Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.

I visit my niece this weekend.

Breakdown of Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.

• jeg: I
• i: on
• helgen: the weekend
• min: my
• besøke: to visit
• niesen: the niece

Questions & Answers about Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.

What tense is besøker, and why does it refer to the future here?

Besøker is the present tense of the verb å besøke (to visit).
In Norwegian, the present tense is very often used for near future plans, especially when it’s clear from context:

• Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.
  = I’m visiting my niece this weekend / I will visit my niece this weekend.

So grammatically it’s “present,” but in meaning it’s present used for a future arrangement, just like English I’m visiting my niece this weekend (present continuous for future).

Why is it besøker niesen min and not besøker til niesen min?

In Norwegian, å besøke is a transitive verb: it takes a direct object and does not need a preposition.

• Jeg besøker niesen min. = I visit my niece.
  (niesen min is the direct object)

If you add til, it becomes ungrammatical:
✗ Jeg besøker til niesen min.

You only use til with related, but different phrases like:

• Jeg drar på besøk til niesen min.
  = I’m going for a visit to my niece.

Why is it niesen min (noun + possessive) instead of like English my niece (possessive + noun)? Can I say min niese?

Norwegian allows two positions for possessives:

1. Postposed (noun + possessive) – the form in your sentence

   • niesen min = my niece
     This is very common in speech and usually implies the noun is definite/specific.

2. Preposed (possessive + noun)

   • min niese = my niece
     This is also correct. Grammatically it’s more like an indefinite noun, but in everyday usage it often just means “my niece” as well.

In practice:

• Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.
• Jeg besøker min niese i helgen.

Both are grammatically OK. Noun + possessive (niesen min) is more neutral and more common in everyday Norwegian.

Why is it niesen and not niese here?

Niesen is the definite form of niese.

• en niese = a niece (indefinite)
• niesen / niesa = the niece (definite forms in Bokmål)

When you use the possessive after the noun (like niesen min), the noun itself appears in the definite form:

• niesen min ≈ “the niece of mine” → my niece

So niesen min literally has “the” inside the word (-en), plus min after it. This combination simply means my niece.

Is niese a feminine noun? Could I say niesa mi instead?

Yes, niese is grammatically feminine in Norwegian, but in Bokmål feminine nouns can usually be treated as common gender (like masculine).

So you have two sets of perfectly correct forms:

• Treating it as common gender (very common in Bokmål):

  • en niese – niesen – niesen min

• Treating it as feminine:

  • ei niese – niesa – niesa mi

So instead of Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen, you could say:

• Jeg besøker niesa mi i helgen.

This sounds a bit more dialectal/colloquial; niesen min is standard neutral Bokmål.

What exactly does i helgen mean? Does it always mean “this coming weekend”?

I helgen literally means “in the weekend” but is used like English “this weekend” / “on the weekend.”
Its exact time (past or future) depends on the verb tense and context:

• With present/future context:
  Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.
  = (This) coming weekend.

• With past tense:
  Jeg besøkte niesen min i helgen.
  = (This) past weekend / last weekend.

So i helgen itself doesn’t encode past or future; the verb and context tell you which weekend is meant. In everyday speech, with a present-tense plan, it’s normally understood as the upcoming weekend.

Why is it i helgen and not på helgen or om helgen? And what about i helga?

The preposition that goes with helg in this meaning is normally i:

• i helgen / i helga = this/the weekend

På helgen is unusual or sounds wrong in standard Norwegian for this sense.

Om helgen means something else:

• Om helgen jobber jeg ikke.
  = On weekends / at the weekend (habitually, every weekend).

As for helgen vs helga:

• i helgen – standard Bokmål, especially eastern/standard speech.
• i helga – also correct Bokmål, but more common in many dialects and in Nynorsk.

Both mean “this/the weekend”; the difference is mainly stylistic and dialectal.

Can I move i helgen to the front and say I helgen besøker jeg niesen min?

Yes, that’s completely correct and often used for emphasis on the time.

Norwegian has verb-second word order (V2): in a main clause, the finite verb (here: besøker) must be in second position, no matter what you put first.

So both of these are fine:

1. Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.
   (Subject first: S–V–O–Time)

2. I helgen besøker jeg niesen min.
   (Time first: Time–V–Subject–Object)

The difference is mostly in what you emphasize:
Sentence 2 highlights “this weekend” more strongly.

Is there a difference between Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen and Jeg skal besøke niesen min i helgen?

Both can describe a future visit, but there is a nuance:

• Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen.
  = I’m visiting my niece this weekend.
  Present tense used for a plan/scheduled event. Very natural if the plan is already arranged.

• Jeg skal besøke niesen min i helgen.
  = I’m going to visit / I will visit my niece this weekend.
  Skal + infinitive often emphasizes intention or decision: something you have decided or plan to do.

In many contexts they are interchangeable; present tense is slightly more “fixed plan” in feel, skal + besøke often feels more like “this is my intention/decision.”

How would I say “I’m visiting my nieces this weekend” (plural)?

The plural forms of niese are:

• nieser (indefinite plural) = nieces
• niesene (definite plural) = the nieces

With a postposed possessive, you use the definite plural:

• Jeg besøker niesene mine i helgen.
  = I’m visiting my nieces this weekend.

So:

• niesen min = my niece (one)
• niesene mine = my nieces (more than one)

Why is jeg not capitalized like English I?

In Norwegian, personal pronouns are not capitalized in the middle of a sentence, including jeg (“I”).

• Jeg besøker niesen min i helgen. (capitalized only because it’s at the beginning)
• ... og så besøker jeg niesen min i helgen. (lowercase jeg)

Norwegian only capitalizes words at the beginning of a sentence, proper names, and some specific other cases—not the pronoun for “I” by default.

How is the sentence pronounced, roughly?

A simple, approximate pronunciation (standard-ish Eastern Norwegian) is:

• Jeg – like “yai” or “yai/yei” (often shortened, sounding almost like “yai” or “yæ”)
• besøker – roughly “beh-SER-ker”, where:
  • ø is like the vowel in British “bird” but with rounded lips
• niesen – roughly “NEE-eh-sen”
• min – like English “min” in “mint” without the t
• i – like English “ee”
• helgen – roughly “HEL-gen” or “HEL-yen” (the g can be soft or almost like a j sound, depending on dialect)

So put together, something like:

“Yai beh-SER-ker NEE-eh-sen min ee HEL-gen.”

This is only an approximation; real pronunciation varies by region.