Vi reiser mindre i år.

We travel less this year.

Breakdown of Vi reiser mindre i år.

• vi: we
• reise: to travel
• mindre: less
• i år: this year

Questions & Answers about Vi reiser mindre i år.

What exactly does reiser mean here, and why not use drar?

Reiser is the present tense of å reise, which usually means to travel (often longer trips, holidays, business trips, etc.).

Å dra also means to go / to leave, but it’s more general and often about just going somewhere (home, to work, to a friend, etc.), not specifically traveling in the sense of trips.

• Vi reiser mindre i år.
  = We travel less this year. (fewer trips/holidays, less travelling in general)

• Vi drar mindre i år.
  This is understandable, but sounds less natural if you mean travel. It could be interpreted more as we go out/go places less this year.

For talking about travelling, reise is the normal verb.

Why is reiser in the simple present, when English uses “are traveling”?

Norwegian does not have a separate continuous/progressive form like English (am/is/are traveling).

The simple present in Norwegian covers both:

• English simple present:
  Vi reiser mye. = We travel a lot.

• English present continuous:
  Vi reiser mindre i år. = We are traveling less this year.

Context and time expressions (like i år = this year) tell you whether it’s a general fact, a current ongoing situation, or a planned future.

Can Vi reiser mindre i år also mean We will travel less this year (future)?

Yes. Norwegian often uses the present tense with a time expression to talk about the future.

Vi reiser mindre i år.
Depending on context, this can mean:

• A current observation:
  We are traveling less this year. (already happening)
• A plan/decision about the future:
  We will travel less this year.

The time phrase i år (this year) lets the present tense refer to the future as well as the present.

What does mindre mean exactly here?

Mindre is the comparative form of liten (small) and of liten / lite in the sense of “little, not much”. In this sentence, it works like the adverb less.

So:

• Vi reiser mindre i år.
  = We travel less this year.

It expresses a smaller amount/degree of traveling than before. It can refer to:

• fewer trips,
• fewer days away,
• less distance,
• less money spent on travel,

…or just “overall less travel” — it’s deliberately a bit vague, like English less.

Why is it mindre and not færre?

Norwegian distinguishes between less and fewer, just like careful English does:

• mindre = less (for uncountable things / amounts / degree)
• færre = fewer (for countable things)

In Vi reiser mindre i år, mindre modifies the verb (the amount of traveling), not a countable noun.

If you want to focus on the number of trips (countable), you would typically say:

• Vi tar færre reiser i år.
  = We are taking fewer trips this year.

Here, færre directly modifies the plural noun reiser (trips).

Is the word order fixed? Can I say I år reiser vi mindre instead?

Both are correct, but the focus changes slightly:

• Vi reiser mindre i år.
  Neutral word order. The main focus is on reiser mindre (travel less), and i år just gives the time.

• I år reiser vi mindre.
  Still correct Norwegian. Here, i år is placed at the start for emphasis:
  This year we are traveling less (as opposed to other years).

Both obey the V2 rule (the finite verb is in second position):

• I år (1st element) reiser (2nd element, the verb) vi (3rd) mindre …

Is i år literally “in year”? How does it work?

Yes, literally:

• i = in
• år = year

But together i år is a fixed expression meaning this year.

So:

• i år = this year
• i fjor = last year
• neste år = next year (note: no i here)

In Vi reiser mindre i år, i år is a prepositional time phrase telling when this reduced traveling happens.

Does i år always mean “this calendar year”?

Usually, yes, i år means this calendar year.

However, just like in English, in casual conversation it can be a bit fuzzier, depending on context. For example:

• At work, “this year” might be understood within a fiscal year or school year, if that’s the shared context.
• In normal everyday speech, people almost always mean the current calendar year when they say i år.

How do you pronounce reiser, mindre, and år approximately?

Very roughly, using English-like approximations:

• reiser

  • rei: like English “rye” or “eye” (a diphthong)
  • ser: like “sir” but with a clearer s
    So something like “RYE-ser”.

• mindre

  • min: like English “min” in “mint” (without the final t)
  • dre: like “dr-eh”, with a soft rolled or tapped r in many accents
    Roughly “MIN-dreh” (not mind-er).

• år
  Long vowel, a bit like English “oar” or “or”, but held slightly longer:
  “ohr” with rounded lips.

This is just approximate; real Norwegian pronunciation varies by dialect.

Can reiser take an object? Why is there no object here?

Å reise can be both intransitive (no direct object) and transitive (with an object), depending on meaning.

1. Intransitive: just “to travel / to go on a trip”

   • Vi reiser mindre i år.
     = We travel less this year.

2. Transitive: in some uses like “to travel a route” or in set phrases

   • Toget reiser denne strekningen hver dag.
     = The train travels this stretch every day. (more formal/technical)
   • This transitive use is less common in everyday speech.

In your sentence, reise is used intransitively, so no object is needed or expected.

Why is it vi and not oss? Both mean “we/us”, right?

Yes, but they have different functions:

• vi = we (subject form)
• oss = us (object form)

In Vi reiser mindre i år, vi is the subject (the ones doing the traveling), so vi is correct.

You’d use oss as the object:

• De besøker oss i år.
  = They are visiting us this year.

How would I say “We travel less this year than last year”?

You can extend the sentence with enn i fjor:

• Vi reiser mindre i år enn i fjor.
  = We travel less this year than last year.

Enn is the normal word for than in comparisons:

• større enn = bigger than
• mer enn = more than
• mindre enn = less than

Could I say Vi er mindre på reise i år instead? Is that natural?

It’s understandable, but not the most natural way to say it.

• Vi er mindre på reise i år
  Literally: We are less “on travel” this year.

This might be used in some contexts, but it sounds a bit clumsy or unusually phrased compared to:

• Vi reiser mindre i år. (most natural)
• Vi er sjeldnere på reise i år. (We are on trips more rarely this year.)

For the general idea we travel less this year, stick with Vi reiser mindre i år.

Where would I put ikke (not) if I want to say We are not traveling less this year?

You put ikke right after the verb (or after the subject if the verb has moved in questions, etc.). Here, it comes after reiser:

• Vi reiser ikke mindre i år.
  = We are not traveling less this year.

Word order:

• Vi (subject)
• reiser (verb)
• ikke (negation)
• mindre (adverb: less)
• i år (time phrase)

How would I say “We plan to travel less this year”?

You can make the idea of a plan or intention explicit:

• Vi skal reise mindre i år.
  = We are going to travel less this year. / We will travel less this year. (decision/plan)

• Vi planlegger å reise mindre i år.
  = We plan to travel less this year.

• Vi kommer til å reise mindre i år.
  = We will end up traveling less this year. (often sounds like a prediction rather than a firm plan)

All of these are built around the same core idea reise mindre i år, just with different shades of plan vs. prediction vs. statement of fact.