Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, blir ensomheten svakere. - When she feels safety and support from the family, the loneliness becomes weaker.

når
- Used for repeated / general time situations and also for future:
- Når jeg er ferdig, ringer jeg deg. – When I’m finished, I’ll call you.
da
- Used for one specific event in the past:
- Da jeg kom hjem, var det mørkt. – When I came home, it was dark.
hvis
- Means “if” (condition, not time):
- Hvis hun kjenner trygghet... – If she feels security... (maybe she does, maybe she doesn’t).

So «Når hun kjenner...» is talking about any situation in which she feels that security, not a single past event and not a hypothetical if.

Why is the verb «blir» in the second position after that long first part of the sentence?

Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position, regardless of what comes first.

The sentence is:

Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, blir ensomheten svakere.

Here, the entire part «Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien» is placed first as one big element. After that, the verb in the main clause must come next:

Fronted element: Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien
Verb: blir
Subject: ensomheten
Rest: svakere

If you drop the initial clause, you would simply say:

Ensomheten blir svakere. – The loneliness becomes weaker.

Same verb-in-second-position pattern.

Why is it «Når hun kjenner trygghet» and not «Når hun føler trygghet»? What’s the difference between «kjenne» and «føle»?

Both can translate to “feel”, but they’re used a bit differently:

kjenne
- Literally “to know / sense / feel” something, often more general or about being aware of a state.
- Jeg kjenner glede / trygghet / smerte. – I feel joy / security / pain.
føle
- Closer to the emotional feeling verb, often used reflexively (føle seg):
- Jeg føler meg trygg. – I feel safe.
- Jeg føler sorg. – I feel sorrow.

In this sentence, «kjenner trygghet og støtte» is very natural: she experiences / senses security and support. «Føler trygghet og støtte» is not wrong, but «kjenner trygghet» is more idiomatic here.

What is the difference between «trygg» and «trygghet»?

trygg is an adjective = safe, secure
- Hun er trygg. – She is safe / feels safe.
- En trygg familie. – A safe / secure family.
trygghet is a noun = safety, security (the state or feeling)
- Hun kjenner trygghet. – She feels security / a sense of safety.
- Barn trenger trygghet. – Children need security.

In the sentence, «kjenner trygghet» focuses on her experience of the feeling of safety, not just being safe as a fact.

Why do we say «trygghet og støtte» without a determiner, not «en trygghet og en støtte»?

Both «trygghet» (security) and «støtte» (support) are used here as uncountable / abstract nouns, similar to English “security” and “support”, which also normally don’t take a/an:

She feels support from her family → no article.
Hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien → no article.

You could say «en støtte» in other contexts (e.g. “He is a support to me” = «Han er en støtte for meg»), but here «støtte» means the general kind of help/support, so no article is used.

Why is it «fra familien» and not «av familien»?

Both fra and av can translate to “from”, but they’re used differently:

fra – from as a source / origin (more neutral and typical with support, help, etc.)
- støtte fra familien – support from the family
- hjelp fra venner – help from friends
av – from as a doer / agent or part of passive constructions, among other uses
- brevet ble skrevet av henne – the letter was written by her
- elsket av familien – loved by the family

With «støtte», the natural phrase is «støtte fra familien». You could say «elsket av familien» (loved by the family), but support normally takes fra.

Why is it «ensomheten» (with -en) instead of just «ensomhet»?

Norwegian often uses the definite form (-en, -a, -et) when talking about something specific and known in the context.

ensomhet = loneliness (in general, as a concept)
ensomheten = the loneliness (her particular loneliness)

In this sentence, we’re not talking about loneliness in general, but the loneliness she feels. So:

Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, blir ensomheten svakere.
→ When she feels security and support from her family, *the loneliness becomes weaker.*

Why is «svakere» used here, and not «mindre»?

svakere is the comparative form of svak = weak → weaker.
Here, “loneliness” is treated like a force that becomes less strong:
- ensomheten blir svakere – the loneliness becomes weaker.
mindre is the comparative of liten and also used as “less”.
You could also say:
- Ensomheten blir mindre. – The loneliness becomes less / smaller.

Both are possible, but «svakere» adds a nuance of reduced intensity, as if loneliness is a power that loses strength.

Could we say «er svakere» instead of «blir svakere»? What’s the difference between «er» and «blir» here?

er = is → describes a state.
blir = becomes → describes a change of state.

In this sentence, we want to show that the level of loneliness changes when she feels support:

blir ensomheten svakere = the loneliness becomes weaker (it changes from stronger to weaker).

If you said:

Ensomheten er svakere. – The loneliness is weaker.

you’d be simply stating the current state, without highlighting the process of becoming weaker in that situation. So «blir» fits better with the idea “when this happens, the loneliness becomes weaker.”

Why is it «Når hun kjenner ...» and not «Når kjenner hun ...»?

Inside a subordinate clause introduced by «når», Norwegian does not use V2; the word order is more like English:

Når (subordinator)
hun (subject)
kjenner (verb)
trygghet og støtte fra familien (rest)

So:

✅ Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, ...
❌ Når kjenner hun trygghet og støtte fra familien, ... (incorrect in standard Norwegian)

In questions, you do invert:

Når kjenner hun trygghet og støtte fra familien? – When does she feel security and support from her family? (this is a question, so inversion is correct there).

Can we leave out «hun» and just say «Når kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien ...»?

No. Norwegian is not a “pro-drop” language like Spanish or Italian. You must include the subject pronoun:

✅ Når hun kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, ...
❌ Når kjenner trygghet og støtte fra familien, ...

Leaving out «hun» makes the sentence ungrammatical, because the verb needs an explicit subject.

What’s the difference between «ensom» and «alene»?

Both often translate to “alone” in English, but they’re different:

ensom = lonely (emotional)
- Hun er ensom. – She is lonely.
alene = alone (physically, by oneself)
- Hun er alene hjemme. – She is home alone.

Ensomhet is loneliness (the feeling). The sentence talks about «ensomheten», the feeling of being lonely, not just being physically alone.

How do you pronounce «kjenner», especially the «kj» sound?

Approximate pronunciation (Bokmål, standard eastern):

kjenner ≈ /ˈçɛnːər/
- kj: a voiceless palatal fricative /ç/, similar to a very soft “h” made with the tongue close to the hard palate. It’s not like English k or sh.
- e: like e in “bed”.
- nn: a longer n sound.
- er: often pronounced like -er in unstressed “better” in many accents.

So it roughly sounds like “HYEN-ner”, with a soft, hissy h at the start rather than a hard k.