Jeg gir boken til Anna.

I give the book to Anna.

Breakdown of Jeg gir boken til Anna.

• jeg: I
• Anna: Anna
• boken: the book
• gi: to give
• til: by

Questions & Answers about Jeg gir boken til Anna.

Why is it boken and not just bok?

Norwegian usually shows “the” by adding an ending to the noun instead of putting a separate word in front.

• bok = a book (indefinite)
• boken or boka = the book (definite)

So in Jeg gir boken til Anna, boken already contains the meaning of “the book”.
There is no separate word for “the” here, because it is built into the noun as -en.

What is the difference between boken and boka?

Both can mean “the book” in Bokmål:

• boken – masculine definite form (more traditional/formal)
• boka – feminine definite form (more common in speech and informal writing)

The noun bok can be treated as:

• en bok – boken (masculine pattern)
  or
• ei bok – boka (feminine pattern)

Both are correct in Bokmål, so you can also say:

• Jeg gir boka til Anna. = I give the book to Anna.

Why is it til Anna instead of just Anna, like in English “I give Anna the book”?

Norwegian has two common patterns for this kind of sentence:

1. With til:

   • Jeg gir boken til Anna.
     Literally: I give the book to Anna.

2. With the indirect object before the direct object:

   • Jeg gir Anna boken.
     Literally: I give Anna the book.

Both are correct and mean the same thing.

Using til Anna is very close to English structure with “to Anna”.
Using Anna directly before boken (without til) is also natural and common, especially in speech.

Can I say Jeg gir til Anna boken?

No, that word order is not natural in Norwegian.

You normally use one of these:

• Jeg gir boken til Anna.
• Jeg gir Anna boken.

Norwegian main-clause word order is typically:

Subject – Verb – (Indirect Object / Direct Object) – (Other information)

Putting til Anna between the verb and the direct object boken (Jeg gir til Anna boken) sounds wrong to native speakers.

Why is it gir and not gi or giver?

The verb å gi (to give) is irregular.

Its main forms are:

• Infinitive: å gi (to give)
• Present: gir (give / am giving)
• Past: ga (gave)
• Past participle: gitt (given)

So in the present tense we say:

• Jeg gir boken til Anna. – I give / I am giving the book to Anna.

There is no form giver in standard Norwegian; gir is the correct present-tense form.

Does Jeg gir boken til Anna mean “I give” or “I am giving”?

It can mean both, depending on context.

Norwegian has only one present tense. Jeg gir boken til Anna can be translated as:

• I give the book to Anna. (habitual/general)
• I am giving the book to Anna. (right now)

Norwegian normally does not use an extra form like English “am giving”, so you rely on context (or add time words like nå – now):

• Jeg gir boken til Anna nå. – I am giving the book to Anna now.

Where would I put a time word like “tomorrow” in this sentence?

You have two common options:

1. At the end:

   • Jeg gir boken til Anna i morgen.
     I give / I am giving the book to Anna tomorrow.

2. At the beginning (then the verb stays in second position):

   • I morgen gir jeg boken til Anna.

Norwegian follows the V2 rule in main clauses: the finite verb (gir) must be in second position:

• I morgen (1st position) gir (2nd) jeg boken til Anna (rest).

How would I say “I give it to Anna” instead of “I give the book to Anna”?

You replace boken with the pronoun den (“it” for masculine/feminine nouns):

• Jeg gir den til Anna. – I give it to Anna.

Because bok is treated as masculine or feminine (en/ei bok), its pronoun is den, not det:

• en/ei bok – den (the book – it)

How would I say “I give the book to her” instead of using Anna?

You replace Anna with the object pronoun henne (her):

• Jeg gir boken til henne. – I give the book to her.

So:

• til Anna = to Anna
• til henne = to her

Why do we use til and not for in this sentence?

In this context, til is the normal preposition for indicating the recipient of something you give:

• å gi noe til noen – to give something to someone

for in Norwegian more often means “for (the benefit of)”, “because of”, or is used in other constructions, and it is not used here to mark the indirect object. So:

• ✅ Jeg gir boken til Anna.
• ❌ Jeg gir boken for Anna. (wrong in the sense “I give the book to Anna”)

Can I leave out jeg like in some other languages, and just say Gir boken til Anna?

No. Norwegian does not normally drop the subject pronoun.

You need jeg:

• Jeg gir boken til Anna. – correct
• Gir boken til Anna. – sounds like a fragment, not a full sentence, unless it’s an informal shorthand in writing (like a note) and the subject is very obvious from context.

Is this sentence Bokmål or Nynorsk, and how would it look in Nynorsk?

Jeg gir boken til Anna. is Bokmål.

In Nynorsk, a natural version would be:

• Eg gir boka til Anna.

Key differences:

• jeg (Bokmål) → eg (Nynorsk)
• boken / boka (Bokmål) → boka (Nynorsk; bok is feminine)
• The verb gir is the same in both standards.