Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Noen ganger føler hun seg ensom, og da blir hun lett sint uten å forstå sitt eget sinne. - Sometimes she feels lonely, and then she easily becomes angry without understanding her own anger.

Noen ganger føler hun seg ensom
– Adverbial (noen ganger = sometimes) is placed at the beginning of the sentence.
– This gives a bit more emphasis to how often / when it happens: “Sometimes, she feels lonely…”
Hun føler seg ensom noen ganger
– More neutral, “default” word order for English speakers.
– Focus is more on her feeling lonely, with “noen ganger” just modifying it at the end: “She feels lonely, sometimes.”

In everyday speech, both are fine. Starting with “Noen ganger …” sounds slightly more rhetorical or story-like, and it triggers inversion (føler hun), which leads into the next question.

Why is it “føler hun seg” and not “hun føler seg” after noen ganger?

This is due to the V2 rule in Norwegian main clauses:

The finite verb must be in second position in the sentence.

When you put something other than the subject at the beginning (like an adverbial noen ganger), the subject moves after the verb:

Noen ganger føler hun seg ensom
1. Noen ganger (adverbial – first position)
2. føler (finite verb – second position)
3. hun (subject – third position)

If you start with the subject, you get:

Hun føler seg ensom
1. Hun (subject – first position)
2. føler (finite verb – second position)

So: fronted element → verb in 2nd place → subject moves after verb.

What does “seg” do in “føler hun seg ensom”? Why can’t we just say “føler hun ensom”?

“seg” is a reflexive pronoun that refers back to the subject hun (she).

In Norwegian, when you say “to feel + adjective” (feel lonely, feel tired, feel sick), you normally use a reflexive construction:

å føle seg ensom – to feel lonely
å føle seg trøtt – to feel tired
å føle seg syk – to feel ill

You cannot say “føler hun ensom” here; that sounds ungrammatical. Without seg, å føle is more like “to feel (something)” as a direct object:

å føle smerte – to feel pain
å føle kulden – to feel the cold

So:

“Hun føler seg ensom” = “She feels lonely.”
“Hun føler smerte” = “She feels pain.”

What is the difference between “ensom” and “alene”?

Both often translate as “alone”, but they are not the same:

ensom = lonely
– Emotional state, the feeling of being isolated.
– Hun føler seg ensom. – She feels lonely.
alene = alone (by oneself)
– Describes physically being without other people.
– Hun er alene hjemme. – She is alone at home.

Sometimes you can be alene uten å være ensom (alone without being lonely), or ensom blant mange mennesker (lonely among many people).

In the sentence, ensom is about her emotional state, which fits with the later anger and lack of understanding.

Why is there a comma before “og” in “ensom, og da blir hun lett sint …”? In English we often skip it.

Norwegian comma rules are a bit different from English.

In Norwegian, you normally put a comma between two main clauses, even if they are joined by og.

Here, you have two main clauses:

(Hun) føler hun seg ensom – (Sometimes) she feels lonely
(Hun) blir hun lett sint uten å forstå sitt eget sinne – she becomes easily angry without understanding her own anger

So you write:

… føler hun seg ensom, og da blir hun lett sint …

In English, you might or might not put a comma before and in a similar sentence, but in Norwegian it is standard to include it between two full main clauses.

What does “da” mean in “og da blir hun lett sint”? How is it different from “når”?

In this sentence, da means roughly “then” or “at that point”:

… hun føler seg ensom, og da blir hun lett sint …
= “… she feels lonely, and then she becomes easily angry …”

The difference:

da
– Used for specific times in the past, or as a kind of “then/as a consequence” in narratives.
– Here: more like “and in that state / at those times / as a result”.
når
– More like “when(ever)” – a general condition or repeated event.

You could say:

Når hun føler seg ensom, blir hun lett sint.
– “When(ever) she feels lonely, she easily becomes angry.” (general condition)

In the original sentence, “og da” creates a more narrative flow: “Sometimes she feels lonely, and then she gets easily angry …”

Why is it “da blir hun lett sint” and not “da hun blir lett sint”?

“Da hun blir lett sint” by itself is not a correct main-clause word order.

“Da” here is an adverb (then), not a conjunction starting a subordinate clause. So the sentence must still follow V2 word order:

da (adverb – first position)
blir (finite verb – second position)
hun (subject – third position)

= da blir hun lett sint

If da were a conjunction introducing a subordinate clause (like “when” in English), you would get a different structure, e.g.:

Da hun var liten, ble hun lett sint. – When she was little, she got angry easily.

There, da introduces “da hun var liten” (a subordinate clause). In the original sentence, da = “then”, so it behaves as an adverb, not as a conjunction.

