Questions & Answers about Barna skjuler seg i hagen.
Barna means “the children”.
- The basic noun is et barn = a child (neuter noun).
- Indefinite plural is barn = children.
- Definite plural is barna = the children.
So the -a ending here is the definite plural ending for many neuter nouns: barn → barna.
In standard Bokmål, barna is the usual and recommended form for “the children”.
A form barnene is sometimes heard in speech or seen in very colloquial writing, but it is non‑standard or dialectal. If you’re learning standard Norwegian, you should use:
- barnet = the child
- barna = the children
In Norwegian, skjule (noen/noe) normally means “to hide someone/something” (a direct object).
To say “hide (oneself)”, you make it reflexive:
- skjule seg = to hide oneself
So:
- Barna skjuler noe i hagen. = The children are hiding something in the garden.
- Barna skjuler seg i hagen. = The children are hiding (themselves) in the garden.
Without seg, the sentence would sound incomplete, as if you forgot to mention what they are hiding.
Both can mean “hide (oneself)”, but there is a nuance:
- gjemme seg – very common in everyday speech for physically hiding, especially with children (e.g. hide-and-seek).
- skjule seg – a bit more formal or literary; can be used for both physical and more abstract hiding (e.g. hiding one’s identity, hiding behind something).
In a very everyday, kid-focused context, many Norwegians might more naturally say:
- Barna gjemmer seg i hagen.
But Barna skjuler seg i hagen. is perfectly correct and understandable.
Skjuler is the present tense.
Norwegian present tense usually covers both:
- English simple present: The children hide in the garden (regularly).
- English present continuous: The children are hiding in the garden (right now).
Context decides which English translation fits better. The form skjuler itself doesn’t distinguish between “hide” and “are hiding”.
In a main clause, the normal word order is:
Subject – Verb – (Objects/Pronouns) – Other information
So:
- Barna (subject)
- skjuler (verb)
- seg (reflexive pronoun, linked to the subject)
- i hagen (adverbial/prepositional phrase)
Reflexive pronouns like seg usually come right after the verb in a simple main clause:
- Han vasker seg. – He washes himself.
- Vi setter oss. – We sit down (literally: set ourselves).
- Barna skjuler seg. – The children hide (themselves).
No, not in this meaning.
- Barna skjuler i hagen sounds wrong or at least incomplete. It suggests “The children hide (something) in the garden” but doesn’t say what they hide.
To express “hide themselves”, Norwegian requires the reflexive:
- Barna skjuler seg i hagen.
I hagen literally means “in the garden” and is the normal phrase.
- i is used for being in / inside an area, space, or environment:
- i huset – in the house
- i skogen – in the forest
- i hagen – in the garden
På hagen would be unusual in standard Norwegian; på is more like “on” / “on top of” or for some fixed expressions and surfaces:
- på bordet – on the table
- på taket – on the roof
So here, i hagen is the correct choice.
Hage means “garden” (indefinite singular).
When you say hagen, you add the definite ending -en, so it becomes “the garden”.
Forms of hage (masculine or common gender):
- en hage – a garden
- hagen – the garden
- hager – gardens
- hagene – the gardens
So i hagen is “in the garden”, not just “in a garden”.
Yes, it can.
Norwegian often omits possessive pronouns when it is clear from context whose thing or person is meant. So:
- Barna can mean simply “the children”, but in the right context it is naturally understood as “my children / our children / your children”.
For example, if a parent is talking about their own kids, Barna skjuler seg i hagen. will most likely be understood as “The kids (my kids) are hiding in the garden.”
- i hagen = in the garden (some specific garden already known from context, but not necessarily belonging to the subject).
- i hagen sin = in their own garden, explicitly linking the garden to the subject barna.
So:
- Barna skjuler seg i hagen. – The children are hiding in the garden (maybe the neighbor’s garden, a public garden, or their own – context decides).
- Barna skjuler seg i hagen sin. – The children are hiding in their garden (not someone else’s).
Sin/si/sitt/sine is the special reflexive possessive that refers back to the subject.
Norwegian uses verb‑second (V2) word order. For a yes/no question, you usually put the verb first, then the subject:
- Skjuler barna seg i hagen?
– Are the children hiding in the garden?
Structure:
- Skjuler (verb)
- barna (subject)
- seg (reflexive)
- i hagen (rest of the sentence)
Approximate pronunciation (East Norwegian):
skjuler:
- skj = a single sound, similar to English “sh” but more “retroflex” (tongue slightly curled back).
- u = like “oo” in food.
- ler = roughly like “ler” in “LAIR”, but with an Norwegian r.
→ Roughly: SHOO-ler (but with the Norwegian r).
seg:
- Often pronounced like “sæi” (something between sæ and sai), sometimes closer to “sæ”.
→ You can think “sai” or “sæi” as a close approximation.
- Often pronounced like “sæi” (something between sæ and sai), sometimes closer to “sæ”.
So skjuler seg ≈ “SHOO-ler sæi” in a rough English approximation.
In standard East Norwegian:
- The rn combination becomes a retroflex n (one merged sound) because r
- n often fuse.
- So barna sounds a bit like “BAR-nah”, but the rn is one single sound, not two separate ones.
Approximation: “BAHR-nah” (with a Norwegian r, and the last a like in father).
Yes:
- Barna – the children (definite plural of barn)
- skjuler – hide / are hiding (present tense of skjule)
- seg – themselves (reflexive pronoun referring back to barna)
- i – in
- hagen – the garden (definite singular of hage)
So structurally: “The-children hide themselves in the-garden.”