Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig.

Norwegian often uses the definite form when both speaker and listener know which specific thing is being talked about – very similar to English “the stay”.

Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig.
= The stay was short, but very pleasant.

This implies:

a particular stay that both parties know about (for example, the trip you just finished)

If you said Et opphold var kort, men veldig hyggelig, it would sound odd or incomplete, like “A stay was short, but very pleasant” without telling you which stay. So the definite form is natural here.

What’s the difference between opphold and besøk? Could I say Besøket var kort, men veldig hyggelig?

Both can sometimes be translated as “visit”, but they’re not identical.

opphold
- A stay somewhere (often a bit more neutral/formal)
- Focus on the period of time spent in a place
- Used for stays at hotels, in cities, in other countries, etc.
- Example: Vi hadde et fint opphold i Oslo. – We had a nice stay in Oslo.
besøk
- A visit (often someone visiting someone/something)
- Often implies visiting people or a specific place as a visitor
- Example: Takk for besøket! – Thanks for the visit!

You can say:

Besøket var kort, men veldig hyggelig.
= The visit was short, but very pleasant.

That usually implies someone came to see you (or you went to see someone), whereas oppholdet can sound a bit broader or more neutral about the stay itself.

What does var mean here, and how is it different from er?

er = is / am / are (present tense of å være – to be)
var = was / were (past tense of å være)

So:

Oppholdet er kort. – The stay is short. (right now)
Oppholdet var kort. – The stay was short. (in the past)

In the sentence Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig, the speaker is talking about a stay that has already ended, so the past tense var is used.

Why don’t kort and hyggelig change form here? Shouldn’t adjectives agree with the noun?

In Norwegian, adjectives behave differently depending on where they appear:

Attributive position (before the noun): they must agree in gender/number.
- et kort opphold – a short stay (neuter, so kort stays uninflected)
- en kort tur – a short trip (masculine)
- en hyggelig kveld – a pleasant evening
- et hyggelig besøk – a pleasant visit
Predicative position (after verbs like å være – to be):
They do not change for gender or number in Bokmål; they keep the base form.
- Oppholdet var kort. – The stay was short.
- Oppholdet var veldig hyggelig. – The stay was very pleasant.
- Kvelden var hyggelig. – The evening was pleasant.
- Dagene var korte. – The days were short. (adjective still korte, which is also the plural form)

In Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig, both kort and hyggelig are predicative adjectives after var, so they stay in their base forms.

Could I say Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig opphold? Why or why not?

No, that would be incorrect.

You have two different structures:

Predicative (what the original sentence uses):
- Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig.
  -> Subject (Oppholdet) + verb (var) + adjectives (kort, veldig hyggelig)
Attributive (adjective in front of a noun):
- Det var et kort, men veldig hyggelig opphold.
  -> et kort, men veldig hyggelig opphold is a full noun phrase

You can’t mix them by leaving out the noun at the end in the first structure. Either:

Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig. (no noun after the adjectives)

Det var et kort, men veldig hyggelig opphold. (adjectives + noun together)

But Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig opphold sounds ungrammatical.

What does hyggelig really mean? Is it just “nice”?

Hyggelig is often translated as nice, pleasant, or enjoyable, but it has a slightly warmer feel.

Common uses:

About experiences:
- Det var veldig hyggelig. – It was very nice/pleasant.
About people:
- Han er veldig hyggelig. – He is very nice/friendly.
About social situations:
- Vi hadde en hyggelig kveld. – We had a pleasant/very nice evening.

It often implies:

friendly atmosphere
positive social interaction
that you felt comfortable and enjoyed it

Roughly, “The stay was short, but very hyggelig” means the stay was short, but you really enjoyed it and felt well-treated.

What role does veldig play here? Could I use svært or meget instead?

Veldig is an intensifier; it means “very” or “really”.

veldig hyggelig = very/really pleasant

Other options:

svært hyggelig – very pleasant (a bit more formal/neutral)
meget hyggelig – very/most pleasant (often more formal or slightly old-fashioned in some contexts)

So:

Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig. – Most natural, neutral, common.
Oppholdet var kort, men svært hyggelig. – Fine, a bit more formal or written.
Oppholdet var kort, men meget hyggelig. – Also fine, but can sound somewhat formal or old-fashioned depending on context.

In everyday spoken Norwegian, veldig is the most common choice.

How does men work here? Is the word order after men special, or is something left out?

Men means “but” and introduces a contrast:

Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig. = The stay was short, but very pleasant.

What’s going on after men is ellipsis: something is left out because it’s understood from context. The full version would be:

Oppholdet var kort, men (oppholdet var) veldig hyggelig. or more naturally:
Oppholdet var kort, men (det var) veldig hyggelig.

Norwegian allows you to drop the repeated subject and verb when they would be exactly the same. So after men, we just keep the new information (veldig hyggelig).

There is no special word order after men here; it’s just that det var or oppholdet var is omitted.

Why is there a comma before men in Norwegian, just like in English?

Norwegian usually places a comma before men when it connects two main clauses (or two parts that could each stand as a simple statement):

Oppholdet var kort,
men (det var) veldig hyggelig.

Each side can be understood as a separate thought:

(Oppholdet var kort.)
(Oppholdet var (veldig hyggelig).)

Therefore, a comma is used, just as in English:

The stay was short, but very pleasant.

So the comma rule here is very similar to English usage.

How do you pronounce Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig?

Approximate pronunciation in a fairly neutral Eastern Norwegian:

Oppholdet: OPP-hohl-eh
- Stress on the first syllable: OPP
- The -et at the end is like a short -eh
var: like English “var” in “varnish” without the n: vahr
kort: kort with a rolled or tapped r; in many dialects the r+t combine into a single retroflex sound
men: like English “men”
veldig: VEL-dig
- Stress on VEL
- g is hard, as in “go”
hyggelig: roughly HYG-geh-lee
- hy = like German ü or French u (front rounded vowel)
- Double g gives a short, strong g sound
- Final -lig is often pronounced -li in speech

Very rough English-style approximation:

“OPP-hol-eh var kort, men VEL-dig HYG-geh-li.”

(Real Norwegian vowels and r-sounds are a bit different, but this gives a usable starting point.)

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? Are there common variants with similar meaning?

The sentence Oppholdet var kort, men veldig hyggelig. is neutral and works well in both spoken and written Norwegian. You could use it:

in a conversation with friends
in an email to a host
in a review of a hotel or Airbnb
in relatively polite or semi-formal contexts

Some common variants with a similar meaning:

Oppholdet var kort, men veldig fint. – The stay was short, but very nice.
Oppholdet var kort, men veldig koselig. – The stay was short, but very cozy/nice (more “warm and cozy” feeling).
Oppholdet var kort, men svært hyggelig. – Slightly more formal.

All of these keep the same basic idea: the stay didn’t last long, but you had a very positive experience.