Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Som barn drømte hun om å bo på en annen planet med to måner i et stille univers. - As a child she dreamed of living on another planet with two moons in a quiet universe.

You could say «Som et barn», but that would sound more specific or contrastive (e.g. “as a (little) child, not as a teenager”), and is much less common in this kind of sentence.

Why is it «Som barn drømte hun» and not «Som barn hun drømte»?

Norwegian is a V2 language (verb-second), like German. That means:

In main clauses, the finite verb must be the second element in the sentence.

Here the elements are:

Som barn (adverbial phrase, “as a child”)
drømte (past tense of drømme)
hun (subject, “she”)

So «Som barn drømte hun ...» is correct: adverbial → verb → subject.

«Som barn hun drømte ...» violates the V2 rule (it puts the subject in second place instead of the verb), so it is ungrammatical.

What is the difference between «drømte hun om å bo» and just «drømte hun å bo»? Why do we need «om»?

The verb drømme (“to dream”) normally takes the preposition om when talking about what you dream of/about:

drømme om noe = to dream of/about something
drømme om å gjøre noe = to dream of doing something

So:

Hun drømte om å bo på en annen planet.
= She dreamed of living on another planet.

Without «om», «drømme å ...» is not idiomatic Norwegian here and sounds wrong to native speakers.

Think:

English: to dream of living
Norwegian: å drømme om å bo

Why is it «å bo» and not «å leve» or «å være»?

Norwegian has several verbs that translate to “live” or “be” in English, but they are used differently:

bo = to live (reside, have one’s home)
- å bo på en annen planet = to live (have your home) on another planet
leve = to live (be alive, be living one’s life)
- å leve på en annen planet = to live (exist) on another planet
være = to be
- å være på en annen planet = to be on another planet (no nuance of “residence”)

Here, we’re imagining having your home on another planet, so «bo» is the natural choice.

Why is it «på en annen planet» and not «i en annen planet»?

The choice of preposition in Norwegian is often fixed and idiomatic.

på en planet = on a planet
(we imagine being on the surface of the planet)

You would use i (“in”) if you are inside something like a room, a building, a city, a country, etc.:

i et hus = in a house
i en by = in a city
i Norge = in Norway

For celestial bodies:

på en planet, på jorda, på månen = on a planet / on Earth / on the Moon

So «på en annen planet» is the normal, idiomatic expression.

What is going on with «annen»? How is it different from «annet» and «andre»?

«Annen» means “other / another / different”, and it agrees in gender and number with the noun:

en annen planet (masculine/feminine, singular)
et annet hus (neuter, singular)
andre planeter (plural)

In this sentence:

planet is an en-word (en planet), so we use annen:
- en annen planet = another planet

So:

annen → with en-words, singular
annet → with et-words, singular
andre → for all plurals (both genders)

Why is it «to måner» and not something like «to månene» or with an article?

«to måner» is just the bare plural of «måne» (moon):

en måne = a moon
to måner = two moons

Important points:

With numbers, you don’t use an article:
- to måner (two moons), not to en måner
You only use -ene (definite plural) when it is “the moons”:
- månene = the moons
- de to månene = the two moons

So «to måner» = “two moons” (indefinite), which matches “two moons” in the English sentence.

Why is it «i et stille univers» and not «på et stille univers»?

Here, univers (“universe”) is seen as a space you are inside, not a surface you are on. So we use i (“in”):

i et stille univers = in a quiet universe

The pattern:

i is used for containers, spaces, areas:
- i huset, i byen, i verden, i universet
på is used for surfaces, islands, platforms, planets:
- på bordet, på øya, på jorda, på en planet

So:

på en annen planet (on a planet)
i et stille univers (in a quiet universe)

Both are consistent with how we spatially imagine “planet” vs “universe”.

What does «stille» mean here, and why doesn’t it change form?

«stille» means “quiet / silent / calm”.

Adjectives in Norwegian agree with the noun in gender, number and definiteness. For neuter singular indefinite nouns, many adjectives use -t, but some already end in -e and don’t change:

univers is an et-word: et univers
stille is an adjective that doesn’t add -t, it stays stille:

Examples:

et stille univers = a quiet universe
et stille rom = a quiet room

If the noun were definite or plural, you’d still use stille:

det stille universet = the quiet universe
stille universer = quiet universes

So «et stille univers» is the regular, correct form.

Why is «drømte» used here? Does it mean “used to dream” or “dreamed once”?

«drømte» is the past tense (preterite) of drømme.

In Norwegian, the simple past can cover both:

a single past event:
- I går drømte hun om en reise. = Yesterday she dreamed about a trip.
a habitual or repeated action in the past (like English “used to”):
- Som barn drømte hun om å bo på en annen planet.
  = As a child, she used to dream of living on another planet.

So context decides whether you understand it as “once” or “used to”. Here, «Som barn» clearly suggests a repeated, childhood habit, so the natural translation is “she used to dream”.

Could we say «Hun drømte som barn om å bo ...» instead of putting «Som barn» first? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say both:

Som barn drømte hun om å bo på en annen planet ...
Hun drømte som barn om å bo på en annen planet ...

Both are grammatically correct and mean roughly the same thing.

The difference is in emphasis and style:

Initial position (Som barn drømte hun ...)
- Puts more focus on the time period “as a child”.
- Feels very natural and slightly more narrative/literary.
Middle position (Hun drømte som barn ...)
- Keeps the subject first (“she dreamed, as a child, of ...”).
- A bit more neutral, can feel slightly more casual.

Native speakers would probably prefer the original «Som barn drømte hun ...» in a story-like sentence.

Why is the pronoun «hun» used here, and how is it different from «henne»?

Norwegian has different forms for subject and object pronouns:

hun = she (subject form)
henne = her (object form)

In this sentence, “she” is the subject of the verb drømte, so we use hun:

Som barn drømte hun om ... = As a child, she dreamed of ...

If you needed the object form, you’d use henne:

Jeg så henne. = I saw her.
Vi snakket med henne. = We talked with her.

So here «hun» is correct because it’s the subject doing the dreaming.