Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Katten skjuler seg under sengen.

Masculine nouns: usually -en
- en katt → katten
- en seng → sengen
Feminine nouns: usually -a (in Bokmål you can often choose -a or -en)
- ei seng → senga
Neuter nouns: -et
- et hus → huset

In this sentence, katt and seng are treated as masculine, so they take -en: katten, sengen.
In spoken Norwegian, many people would say senga instead of sengen.

Why do we say skjuler seg and not just skjuler?

Skjule means to hide (something). It is normally a transitive verb: it needs an object.

Han skjuler pengene. = He hides the money.

When the subject is hiding itself, Norwegian often uses a reflexive pronoun:

Han skjuler seg. = He hides himself. / He is hiding.
Katten skjuler seg. = The cat hides itself. / The cat is hiding.

If you said Katten skjuler under sengen, it sounds incomplete, as if something is missing (what is the cat hiding?).

What exactly does seg mean here?

Seg is the reflexive pronoun used for 3rd person (he, she, it, they) when the object refers back to the subject:

han → seg (he → himself)
hun → seg (she → herself)
den / det → seg (it → itself)
de → seg (they → themselves)

So in Katten skjuler seg, seg refers back to katten.
Literally: The cat hides itself.

What is the infinitive form of skjuler and how do I use it?

The infinitive is å skjule (to hide).

Conjugation in the most common Bokmål pattern:

Infinitive: å skjule – to hide
Present: skjuler – hide(s) / is hiding
Preterite (past): skjulte – hid
Perfektum (perfect): har skjult – has/have hidden

With the reflexive:

å skjule seg – to hide (oneself)
Katten skjuler seg. – The cat is hiding.
Katten skjulte seg. – The cat hid (itself).
Katten har skjult seg. – The cat has hidden (itself).

What is the difference between skjuler seg and gjemmer seg?

Both can translate as is hiding, but there are nuances:

skjule (seg) – to hide / conceal (more general, can be a bit more formal or neutral)
- Han skjuler seg. – He is hiding (himself).
- Hun skjuler sannheten. – She hides/conceals the truth.
gjemme (seg) – to hide / put away / tuck away; for people and physical objects, it’s very common and colloquial
- Barnet gjemmer seg. – The child is hiding.
- Hun gjemmer pengene. – She hides the money (puts it away).

For a cat hiding under the bed, both are possible:

Katten skjuler seg under sengen.
Katten gjemmer seg under sengen.

Gjemmer seg might feel slightly more everyday/childlike; skjuler seg can feel a bit more neutral or descriptive, depending on context.

How does the Norwegian present tense skjuler correspond to English “is hiding”?

Norwegian usually uses a simple present form where English uses present continuous:

Katten skjuler seg under sengen.
= The cat is hiding under the bed.

You don’t normally say something like er skjulende; that sounds wrong.
For ongoing actions, the normal present tense skjuler already implies that the action is happening now.

If you really want to stress that it’s in progress, you can say:

Katten holder på å skjule seg under sengen.
(The cat is in the process of hiding under the bed.)

But in most situations the simple skjuler seg is enough.

Why is it under sengen and not under senga or under seng?

under sengen = under the bed (definite, masculine form)
under senga = under the bed (definite, feminine/colloquial form)
under en seng = under a bed (indefinite)
under seng – without any article or ending, is generally not correct here

In the sentence Katten skjuler seg under sengen, we are talking about a specific bed that both speaker and listener presumably know about, so the definite form is used.

If it were any bed, not a specific one, you could say:

Katten skjuler seg under en seng. – The cat is hiding under a bed.

Is there any difference in meaning between sengen and senga?

They mean the same thing: the bed.

The difference is:

sengen – traditional/standard masculine definite form
senga – feminine definite form (very common in speech and informal writing)

In Bokmål, seng can be both masculine (en seng) and feminine (ei seng), and that choice affects the definite form:

en seng → sengen
ei seng → senga

In everyday spoken Norwegian, senga is extremely common. In more formal, written Bokmål, sengen is often preferred.

Can I change the word order, like Under sengen skjuler katten seg?

Yes. Norwegian word order is fairly flexible, as long as you keep the V2 rule (the verb is in the second position in main clauses).

Original sentence:

Katten (1) skjuler (2) seg under sengen (3).

Fronting the place phrase:

Under sengen (1) skjuler (2) katten seg (3).

This is correct and natural, but it has a slightly different emphasis:
Under the bed is now the first, “topic” element, so you are focusing more on where the cat is hiding.

Both are grammatical:

Katten skjuler seg under sengen.
Under sengen skjuler katten seg.

How is skjuler pronounced? Does skj sound like English “sh”?

Yes, in modern Norwegian, skj is pronounced like the “sh” sound in “shoe”, but usually slightly more fronted in the mouth.

Approximate pronunciation:

skjuler → [ʃuː-ler] or [ʂuː-ler], depending on dialect
So it’s something like “SHOO-ler”.

Notes:

The j is not pronounced separately; skj functions as one consonant sound.
The u is like the oo in “food”, not like the u in “cut”.

Why is it den for a cat sometimes, but we use seg here?

Two different things:

den / det = 3rd person subject/object pronouns (it, that)
seg = reflexive pronoun (when the object is the same as the subject)

If you use a pronoun for katten, you get:

Den skjuler seg under sengen. – It is hiding under the bed.

Here:

den refers to katten (cat is masculine/feminine → den, not det)
seg is still the reflexive pronoun referring back to den / katten

You can’t replace seg with den in this reflexive structure.
Den skjuler den would mean It hides it (two different “its”), not It hides itself.

Does seg change for plural? How would I say “The cats are hiding under the bed”?

Seg is the same for singular and plural in the 3rd person.

Singular:
Katten skjuler seg under sengen.
– The cat hides itself / is hiding under the bed.
Plural:
Kattene skjuler seg under sengen.
– The cats hide themselves / are hiding under the bed.

So:

Subject becomes plural: kattene (the cats)
Verb stays the same: skjuler
Reflexive pronoun stays the same: seg

Could I say Katten er under sengen instead? Is there a difference?

You can say:

Katten er under sengen. – The cat is under the bed.

But this just states the location: the cat is located there.

Katten skjuler seg under sengen. adds the idea of intention: the cat is there in order to hide / is actively hiding. It’s not just “is under the bed”; it’s under the bed to stay out of sight.

So:

er under sengen = is under the bed (neutral location)
skjuler seg under sengen = is hiding under the bed (location + purpose)