Why is it blir bedre (“becomes better / gets better”) and not er bedre (“is better”)?

blir = “becomes / gets”, expresses change or process.
er = “is”, expresses a state.

In the sentence:

humøret hennes blir bedre
= her mood gets better (it changes from worse → better).

If you said:

humøret hennes er bedre
= her mood is better (simply describing the current situation, maybe compared to yesterday, but not focusing on the process of improvement).

Because the sentence describes what happens when she draws and then hangs the drawing, the change verb blir is the natural choice.

What’s the difference between når and da for “when”, and why is når hun tegner lenge … correct here?

Both når and da can mean “when”, but they are used in different contexts.

når:
- Used for repeated / general situations, like “whenever”.
- Also used for future time.
- Example:
  - Humøret hennes blir bedre når hun tegner.
    = Her mood gets better whenever she draws.
da:
- Used for one specific event in the past.
- Example:
  - Humøret hennes ble bedre da hun tegnet i går.
    = Her mood got better when she drew yesterday.

In your sentence, we are talking about a general pattern (this happens whenever she draws like that), so når is correct:

… når hun tegner lenge og henger tegningen på veggen.
= … when(ever) she draws for a long time and hangs the drawing on the wall.

Why is it hun tegner lenge and not something like hun tegner for lenge or hun tegner i lang tid?

All three are grammatical, but they mean slightly different things.

hun tegner lenge
- Means “she draws for a long time”.
- Neutral, just describing duration.
hun tegner i lang tid
- Also “she draws for a long time”.
- Slightly more formal or explicit; you’re emphasizing the time span.
hun tegner for lenge
- Means “she draws too long / for too long”.
- for here means “too”, so this suggests it is excessive.

In the sentence, we don’t want to say she draws too long, just that she draws for a long time, so hun tegner lenge is the natural choice.

What is the role of og in tegner lenge og henger tegningen på veggen? Is this one combined action or two separate ones?

Here, og simply links two separate actions that happen in sequence:

hun tegner lenge – she draws for a long time
(hun) henger tegningen på veggen – (she) hangs the drawing on the wall

Norwegian often omits the repeated subject in the second part when it is the same as in the first:

Full form: når hun tegner lenge og hun henger tegningen på veggen
Natural form: når hun tegner lenge og henger tegningen på veggen

Both actions together describe the condition under which her mood improves.

Why is it henger tegningen på veggen and not henger opp tegningen or some other form?

The verb å henge can be:

Transitive (with a direct object):
hun henger tegningen på veggen
= she hangs the drawing on the wall.
Intransitive (no object):
tegningen henger på veggen
= the drawing is hanging on the wall.

There is also the phrasal verb:

å henge opp (noe) = to hang something up
- hun henger opp tegningen på veggen

Differences:

henger tegningen på veggen
- Perfectly natural, a bit more compact.
henger opp tegningen (på veggen)
- Slightly more explicit, emphasizes the action of putting it up.

In everyday speech, both are used. The sentence just chooses the simpler henger tegningen på veggen.

Why do we say på veggen and not i veggen or til veggen?

Prepositions in Norwegian are often idiomatic. For hanging something on a wall, the natural preposition is på:

på = on (surface contact)
- på bordet = on the table
- på veggen = on the wall

Other options would change the meaning:

i veggen = in the wall (inside the wall, e.g. cables i veggen)
til veggen = to the wall (direction toward the wall, not on the surface)

So to say “on the wall” as in “on the surface of the wall”, you use på veggen.

Why is it tegningen and veggen (definite form) here, and not en tegning and en vegg?

Tegningen and veggen are the definite forms:

tegning → tegningen = the drawing
vegg → veggen = the wall

Reasons:

Tegningen:
- Refers to the specific drawing she has just made.
- There is a clear connection: she draws → that drawing is now hung on the wall.
- So “the drawing” (not “a drawing”) makes sense.
Veggen:
- In a normal context (a room), both the speaker and listener know which wall we’re talking about (one of the room’s walls).
- Norwegian often uses the definite form for such shared, specific objects:
  - Slukk lyset. = Turn off the light.
  - Lukk døra. = Close the door.
  - på veggen. = on the (known) wall.

So tegningen and veggen are definite because they are specific and identifiable in the situation.

Why is the possessive hennes placed after the noun (humøret hennes) while words like min and din often come before the noun (e.g. min bil)?

Norwegian has two main patterns for possessives:

Before the noun (indefinite noun) – common with min, mi, mitt, mine; din, di, ditt, dine; vår, vårt, våre:
- min bil = my car
- din venn = your friend
- våre barn = our children
After the noun (definite noun) – common and preferred with 3rd‑person possessives (hans, hennes, deres):
- bilen min = my car
- vennen din = your friend
- barnet vårt = our child
- bilen hans = his car
- humøret hennes = her mood
- vennene deres = their friends

For hans, hennes, deres, the post‑posed form with definite noun (like humøret hennes) is the normal, neutral form in modern Norwegian.

Forms like hennes humør are possible but more emphatic or contrastive (“her mood”). The everyday choice is humøret hennes.