Learn Hardcore Norwegian: I stuen spiller vi sjakk etter middag. - In the living room we play chess after dinner.

So i stuen literally means “in the living room”.
Norwegian often prefers this “built‑in” definite ending instead of a separate word like English the.

Why is I stuen at the beginning of the sentence? Could I say Vi spiller sjakk i stuen etter middag instead?

Both word orders are correct:

I stuen spiller vi sjakk etter middag.
Vi spiller sjakk i stuen etter middag.

Norwegian main clauses follow a Verb‑Second (V2) rule: the finite verb (here: spiller) must be in the second position in the sentence.

If you start with the subject:
- Vi (1st element) spiller (2nd) sjakk i stuen etter middag …
If you start with a place phrase:
- I stuen (1st element) spiller (2nd) vi (3rd) sjakk etter middag …

Starting with I stuen simply puts extra emphasis on the place (“In the living room, we play chess after dinner”), but the meaning is basically the same.

Why is the verb spiller before vi? In English it would be “we play”, not “play we”.

This is again the V2 rule in Norwegian main clauses:

The finite verb (here spiller) must always be in second position, no matter what comes first.
If something other than the subject is in first position (like I stuen), the verb still has to come second, so the subject gets pushed after the verb:
- I stuen (1st) spiller (2nd) vi (3rd) …

This “verb‑second” word order is normal in Norwegian (and other Germanic languages like German), even though it looks inverted from an English perspective.

What tense is spiller? Does it mean “we play” or “we are playing”?

Spiller is the present tense of å spille (to play).

In Norwegian, the plain present tense covers both:

We play chess after dinner. (habitual action)
We are playing chess after dinner. (present or arranged schedule, depending on context)

So Vi spiller sjakk can mean “we play chess” or “we are playing chess”.
Context usually makes it clear whether it’s a habit or something happening now.

What is the infinitive (dictionary) form of spiller, and how is it conjugated?

The infinitive is å spille = to play.

For regular verbs like spille, the present tense is formed by adding -r:

å spille – to play
jeg spiller – I play
du spiller – you play
han/hun spiller – he/she plays
vi spiller – we play
dere spiller – you (plural) play
de spiller – they play

So vi spiller = we play / we are playing.

Why is there no article before sjakk? Why not vi spiller en sjakk?

In Norwegian, games and sports are usually used without an article after spille:

spille sjakk – play chess
spille fotball – play football/soccer
spille kort – play cards

You say:

Vi spiller sjakk. – We play chess.
not
✗ Vi spiller en sjakk.

So sjakk behaves like an uncountable or “mass” noun in this context, similar to English “We play chess” (not “a chess”).

Why is it etter middag and not etter middagen?

Both are possible, but they have slightly different nuances:

etter middag – after dinner in a general, habitual sense
- Suggests a routine: “after (the) dinner (in general / most days).”
etter middagen – after the dinner (a specific, known dinner)
- Refers to a particular dinner you’re talking about.

In a sentence describing a usual habit, etter middag (indefinite) sounds more natural:

I stuen spiller vi sjakk etter middag.
= “In the living room we (usually) play chess after dinner.”

Could I also say Etter middag spiller vi sjakk i stuen? Is that still correct?

Yes, that is correct:

Etter middag spiller vi sjakk i stuen.

Again, the V2 rule applies:

Etter middag (1st element: time)
spiller (2nd: verb)
vi (3rd: subject)
sjakk i stuen (rest)

Changing the order mainly changes the emphasis:

I stuen spiller vi sjakk etter middag. – Focus on where.
Etter middag spiller vi sjakk i stuen. – Focus on when.

Why is the preposition i used in i stuen and not på stuen?

For rooms that you are inside, the standard preposition in Bokmål is i:

i stuen – in the living room
i kjøkkenet – in the kitchen
i huset – in the house

So i stuen is the normal, standard form.

In some dialects and informal speech, you might hear på stua, but for standard written Norwegian, i stuen is the expected choice.

What exactly does middag mean here: “lunch”, “dinner”, or “noon”?

In everyday Norwegian, middag usually means the main hot meal of the day, often in the afternoon or early evening. In English terms it’s most often “dinner”.

So etter middag in this sentence most naturally translates as “after dinner”.

(For “noon” Norwegians say midt på dagen or use klokka tolv = twelve o’clock, rather than middag alone.)

Is stue masculine or feminine? Why is it stuen and not something like stuenen?

Stue is typically treated as a feminine noun in Bokmål, but feminine nouns can be declined in two ways:

Feminine endings (more informal / everyday):
- ei stue – a living room
- stua – the living room
Masculine‑style endings (more formal / standard in writing):
- en stue – a living room
- stuen – the living room

So stuen already contains the definite ending -en; you do not add another ending.
That’s why it’s stuen, not stuenen.

Can I stuen spiller vi sjakk etter middag also mean “Right now, in the living room, we are playing chess after dinner”?

Yes, context could make it refer to something happening right now, but as it stands, the sentence sounds more like a general habit:

“In the living room, we play chess after dinner (as a usual routine).”

To make it clearly about right now, Norwegians might add a time word like nå (now):

Nå, i stuen, spiller vi sjakk etter middag.
– Right now, in the living room, we are playing chess after dinner.

Or simply:

Vi sitter i stuen og spiller sjakk nå.
– We’re sitting in the living room and playing chess now.

How would I say “In the living room, we are going to play chess after dinner” (future meaning)?

You can express future plans in a couple of natural ways:

Using skal (like “going to / will”):
- I stuen skal vi spille sjakk etter middag.
  – In the living room, we’re going to play chess after dinner.
Using kommer til å (more neutral future):
- I stuen kommer vi til å spille sjakk etter middag.

In both cases, spille is in the infinitive, and skal / kommer til å carry the future meaning.