Breakdown of Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
Questions & Answers about Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
Lørdag is a masculine noun, so its definite singular form is lørdagen (literally “the Saturday”).
Norwegian often uses the definite singular to talk about things in a general, habitual way:
- Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
= Saturday is quiet in the neighborhood. / Saturdays are quiet in the neighborhood. (as a rule)
This is similar to English sentences like:
- The tiger is a dangerous animal. (meaning tigers in general)
So lørdagen here does not have to mean just one specific Saturday; it can describe Saturdays in general, depending on context.
You could say it, but it sounds odd or incomplete to native speakers. In practice, people usually choose one of these:
Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
(generic / habitual or possibly a specific Saturday, depending on context)Lørdager er stille i nabolaget.
(indefinite plural: Saturdays are quiet in the neighborhood.)På lørdager er det stille i nabolaget.
(On Saturdays it is quiet in the neighborhood. – very natural for a general habit)
The bare singular lørdag as a subject (Lørdag er stille…) is not how Norwegians usually express this idea.
Two very natural options are:
På lørdager er det stille i nabolaget.
Literally: On Saturdays it is quiet in the neighborhood.Lørdager er stille i nabolaget.
Literally: Saturdays are quiet in the neighborhood.
The original Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget can have the same meaning in the right context, but på lørdager makes the “on Saturdays (in general)” meaning extra clear.
It can mean either; context decides:
Specific Saturday (today / this coming one)
- Said while looking out the window on a particular Saturday:
Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
= This Saturday is quiet in the neighborhood.
- Said while looking out the window on a particular Saturday:
General habit / typical Saturday
- Said as a general description of the neighborhood:
Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
= Saturday is quiet in the neighborhood / Saturdays are quiet here.
- Said as a general description of the neighborhood:
Because of this ambiguity, Norwegians often choose På lørdager er det stille i nabolaget when they only want the general, habitual meaning.
Nabolag (neuter noun) = neighborhood
Definite singular: nabolaget = the neighborhood
We use the definite form nabolaget when both speaker and listener know which neighborhood is meant (for example, the one they live in).
Compare:
Det er et rolig nabolag.
= It is a quiet neighborhood. (some neighborhood, not specifically identified)Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
= Saturday is quiet in the neighborhood. (the local, known neighborhood)
So both lørdagen and nabolaget have the definite article attached as a suffix: -en (masculine) and -et (neuter). Norwegian usually does not use a separate word for “the” here; it’s built into the noun.
Both i and på can translate as “in / at / on”, but they’re used with different kinds of nouns and are often idiomatic.
- i nabolaget is the normal expression:
literally “in the neighborhood”, meaning inside that area.
We usually use:
i for being inside areas, rooms, cities, neighborhoods, etc.
- i huset (in the house)
- i byen (in the city)
- i nabolaget (in the neighborhood)
på for surfaces, islands, certain buildings, events, and some idioms:
- på bordet (on the table)
- på skolen (at school)
- på kino (at the movies)
So på nabolaget would sound wrong here.
Both can be translated as quiet, but with different nuances:
stille
- Focus on little or no sound: quiet, silent, still.
- Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
= It’s acoustically quiet; not much noise.
rolig
- Focus on calmness, lack of stress or disturbance: calm, peaceful.
- Lørdagen er rolig i nabolaget.
= Saturdays are calm/relaxed there (not hectic, not much happening).
In many contexts both are possible, but stille strongly suggests low noise level; rolig suggests a calm atmosphere.
In Lørdagen er stille, stille is an adjective functioning like English quiet in Saturday is quiet.
With the verb å være (er = is/are), you link a subject to an adjective:
- Lørdagen er stille. – Saturday is quiet.
- Huset er stort. – The house is big.
- Barnet er trøtt. – The child is tired.
Norwegian doesn’t add endings like -ly here; the base form stille is used. (The same form stille can also function as an adverb in other contexts, but here it’s clearly describing lørdagen, so it’s adjectival.)
No. In standard Norwegian, names of days are not normally capitalized; they are written with a lowercase letter, because they’re treated as common nouns:
- mandag, tirsdag, onsdag, torsdag, fredag, lørdag, søndag
In your sentence, Lørdagen has a capital L only because it is the first word of the sentence. If it appeared in the middle of a sentence, it would normally be written lørdagen.
Yes, but you must respect the Norwegian V2 rule (the finite verb must be the second element in main clauses).
Original:
- Lørdagen er stille i nabolaget.
Subject – Verb – Adjective – Prepositional phrase
If you move the prepositional phrase to the front, the verb still has to stay in second position:
- I nabolaget er lørdagen stille.
(In the neighborhood, Saturday is quiet.)
This is grammatical, but it has a slightly marked, more “literary” or contrastive feel. More common, especially for a neutral statement about place, would be something like:
- I nabolaget er det stille på lørdager.
(In the neighborhood, it is quiet on Saturdays.)
Here det is a dummy subject, similar to English “it” in It is quiet here.
Approximate pronunciation (standard Eastern Norwegian):
Lørdagen – IPA: [ˈløːɾdɑːɡən]
- ø like the vowel in French peu or German schön.
- r is a tapped r, like a quick d-tap.
- Rough English approximation: “LURR-dah-gen” (with a rounded u/ø sound).
nabolaget – IPA: [ˈnɑːbʊˌlɑːɡə(t)] (final t often weak)
- Rough English approximation: “NAH-boh-lah-geh(t)”.
- Stress on the first syllable NAH, and a secondary stress on LAH.
Exact sounds vary by dialect, but these will be understood everywhere.