Breakdown of Vi har et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste med mange serier og filmer, men vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige.
Questions & Answers about Vi har et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste med mange serier og filmer, men vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige.
In Norwegian, every noun has a grammatical gender: en (masculine), ei (feminine), or et (neuter).
Abonnement is a neuter noun, so it takes et:
- et abonnement – a subscription
- abonnementet – the subscription
You just have to memorize the gender; it’s not usually guessable from the form of the word.
With abonnement, the normal preposition for what you subscribe to is på:
- et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste – a subscription to a streaming service
- et abonnement på en avis – a subscription to a newspaper
Using til here would sound incorrect or at least very odd. The combination abonnement på is basically a fixed pattern in Norwegian.
Yes, you can. Both are correct, but there is a slight nuance:
Vi har et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste.
Focus on the thing you have (the subscription).Vi abonnerer på en strømmetjeneste.
Focus on the action/state of subscribing.
In everyday speech, Vi har et abonnement på … is very common and sounds completely natural.
Both are possible, but they feel a bit different:
…en strømmetjeneste med mange serier og filmer
Literally “a streaming service with many series and films.”
This is short and very common when listing features.…en strømmetjeneste som har mange serier og filmer
“a streaming service that has many series and films.”
This emphasizes the verb “has” and can sound a bit more explicit or explanatory.
In this kind of description, med is the most natural and concise choice.
Because you’re talking about many series and films. In Norwegian, as in English, mange requires a plural noun:
- mange serier – many series
- mange filmer – many films
If you used the singular, it would sound like there is just one series and one film, which doesn’t fit the meaning here.
Both orders are grammatically possible:
- Vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige.
- Vi prøver ikke å bli avhengige.
The default rule is that ikke normally comes after the finite verb, so (2) is actually the more “neutral” pattern.
However, both sentences are usually understood the same way in everyday speech: we try not to become addicted. In more careful language:
- Vi prøver ikke å bli avhengige tends to mean “We do not try to become addicted” (we are not trying to become addicted).
- Vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige puts the ikke closer to bli, so it more clearly means “We are trying not to become addicted.”
In real life, most Norwegians would not feel a strong difference here, and both orders occur.
Bli means “become,” while være means “be”:
- bli avhengig(e) – to become addicted
- være avhengig(e) – to be addicted
The sentence talks about preventing something from happening in the future, so bli is natural:
- …vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige.
“…we try not to become addicted.”
If you said være avhengige, it would mean you try not to be addicted (now or in general), which is possible but a slightly different focus.
Avhengig is an adjective meaning “addicted.” In Norwegian, adjectives usually agree with the subject in number and sometimes gender.
The subject is vi (we), so the adjective is plural:
- Vi er avhengige. – We are addicted.
- De blir avhengige. – They become addicted.
- Han er avhengig. – He is addicted. (singular)
So in å ikke bli avhengige, avhengige agrees with vi.
You might see or hear å ikke bli avhengig sometimes in casual speech, but avhengige is the grammatically consistent form here.
In Norwegian, you normally put a comma before the conjunction men (“but”) when it links two main clauses:
- Vi har et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste med mange serier og filmer, men vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige.
You have:
- Vi har et abonnement på en strømmetjeneste med mange serier og filmer
- vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige
These are both full clauses with their own subject and verb, so a comma before men is correct.
Norwegian present tense is used for:
- Actions or states happening right now
- Habitual or ongoing situations
- General truths
Here it describes ongoing/habitual situations:
- Vi har et abonnement … – We have a subscription. (state, ongoing)
- …vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige. – We try not to become addicted. (repeated/ongoing effort)
You could use other tenses, but the meaning would change:
- Vi hadde et abonnement … – We had a subscription (before).
- Vi har prøvd å ikke bli avhengige. – We have tried (at some point before).
For the intended meaning, present tense is the natural choice.
You can say both, but there is a style difference:
- mange serier og filmer – “many series and films” (neutral, standard)
- masse serier og filmer – literally “mass/loads of series and films” (more informal/colloquial)
Mange is the “safe,” standard word for countable plural nouns.
Masse is very common in speech and informal writing and can sound more casual or expressive.
In the original sentence, mange fits a neutral style very well.
Yes, strømmetjeneste is written as one compound word in Norwegian:
- strømme (to stream) + tjeneste (service) → strømmetjeneste
Norwegian usually joins such elements into one word instead of writing them separately. A hyphen is not needed here in standard spelling.
Examples:
- musikkstrømmetjeneste – music streaming service
- videostrømmetjeneste – video streaming service
You only use a hyphen in more complex or potentially unclear compounds, not in a basic one like strømmetjeneste.
Standard, careful Norwegian would use the plural adjective here:
- Vi prøver å ikke bli avhengige. ✅ (best/standard)
Because vi is plural, the adjective in predicative position normally agrees and becomes plural: avhengige.
You might hear Vi prøver å ikke bli avhengig in some casual speech, where people don’t always mark the plural adjective clearly, but in writing and in taught standard language, avhengige is the correct and recommended form.