What exactly does “lett” mean in “blir hun lett sint”? And why does it go before “sint”?

In this context, lett means “easily”:

Hun blir lett sint.
= She becomes angry easily / She gets angry very easily.

Word order:

lett is an adverb modifying the adjective sint (angry).
In Norwegian, adverbs like this usually go in front of the adjective:
- lett sint – easily angered
- veldig glad – very happy
- ganske redd – quite afraid

You could, in very informal speech, say “Hun blir sint lett”, but it sounds less natural and more marked. “Hun blir lett sint” is the normal way to say it.

How does “uten å forstå” work grammatically? Why is it “å forstå” and not “forstår”?

“uten å forstå” is a fixed pattern in Norwegian:

uten å + infinitive
= “without doing X”

å forstå is the infinitive of the verb forstår (present tense).

Examples:

uten å spise – without eating
uten å si noe – without saying anything
uten å forstå – without understanding

So:

… blir hun lett sint uten å forstå sitt eget sinne.
= “… she becomes easily angry without understanding her own anger.”

You cannot use the finite form forstår here; “uten forstår sitt eget sinne” is ungrammatical. After uten å, you must always use the infinitive.

Could we also say “uten at hun forstår sitt eget sinne”? What’s the difference from “uten å forstå sitt eget sinne”?

Yes, you can say both:

uten å forstå sitt eget sinne
– Literally “without understanding her own anger”.
– Uses infinitive; a bit more compact and neutral.
uten at hun forstår sitt eget sinne
– Literally “without that she understands her own anger”.
– Uses a subordinate clause with at
- subject + finite verb.
  – Slightly heavier and more explicit, can feel a bit more formal or emphatic.

Meaning-wise, they are almost the same. In everyday speech and writing, “uten å + infinitive” is very common and natural.

Why is it “sitt eget sinne” and not “hennes sinne”?

Norwegian has reflexive possessive pronouns (sin, si, sitt, sine) that refer back to the subject of the clause.

sitt here refers back to hun:
– sitt eget sinne = her own anger (her own, not someone else’s)

If you wrote:

uten å forstå hennes sinne,
it would most naturally mean “without understanding her anger”, where her could be some other woman mentioned in the context, not the subject.

So:

sitt → the subject’s own
hennes → some (possibly) other female person, or used when you need to avoid ambiguity.

In this sentence, sitt is the natural choice because the anger clearly belongs to the same hun.

Why is it “sitt” and not “sin” or “sine”?

The reflexive possessive must agree with the grammatical gender and number of the noun it modifies:

sin – masculine singular
si – feminine singular (used in dialects and some styles)
sitt – neuter singular
sine – plural

Here the noun is:

sinne (anger) – neuter singular noun

So you must use:

sitt sinne – (her/his) anger
With emphasis: sitt eget sinne – her own anger

That’s why it’s sitt, not sin or sine.

What is the role of “eget” in “sitt eget sinne”? Is it necessary?

eget is the neuter singular form of egen (own).

sitt sinne – her anger
sitt eget sinne – her own anger

So eget adds emphasis that the anger is truly her own, not borrowed, projected, or mistaken for someone else’s.

You could say:

… uten å forstå sitt sinne. – without understanding her anger.
… uten å forstå sitt eget sinne. – without understanding her own anger (stronger, a bit more psychological/reflective).

Both are grammatically fine; the original just has a slightly more introspective tone.

Could we drop “hun” in the second clause and say “… og da blir lett sint …”?

No. In Norwegian, you don’t normally drop the subject pronoun the way some languages do.

You must repeat hun:

Noen ganger føler hun seg ensom, og da blir hun lett sint …

Leaving it out – “og da blir lett sint” – sounds ungrammatical and incomplete. Norwegian does not allow “pro-drop” for subjects in standard usage.

Why is “ensom” without -e (not “ensomme”) here?

Adjectives in Norwegian have different forms depending on what they modify:

After “å være/å føle seg” (predicative), when referring to a single, definite person/thing, you usually use the basic form (no -e):
- Hun er ensom. – She is lonely.
- Han er sliten. – He is tired.
- Jeg føler meg syk. – I feel sick.
The -e form (ensomme) appears:
- With definite nouns: den ensomme mannen – the lonely man
- With plural: ensomme mennesker – lonely people

Here, ensom describes the subject via “føler hun seg”, so it takes the basic form with no -e:

Hun føler seg ensom. ✅
Hun føler seg ensomme. ❌ (wrong in this context)

If you’d like, I can turn parts of this sentence into a mini “pattern list” (e.g., uten å + infinitive, føle seg + adjective, sin/sitt/sine), so you can reuse them in your own Norwegian sentences.