Questions & Answers about Jeg ser en venn i hagen.
Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.
- venn (friend) is a masculine noun.
- The indefinite article for masculine is en.
- So: en venn = a friend.
For comparison:
- et hus (neuter) = a house
- ei bok (feminine) = a book (in Bokmål you can also say en bok, but ei is clearly feminine.)
So it must be en venn, not et venn.
Norwegian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun, not in front of it like English.
- en hage = a garden (indefinite)
- hagen = the garden (definite; literally garden-the)
In your sentence:
- Jeg ser en venn i hagen.
= I see a friend in *the garden.*
If you said:
- Jeg ser en venn i en hage.
= I see a friend in *a garden.*
So hagen already contains the meaning “the”, so you don’t add den in front here.
ser is the present tense of the verb å se (to see).
The main forms are:
- Infinitive: å se = to see
- Present: ser = see / am seeing
- Preterite (simple past): så = saw
- Past participle: sett = seen
Norwegian has one present tense that covers both English I see and I am seeing:
- Jeg ser en venn i hagen.
= I see a friend in the garden / I am seeing a friend in the garden (context decides).
The basic Norwegian word order is the same as English: Subject – Verb – Object – (Place/Time):
- Jeg (subject) ser (verb) en venn (object) i hagen (place).
You can move the place phrase i hagen to the front:
- I hagen ser jeg en venn.
This is still correct. It puts extra emphasis on i hagen (In the garden, I see a friend). After a fronted element like I hagen, the verb must come in second position (ser), which is why you say:
- ✅ I hagen ser jeg en venn.
- ❌ I hagen jeg ser en venn. (incorrect in standard Norwegian)
i and på both translate as in / on depending on context, but they’re used differently.
- i hagen = in the garden (inside or within the garden)
- på hagen would usually sound wrong or at least very unusual for in the garden.
In general:
- i is used for inside spaces: i huset (in the house), i byen (in the city), i hagen (in the garden).
- på is used for surfaces or certain fixed expressions: på bordet (on the table), på skolen (at school), på jobb (at work).
So stick with i hagen for in the garden.
Norwegian usually attaches “the” as a suffix to the noun:
- hagen = the garden
So i hagen already means in the garden.
You can say i den hagen, but that changes the meaning:
- i hagen = in the garden (general, the one both speakers know about)
- i den hagen = in that garden / in the particular garden (more specific, often contrasting with another garden)
So the basic neutral version is just i hagen.
You need a possessive pronoun for “my”:
Masculine noun venn + possessive:
- vennen min = my friend (literally friend-the my)
So the sentence becomes:
- Jeg ser vennen min i hagen.
= I see my friend in the garden.
Word order with possessives:
- More common in speech: vennen min
- A bit more formal/emphatic: min venn
So you could also say:
- Jeg ser min venn i hagen.
Both are correct; vennen min is more typical in everyday Norwegian.
Yes, Norwegian distinguishes these meanings more clearly.
- Jeg ser en venn i hagen.
= I see a friend in the garden (with my eyes).
If you mean you are meeting up (have arranged to meet), you’d normally use another verb:
- Jeg møter en venn i hagen.
= I am meeting a friend in the garden.
Or:
- Jeg skal treffe en venn i hagen.
= I am going to meet a friend in the garden.
So ser is visual seeing, not a social meetup.
No. Norwegian does not have a special continuous tense like English I am seeing / I am going.
You just use the simple present:
- Jeg ser en venn i hagen.
= I see a friend in the garden / I am seeing a friend in the garden.
Context and sometimes extra words give the “ongoing” feeling:
- Akkurat nå ser jeg en venn i hagen.
= Right now I am seeing a friend in the garden.
Norwegian has almost no case system for nouns, unlike German or older forms of Scandinavian.
- Venner (friends) is nominative, accusative, etc. – same form in all those roles.
Examples:
- En venn hjelper meg. = A friend helps me. (subject)
- Jeg ser en venn. = I see a friend. (object)
No change to venn.
There are case forms only for some pronouns (e.g., jeg / meg, du / deg), but not for regular nouns like venn or hage.
Ikke (not) normally goes after the verb in a main clause:
- Jeg ser ikke en venn i hagen.
However, that can sound a bit like you are correcting someone (“I am not seeing a friend (I’m seeing someone else)”). More natural options are:
- Jeg ser ingen venn i hagen. = I see no friend in the garden.
- Jeg ser ikke noen venn i hagen. = I don’t see any friend in the garden.
The key placement rule: in main clauses, verb in second position, ikke right after the verb (unless something else is specifically fronted).
Change the nouns to their plural forms.
Plural of venn (friend):
- Indefinite plural: venner = friends
- Definite plural: vennene = the friends
Plural of hage (garden):
- Indefinite plural: hager = gardens
- Definite plural: hagene = the gardens
Some examples:
Jeg ser venner i hagen.
= I see friends in the garden.Jeg ser vennene i hagen.
= I see the friends in the garden.Jeg ser venner i hagene.
= I see friends in the gardens.
There are dialect differences, but a common Oslo/Bokmål-style pronunciation:
- jeg ≈ yai (like English eye with a y: /jæi/ or /jæ/)
- ser = like English “sair” (/seːr/)
- en = like English “en” in end but shorter (/ən/ or /en/)
- venn = like English “ven” in seven (/vɛn/)
- i = like English “ee” (/iː/)
- hagen ≈ HAH-gen:
- ha like “ha” in haha (/hɑː/)
- gen like “gen” in gentle but with hard g (/gən/ or /gɛn/)
Rough English-like approximation:
“yai sair en ven ee HAH-gen”.