Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.

The noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.

Breakdown of Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.

• i: in
• kort: short
• min: my
• gjøre: to make
• støyen: the noise
• nabolaget: the neighborhood
• søvnen: the sleep

Questions & Answers about Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.

Why do we use the definite form støyen, nabolaget, and søvnen instead of just støy, nabolag, søvn?

Norwegian usually marks “the” by adding an ending to the noun:

• støy → støyen = the noise
• nabolag → nabolaget = the neighborhood
• søvn → søvnen = the sleep

In this sentence, we are talking about:

• the particular noise in your neighborhood (not noise in general)
• the particular neighborhood you live in
• your specific sleep

So the definite forms are natural.

You could say:

• Støy i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.

This sounds a bit more general/impersonal: Noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.
With støyen i nabolaget, it sounds more like that specific, known noise in the neighborhood is the problem.

Why is it søvnen min and not just min søvn, like in English “my sleep”?

Norwegian has two common patterns for possessives:

1. Noun + possessive (most common, neutral)

   • søvnen min = my sleep
   • boka mi = my book
   • huset vårt = our house

2. Possessive + noun (more formal, emphatic, or written style)

   • min søvn
   • min bok
   • vårt hus

So:

• søvnen min is the default, everyday way to say my sleep.
• min søvn is correct, but sounds a bit more formal, poetic, or contrastive (for example: “Min søvn er viktig for meg” – “My sleep is important to me”).

In this sentence, søvnen min is the most natural choice.

What exactly is gjør doing here? Why do we say gjør søvnen min kort?

gjøre means “to do / to make”.
The pattern here is:

gjøre + object + adjective
= to make + object + adjective

So:

• Støyen i nabolaget (subject)
• gjør (verb: makes)
• søvnen min (object: my sleep)
• kort (resulting state: short)

This is very close to English:

• The noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.

Other examples with the same structure:

• Det gjør meg glad. = It makes me happy.
• Nyheten gjorde henne sint. = The news made her angry.
• Kaffen gjør meg våken. = Coffee makes me awake.

You can’t really replace gjør here with lager or får; gjøre is the normal verb for this “make X (adjective)” structure.

Why is the adjective kort and not korte, even though søvnen is definite?

Because kort here is a predicative adjective, not an adjective directly in front of the noun.

Compare:

1. Attributive (in front of the noun):

   • den korte søvnen min = my short sleep
     Here you must use the definite form korte.

2. Predicative (after a verb, describing a noun):

   • Søvnen min er kort. = My sleep is short.
   • Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort. = …makes my sleep short.

In predicative position, the adjective normally stays in its basic form for all genders and numbers (with a few exceptions). So we say:

• Søvnen er kort.
• Natta er lang.
• Huset er stort.
• Bilene er dyre.

But if the adjective comes in front of a definite noun, it changes:

• den korte søvnen
• den lange natta
• det store huset
• de dyre bilene

Could we say something like “Støyen i nabolaget gjør at jeg sover lite” instead? Is that similar?

Yes, that’s a very natural alternative, and the meaning is close:

• Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  = The noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.

• Støyen i nabolaget gjør at jeg sover lite.
  = The noise in the neighborhood makes me sleep little / means that I don’t sleep much.

The difference is mainly in focus:

• gjør søvnen min kort focuses on “my sleep” as something being changed to a short state.
• gjør at jeg sover lite focuses on your action (sleeping little).

Both are good Norwegian; choose based on what you want to emphasize.

Why is it i nabolaget and not some other preposition like på nabolaget?

Prepositions are often idiomatic, but here the logic is similar to English:

• i nabolaget = in the neighborhood

We imagine the neighborhood as an area/space that you are inside, so i (“in”) is natural.

• på nabolaget would sound wrong here. på is used with some places (på skolen, på jobben, på kino), but not with nabolag in this sense.

Other examples with i:

• i byen = in the city
• i huset = in the house
• i gata = in the street
• i bygget = in the building

Does støy mean the same as lyd? Could I say Lyden i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort?

støy and lyd are related but not the same:

• støy = noise, usually unwanted, disturbing sound
• lyd = sound in general (neutral word)

So:

• Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  = The noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short. (negative)

• Lyden i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  Grammatically correct, but sounds odd, because lyd is neutral. You’d usually specify:

  • Høy musikk i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  • Bråket i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort. (bråk = row, racket)

For a disturbing sound, støy or bråk fits much better than plain lyd.

Is there a difference between Støy i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort and Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort?

Yes, a small nuance:

• Støy i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  = Noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.
  More general: any noise in neighborhoods (as a phenomenon).

• Støyen i nabolaget gjør søvnen min kort.
  = The noise in the neighborhood makes my sleep short.
  More specific: the actual noise that exists in your neighborhood (something you and the listener know about).

In everyday speech, both are possible. The version with støyen sounds a bit more concrete and specific.

What is the word order rule behind gjør søvnen min kort? Could I say gjør kort søvnen min?

The normal word order in Norwegian is:

Subject – Verb – Object – Predicative/Adverb

Here:

• Støyen i nabolaget (subject)
• gjør (verb)
• søvnen min (object)
• kort (object complement / predicative)

So gjør søvnen min kort follows the standard pattern.

gjør kort søvnen min is not natural and would sound wrong. You should keep the adjective after the object in this kind of structure:

• Det gjør meg glad. (not gjør glad meg)
• Nyheten gjorde henne sint. (not gjorde sint henne)
• Det gjør søvnen min kort.

What are the genders of støy, nabolag, and søvn, and how do they affect the endings -en and -et?

In Bokmål:

• støy – masculine (common gender)

  • (en) støy – støyen = the noise

• nabolag – neuter

  • (et) nabolag – nabolaget = the neighborhood

• søvn – masculine (common gender)

  • (en) søvn – søvnen = the sleep

The definite endings:

• -en for masculine (and many feminine) nouns:

  • støyen, søvnen, bilen, stolen

• -et for neuter nouns:

  • nabolaget, huset, barnet

So in the sentence:

• støyen (masc. definite)
• nabolaget (neuter definite)
• søvnen (masc. definite)

all follow the regular gender-based definite endings.