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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Barna skjuler seg i hagen. - The children hide in the garden.

Hardcore Norwegian
/Lesson 42
/Barna skjuler seg i hagen.

Barna skjuler seg i hagen.

Word

Barna skjuler seg i hagen.

Meaning

The children hide in the garden.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Norwegian

Lesson

Breakdown of Barna skjuler seg i hagen.

Questions & Answers about Barna skjuler seg i hagen.

What does barna literally mean, and why does it end in -a?

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.

Is there a form like barnene, and if so, what’s the difference from 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

Why is it skjuler seg and not just skjuler?

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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.

Is skjuler seg the same as gjemmer seg? Which one is more natural here?

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.

What tense is skjuler, and does it cover both “are hiding” and “hide”?

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”.

Why is the word order Barna skjuler seg i hagen and not Barna seg skjuler i hagen?

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).

Can I say Barna skjuler i hagen without seg?

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.

What’s the difference between i hagen and på 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.

Why is it hagen and not just hage?

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”.

Could the sentence also mean “My children are hiding in the garden,” even though there is no word for “my”?

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.”

What’s the difference between i hagen and i hagen sin?

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.

How would I turn this sentence into a yes/no question: “Are the children hiding in the garden?”

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)

How is skjuler seg pronounced, especially the skj and seg parts?

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.

So skjuler seg ≈ “SHOO-ler sæi” in a rough English approximation.

How is barna pronounced?

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).

Can you give a word‑for‑word breakdown of the sentence?

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.”

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