Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Søsteren min er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen. - My sister is very serious when she has an exam.

“Søsteren min” (definite noun + postposed possessive)
- Very common in spoken and written Norwegian.
- Feels neutral, everyday, natural.
- Often used when the person is already known in the context.
“Min søster” (preposed possessive + indefinite noun)
- Also correct, but can sound slightly more formal, emphatic, or contrastive, depending on context.
- Can be used when introducing the person for the first time or stressing which sister:
  - “Det er min søster, ikke din.” – That’s my sister, not yours.

In this sentence, “Søsteren min” is the most natural and typical choice.

Why does it say “søsteren” with -en and also “min”? Isn’t that double “the / my”?

This is a feature of Norwegian called double definiteness. When you have:

A definite noun (søster → søsteren)
- A postposed possessive (min, din, hans, etc.),

you normally keep both:

“søsteren” = the sister
“søsteren min” = my sister (literally: the sister my)

So in Norwegian, “søsteren min” is the standard way to say “my sister” when the possessive comes after the noun. It’s not considered redundant in Norwegian; it’s just the normal pattern.

Is “søster” masculine or feminine? Why “søsteren” and not “søstra”?

In Bokmål, søster is a feminine noun, but feminine nouns in Bokmål often have two possible definite forms:

Common gender/more “neutral” form: søsteren
Explicit feminine form: søstra

So you can see:

søsteren min
søstra mi

Both are correct Bokmål, but:

“søsteren min” is somewhat more standard/neutral Bokmål.
“søstra mi” is more colloquial and common in many dialects.

The sentence you gave uses the neutral/standard choice “søsteren min”.

Why is it “er veldig seriøs” and not “er veldig seriøse”?

“Seriøs” is an adjective describing “søsteren”. Here it’s used predicatively (after the verb er). In Norwegian:

With one person/thing (singular), you use the base form of the adjective:
- Hun er seriøs.
- Søsteren min er seriøs.
With plural, you add -e:
- Søstrene mine er seriøse. – My sisters are serious.

So “seriøs” (not seriøse) is correct because we’re talking about one sister.

Could I say “veldig alvorlig” instead of “veldig seriøs”?

You could, but it doesn’t mean exactly the same thing.

seriøs
- About a person: diligent, focused, takes things seriously, not joking around.
- “Hun er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen.” – She studies hard, behaves very focused.
alvorlig
- Literally: serious, grave, solemn.
- Often about situations (en alvorlig sykdom – a serious illness) or an overly serious mood.
- “Hun er veldig alvorlig når hun har eksamen.” can sound more like she becomes very grave/solemn (mood-wise), not necessarily just hardworking.

In this exam context, “seriøs” is the more natural and idiomatic choice.

Why do we use present tense: “hun er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen” instead of a future tense?

Norwegian often uses present tense where English would use present or future, especially for:

General habits or repeated situations
- “Han blir nervøs når han snakker foran klassen.”
Scheduled / planned future events
- “Jeg reiser i morgen.” – I am leaving tomorrow.

In “Søsteren min er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen”:

It describes a general pattern: every time she has an exam, she becomes very serious.
Present tense is the natural choice: “er … har eksamen”.

English might use “is very serious when she has exams” or “when she has an exam”, but Norwegian can keep everything in the simple present.

Why is it “har eksamen” and not “tar eksamen”?

Both can be used, but they’re not identical:

ha eksamen – literally have an exam
- Often used about the fact that you have an exam (on a day, in a period).
- “Jeg har eksamen på fredag.” – I have an exam on Friday.
ta eksamen – literally take (sit) an exam
- Focuses more on the act of taking/sitting/doing the exam.
- “Jeg tar eksamen neste uke.” – I’m taking an exam next week.

In “når hun har eksamen”, the focus is that whenever there is an exam for her, she becomes serious. “Har eksamen” fits very well with this idea of having exams as events in her life.

Why is there no article in “hun har eksamen”? Why not “en eksamen” or “eksamenen”?

In Norwegian, some nouns connected to school, work, or institutional contexts are often used without an article when we talk about them in a generic / regular / institutional sense:

ha eksamen – have (an) exam
være på skolen – be at (the) school
gå på jobb – go to work

Here, “hun har eksamen” means something like:

She is in an exam situation.
She has an exam (in general, not a particular, emphasized one).

You can say:

“når hun har en eksamen” – emphasizes one specific exam she has.
“når hun har eksamenen” – almost always sounds wrong or very odd in this context.

For the usual, general meaning, “har eksamen” without an article is the natural expression.

Why is it “når” and not “da” or “om”?

Norwegian distinguishes between these conjunctions:

når
- Used for repeated or general time references, or the future.
- “Når jeg er trøtt, drikker jeg kaffe.” – Whenever I’m tired, I drink coffee.
- Here: “når hun har eksamen” = whenever she has (an) exam.
da
- Used for one specific time in the past.
- “Da jeg var liten, bodde jeg i Bergen.” – When I was small, I lived in Bergen.
- Not used for general habits or future.
om
- As a conjunction, usually means “if”.
- “Om jeg har tid, kommer jeg.” – If I have time, I’ll come.

So “når hun har eksamen” is correct because we describe a general, recurring situation, not a single past event or a conditional if.

What is the difference between “hun” and “henne”?

Both mean “she/her”, but their grammatical roles differ:

hun – subject form (nominative)
- Used when she is doing the action.
- “Hun har eksamen.” – She has an exam.
henne – object form
- Used when she is receiving the action or comes after a preposition.
- “Jeg ser henne.” – I see her.
- “Jeg snakker med henne.” – I talk with her.

In “når hun har eksamen”, “hun” is the subject, so “hun” is the correct form.

How is “søsteren min er veldig seriøs” pronounced, especially ø and seriøs?

Approximate guidance (Bokmål / Eastern Norwegian):

søsteren:
- sø-: ø is like the vowel in French “deux” or German “schön”. Shape your lips as for “o”, but say something like “eh”.
- -ster-: “ster” roughly like English “stair”, but shorter; Norwegian r is often a light tap.
- -en: reduced, almost like “en” in “taken”.
min: like English “meen”.
er: like English “air” but shorter and with a tapped r, often pronounced very short, almost “ær”.
veldig:
- vel-: like “vell” in English “velvet”.
- -dig: in many dialects pronounced more like “di” (the g is not strongly pronounced).
seriøs:
- se-: like English “seh”.
- -ri-: like “ree”.
- -øs: again with ø, then an “s” sound.

Put together, very roughly: “SØH-ste-ren min er VELL-di seh-ree-ØS når hun har eksamen.”
(That’s a rough English-based approximation; real Norwegian rhythm is a bit different.)

Could I move “min” in the sentence, like “Min søster er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen”? Does the meaning change?

Yes, you can say:

“Min søster er veldig seriøs når hun har eksamen.”

It’s still fully correct and basically means the same thing. The difference is subtle:

“Søsteren min …”
- Feels neutral, everyday, natural.
- Often assumes the listener already knows which sister is being talked about.
“Min søster …”
- Can sound a bit more formal, emphatic, or slightly contrastive (depending on context).
- For example, contrasting with someone else’s sister:
  - “Min søster er veldig seriøs, men broren min er ganske lat.”

In isolation, both are fine; “Søsteren min” is just more typical in casual speech.