Questions & Answers about Barna sitter på trappen.
Norwegian treats barn (child) a bit differently from many other nouns:
- et barn = a child (indefinite singular, neuter)
- barn = children (indefinite plural – same form as singular)
- barna = the children (definite plural)
So barna already includes the meaning of the. You don’t add an extra word for the in front of it. The definite article is a suffix.
Norwegian usually puts the at the end of the noun as an ending, not as a separate word:
- en/ei trapp = a stair / a step
- trappen / trappa = the stair / the steps (depending on context)
- et barn = a child
- barnet = the child
- barn = children
- barna = the children
So barna literally is children-the; that’s how Norwegian expresses the children.
sitter is the present tense of å sitte (to sit). Norwegian doesn’t usually have a separate progressive form like English am sitting.
- Barna sitter på trappen.
→ can mean both The children sit on the steps (habitual)
and The children are sitting on the steps (right now).
Context tells you whether it’s a general statement or something happening at this moment.
Norwegian normally uses just one verb form for the present tense:
- jeg sitter = I sit / I am sitting
- de sitter = they sit / they are sitting
Using er + present participle (like er sittende) is possible, but it’s rare and feels formal or stylistic, not like the normal everyday am/are -ing in English.
So Barna sitter på trappen is the normal way to say The children are sitting on the steps.
Norwegian verbs don’t change with the subject in the present tense:
- jeg sitter – I sit / am sitting
- du sitter – you sit / are sitting
- han/hun sitter – he/she sits / is sitting
- vi sitter – we sit / are sitting
- dere sitter – you (plural) sit / are sitting
- de sitter – they sit / are sitting
Only the subject pronoun changes; the verb form sitter stays the same.
på generally means on (on top of a surface), and that fits sitting on steps:
- på trappen = on the stair(s) / on the steps / on the porch steps
i trappen (literally in the stairs) sounds odd in most contexts. You might hear i trappa in some dialects meaning in the stairwell, but for children sitting on steps, på trappen is the normal choice.
So: sitting on top of something → usually på.
trapp can cover several related meanings:
- A staircase inside a building (the stairs between floors).
- The steps leading up to a house (porch steps).
- Sometimes the flight of steps outside an entrance.
In Barna sitter på trappen, context usually suggests the steps outside a house or a small staircase, but it can be either. Norwegian doesn’t always distinguish as clearly as English between steps, staircase, and porch steps; trapp(en) is often used for all of them.
It’s the same noun; the difference is style and dialect:
- trappen – standard Bokmål, masculine form
- trappa – also allowed in Bokmål as a feminine form, and very common in speech
So you can have:
- en trapp – trappen
- ei trapp – trappa
Both mean the stair/the steps. Many people say trappa in everyday speech and informal writing, but trappen is completely correct and often a bit more formal or “bookish.”
Using the definite form trappen suggests that both speaker and listener know which steps are meant:
- Barna sitter på trappen.
→ The children are sitting on the steps (for example, the steps in front of the house you’re both looking at).
If you said:
- Barna sitter på en trapp.
→ The children are sitting on a set of steps (some steps somewhere, not specific or not previously known).
So trappen = a specific, identifiable set of steps.
Yes, that’s perfectly correct Norwegian. Both are fine:
- Barna sitter på trappen. (neutral order: subject–verb–place)
- På trappen sitter barna. (emphasis shifts to the place: On the steps is where the children are.)
Putting På trappen first often highlights the location, maybe contrasting it with some other place in the previous sentence.
barn is a neuter noun with an irregular pattern:
- et barn = a child
- barnet = the child
- flere barn = several children
- barna = the children
There is no -er ending in the plural; both singular and plural indefinite are barn. You understand from the rest of the sentence (verb form, context, determiners) whether it’s one child or several:
- Barnet sitter på trappen.
→ The child is sitting on the steps. - Barna sitter på trappen.
→ The children are sitting on the steps.
In Norwegian, a double consonant mainly tells you that the preceding vowel is short:
- sitter: short i
- a clear tt sound
- roughly: SIT-ter (two syllables)
- a clear tt sound
- trappen: short a
- clear pp
- roughly: TRAP-pen
- clear pp
Compare:
- siterer (quotes) – long i
- one t
- traper (not a normal word, but phonologically) would have a longer a.
So the spelling tt, pp helps you get the vowel length right more than it indicates a radically different consonant sound.
Key forms of å sitte (to sit):
- å sitte – infinitive
- sitter – present (sit / am sitting)
- satt – preterite / simple past (sat)
- Barna satt på trappen. = The children sat / were sitting on the steps.
- har sittet – present perfect (have sat / have been sitting)
- Barna har sittet på trappen lenge. = The children have been sitting on the steps for a long time.
These forms are enough for most everyday use.