Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Hun virker seriøs på jobb, men hjemme ler hun mye. - She seems serious at work, but at home she laughs a lot.

Hun er seriøs på jobb = She is serious at work (stated as a fact).
Hun virker seriøs på jobb = She seems/comes across as serious at work (based on impression, how she appears to others).

In everyday speech, virker softens the statement and makes it more about your perception, not an absolute fact. In this sentence, it fits well because it’s contrasting how she seems at work vs how she is/behaves at home.

Why is it på jobb and not på jobben? What’s the difference?

Both are correct, but there is a nuance:

på jobb (no article) = at work in a general sense, focusing on the activity/state of being at work.
- Similar to English “She’s serious at work.”
på jobben (with article: the work/the job) = more concrete, often referring to a specific workplace.
- Can feel slightly more specific: “at the job / at her workplace.”

In this sentence, på jobb is most natural because we’re talking about her general behavior when she is in “work mode,” not emphasizing a particular physical workplace.

Why is the word order ... men hjemme ler hun mye and not ... men hjemme hun ler mye?

Norwegian has V2 word order in main clauses: the verb usually comes in second position.

In men hjemme ler hun mye:

men — coordinating conjunction (doesn’t count as the first “slot” for V2)
hjemme — first element of the clause
ler — verb (must be in the second position)
hun mye — subject + rest

So after hjemme, the verb ler must come.
✗ men hjemme hun ler mye breaks the V2 rule, so it sounds ungrammatical to Norwegians.

Could the sentence also be Hun virker seriøs på jobb, men hun ler mye hjemme? Is that wrong?

That version is completely correct, just slightly different in emphasis.

... men hjemme ler hun mye
→ Focuses first on the contrast of place (at home), then what she does there (laughs a lot).
... men hun ler mye hjemme
→ Keeps the subject hun early and adds hjemme at the end. The contrast is still clear, but a bit less strongly placed on the location.

Both are natural Norwegian; your version just shifts the emphasis a bit.

Why is it seriøs without any extra ending? Don’t adjectives agree with gender and number?

Yes, Norwegian adjectives agree with gender/number, but there is a pattern:

After the verb “to be / to seem” (er, virker, blir, etc.) and with a definite subject, you normally use the base form of the adjective:

Hun er seriøs. – She is serious.
Han virker trøtt. – He seems tired.
De er glade. – They are happy.

Here, hun is definite in meaning (a specific person), so you use the basic form seriøs, not something like seriøse or seriøsene. Agreement endings show up more clearly when the adjective stands before a noun:

en seriøs jobb – a serious job (masculine).
et seriøst møte – a serious meeting (neuter).
seriøse mennesker – serious people (plural).

After virker, with a pronoun like hun, you use the basic form seriøs.

What exactly does hjemme mean, and why is there no preposition (like i or på)?

Hjemme is an adverb meaning “at home”. You don’t normally add a preposition before it:

Hun er hjemme. – She is at home.
Vi spiser hjemme. – We eat at home.

Compare these forms:

hjem = “home” as a direction (to home):
- Jeg går hjem. – I’m walking home.
hjemme = “at home” (location):
- Jeg er hjemme. – I’m at home.

So in men hjemme ler hun mye, hjemme is just “at home”, with no extra preposition needed.

What is the nuance of ler versus something like smiler? Does ler mye sound natural?

å le = to laugh (sound: “ha-ha”, giggling, etc.)
å smile = to smile (just moving mouth, often silent)

ler mye = laughs a lot, and it sounds very natural. It implies she frequently laughs out loud or giggles.
If you said smiler mye, that would mean she smiles a lot, which is a bit softer and quieter.

What does mye mean exactly in ler hun mye, and where can it be placed?

mye means “a lot / much” here.

Normal positions:

Hun ler mye. – She laughs a lot.
Hjemme ler hun mye. – At home, she laughs a lot.

If you move mye to other positions, it often sounds odd or changes the meaning. For example:

✗ Hun mye ler. – wrong word order.
Hun ler veldig mye. – She laughs very much / a lot (adds emphasis).

So in the original sentence, ler hun mye is the natural pattern: verb + subject + “mye” after the verb and subject.

Could you also use ser or ser ut instead of virker? Like Hun ser seriøs ut på jobb?

Yes, you can:

Hun ser seriøs ut på jobb. – She looks serious at work.
Hun virker seriøs på jobb. – She seems/comes across as serious at work.

Differences:

ser ut (som) focuses on visual appearance—what you see.
virker can be broader: appearance, behavior, general impression.

In many contexts, they overlap and both sound natural. Virker is slightly more general and psychological (“gives the impression of being”), while ser ... ut is closer to literally “looks (visually) …”.

Why is there a comma before men?

In Norwegian, when men (“but”) connects two full main clauses, you normally put a comma before it:

Hun virker seriøs på jobb, men hjemme ler hun mye.
- Clause 1: Hun virker seriøs på jobb
- Clause 2: hjemme ler hun mye

Both parts have their own verb and can stand as independent sentences, so the comma is required.

If men connected just two words or short phrases (not full clauses), there would usually be no comma:

Hun er seriøs, men morsom. – She is serious but funny. (no comma before morsom, only before men).