Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Jeg beundrer min kusine fordi hun er modig og ærlig i vanskelige situasjoner. - I admire my female cousin because she is brave and honest in difficult situations.

The word kusine (female cousin) is grammatically feminine. In standard Bokmål you normally treat feminine nouns as common gender and use min:

min kusine – standard Bokmål
mi kusine – also possible in Bokmål, but feels more dialectal / informal
mitt kusine – incorrect (kusine is not neuter)

So min kusine is the neutral, standard choice.

Could I also say Jeg beundrer kusinen min? What is the difference from Jeg beundrer min kusine?

Yes, both are correct, but they feel slightly different:

Jeg beundrer min kusine.
Jeg beundrer kusinen min.

In Bokmål, possessives can go:

Before the noun: min kusine
After the noun (usually with the noun in definite form): kusinen min

Subtle differences:

min kusine: a bit more formal, can sound a little more “emphatic” about whose cousin it is.
kusinen min: more colloquial, very common in everyday speech; often sounds more natural.

In this sentence, most Norwegians would probably say:

Jeg beundrer kusinen min fordi …

Why is it fordi hun er and not fordi er hun?

Because fordi starts a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses in Norwegian do not use the usual verb‑second (V2) rule.

Word order rules:

Main clause: verb is in second position
- Hun er modig. (She is brave.)
Subordinate clause (after fordi): subject comes before verb
- fordi hun er modig (because she is brave)

So:

Correct: … fordi hun er modig og ærlig …
Incorrect: … fordi er hun modig og ærlig …

What is the difference between hun and henne?

Both refer to she / her, but they have different grammatical roles:

hun – subject form (like English she)
- Hun er modig. – She is brave.
henne – object form (like English her)
- Jeg beundrer henne. – I admire her.

In the sentence:

… fordi hun er modig og ærlig …

hun is the subject of er, so hun is correct, not henne.

Why do modig and ærlig have no endings here? Shouldn’t adjectives agree with the noun?

Norwegian adjectives have different forms depending on:

Whether they come before a noun (attributive)
Or stand after a verb like er (predicative)

Attributive position (before a noun): they agree with gender/number/definiteness:
- en modig kusine – a brave cousin (fem/masc, singular, indefinite)
- modige kusiner – brave cousins (plural)
Predicative position (after er, blir, etc.): they usually appear in their base form for singular:
- Hun er modig og ærlig. – She is brave and honest.
- Kusinen er modig og ærlig.

So in … fordi hun er modig og ærlig …, the adjectives are predicative and take the base form, without extra endings.

Why is it vanskelige situasjoner and not vanskelig situasjoner?

Two things happen here: plural noun and plural adjective.

situasjoner – plural of situasjon
- en situasjon – a situation
- situasjoner – situations (indefinite plural)
vanskelige – plural form of the adjective vanskelig
In indefinite plural, adjectives get -e:
- vanskelige situasjoner – difficult situations

So the pattern is:

Singular: en vanskelig situasjon
Plural: vanskelige situasjoner

Why isn’t it vanskelige situasjonene with the definite ending, since we say the difficult situations in English?

Norwegian often uses the indefinite plural when English uses a general the + plural.

English: in difficult situations / in the difficult situations (in general)
Norwegian: i vanskelige situasjoner

If you say i de vanskelige situasjonene, you are referring to specific situations that both speaker and listener know about.

i vanskelige situasjoner – in difficult situations (generally in life)
i de vanskelige situasjonene – in those specific difficult situations (we’ve already talked about them)

In your sentence, it talks about her character in general, so the indefinite plural situasjoner is used.

What is the difference between fordi and siden in Norwegian? Could I say Jeg beundrer min kusine siden hun er modig…?

Both fordi and siden can translate as because, but they have different nuances.

fordi – the normal, neutral because, expressing cause:
- Jeg beundrer min kusine fordi hun er modig og ærlig.
siden – literally since, often used when the reason is assumed to be known or obvious, or when it’s more background information:
- Siden hun er så modig, beundrer jeg henne.

In your sentence, fordi is the most natural and standard choice.

Jeg beundrer min kusine siden hun er modig og ærlig is possible, but it can sound a bit more formal or like the reason is already understood from context.

Why is the subject jeg required? Could Norwegians say just Beundrer min kusine fordi… like in some other languages?

Norwegian is not a “pro‑drop” language like Spanish or Italian. You must normally state the subject pronoun:

Correct: Jeg beundrer min kusine fordi …
Incorrect: Beundrer min kusine fordi … (missing jeg)

You can drop the subject only in very limited contexts (e.g., imperatives: Kom hit! – Come here!), but not in a normal declarative sentence like this.

How do I say “cousin” in general? What if the cousin is male?

Norwegian distinguishes the gender of the cousin:

kusine – female cousin
- min kusine – my (female) cousin
fetter – male cousin
- min fetter – my (male) cousin

If you don’t want to specify or don’t know the gender, you usually have to rephrase (e.g., søskenbarn in some varieties), but in standard everyday Bokmål people normally just choose kusine or fetter.

How would the word order change if I start the sentence with the fordi‑clause?

If you begin with the fordi‑clause, the main clause that follows must obey the V2 rule (verb in second position):

Original:
- Jeg beundrer min kusine fordi hun er modig og ærlig i vanskelige situasjoner.
With the fordi‑clause first:
- Fordi hun er modig og ærlig i vanskelige situasjoner, beundrer jeg min kusine.

Note what happens in the main clause:

The whole fordi‑clause counts as position 1.
Then the verb beundrer comes in position 2.
The subject jeg comes after the verb.

Are there any tricky pronunciation points in modig, ærlig, and vanskelige situasjoner?

A few things to watch:

modig – roughly MOO‑dig
- o like in too, not like in hot.
- Final -ig is often pronounced like -i in everyday speech: MOO‑di.
ærlig – roughly AIR‑li
- The æ is like the vowel in English cat, but often a bit more open.
- The initial h is silent here; it’s ærlig, not h-ærlig.
vanskelige – roughly VAHN‑ske‑li‑e
- van like vahn, not like English van.
- The g before e is a normal hard g sound.
- In casual speech it may be reduced a bit, something like vanskle or vanskli.
situasjoner – roughly see‑too‑a‑SHO‑ner
- sj in sjo is like English sh.
- Final -er is often pronounced -e or weakened in many accents: situasjone.