Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Vi går til sentrum i morgen. - We walk to the city center tomorrow.

Vi går til sentrum i morgen.

We walk to the city center tomorrow.

Breakdown of Vi går til sentrum i morgen.

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Questions & Answers about Vi går til sentrum i morgen.

Why is the verb går in the present tense even though the sentence is about tomorrow?

Norwegian often uses the present tense to talk about the (near) future when the plan is quite clear or decided, just like English uses present continuous:

Vi går til sentrum i morgen.
= We are going to the city centre tomorrow.

This is very normal and sounds natural. A couple more examples:

Jeg reiser til Oslo på fredag. – I’m travelling to Oslo on Friday.
De kommer hjem neste uke. – They are coming home next week.

So: present tense in Norwegian can mean future when a future time expression (like i morgen, neste uke, på fredag) makes the time clear.

What’s the difference between Vi går til sentrum i morgen, Vi skal gå til sentrum i morgen, and similar future forms?

They are all grammatical but sound slightly different:

Vi går til sentrum i morgen.
Neutral, everyday way to say you’re going (usually on foot) tomorrow. Simple, matter‑of‑fact plan.
Vi skal til sentrum i morgen.
(More natural than Vi skal gå til sentrum i morgen.)
Focus on intention/plan: We’re going (we have decided / it’s arranged) to go to the city centre tomorrow.
Often used like English “are going to” for plans.
Vi skal gå til sentrum i morgen.
Emphasises the walking itself – e.g. walking instead of taking the bus:
We’re going to walk to the city centre tomorrow (not take the bus).
Vi kommer til å gå til sentrum i morgen.
More like a prediction or conclusion: We’ll end up walking to the city centre tomorrow / It looks like we’re going to walk…

In everyday speech, for a simple plan, Vi går til sentrum i morgen and Vi skal til sentrum i morgen are the most natural.

When should I use gå, dra, or reise for “to go”?

Very roughly:

gå
- Literally: to walk.
- With a destination, it usually implies going on foot:
  - Vi går til sentrum. – We’re walking to the city centre.
  - Jeg går hjem. – I’m walking home.
dra
- General “go/leave” (any means of transport).
- Very common for simply “go somewhere”:
  - Vi drar til sentrum. – We’re going to the city centre.
  - Jeg drar på jobb. – I’m going to work.
reise
- Travel, often longer or more “trip‑like”:
  - Jeg reiser til Spania i sommer. – I’m travelling to Spain this summer.
  - Vi reiser mye. – We travel a lot.

So Vi går til sentrum i morgen suggests you will walk there.
If you just mean “go” (by bus, car, etc.), Vi drar til sentrum i morgen is more neutral.

Why do we say til sentrum and not i sentrum, or just sentrum?

til is used with movement towards a destination (similar to English to):
- Vi går til sentrum. – We are going to the city centre.
- Jeg drar til skolen. – I’m going to school.
i is used for location, “in”:
- Vi er i sentrum. – We are in the city centre.
- Jeg jobber i sentrum. – I work in the city centre.

You cannot drop the preposition:

✗ *Vi går sentrum i morgen. – ungrammatical.

And Vi går i sentrum i morgen would mean:

“We are walking in the city centre tomorrow” (i.e. that’s where the walking happens),
not that you go from somewhere else to the centre.

Standard Norwegian also normally says i sentrum, not på sentrum, for “in the centre”.

What exactly does sentrum mean, and how is it used grammatically?

Meaning:

sentrum = the central part of a town/city – “the city centre / downtown”.
i sentrum – in the city centre
til sentrum – to the city centre

Grammatically:

It’s a neuter noun: et sentrum (a centre).
In practice, you very often use it without any article:
- Jeg bor i sentrum. – I live in the city centre.
- Vi drar til sentrum. – We’re going to the city centre.

You rarely need the definite form (like “the centre”) explicitly; the bare word sentrum usually already carries that meaning in context.

Can I say I morgen går vi til sentrum instead of Vi går til sentrum i morgen? Does it change the meaning?

Yes, both are correct Norwegian:

Vi går til sentrum i morgen.
I morgen går vi til sentrum.

They mean practically the same thing. The difference is slight emphasis:

I morgen går vi til sentrum.
Puts extra focus on tomorrow (the time frame).

Both are very natural. Just remember the V2 rule: when you start with I morgen, the verb must still be the second element:

✅ I morgen går vi til sentrum.
❌ *I morgen vi går til sentrum. (wrong)

Where in the sentence should I put i morgen? Are forms like Vi går i morgen til sentrum correct?

The two most natural positions are:

At the end:
- Vi går til sentrum i morgen.
At the beginning:
- I morgen går vi til sentrum.

These follow common patterns:

Subject – Verb – Place – Time
Time – Verb – Subject – Place

The following are unusual or incorrect:

✗ *Vi går i morgen til sentrum. – sounds wrong/very unnatural.
✗ *Vi i morgen går til sentrum. – violates the V2 rule.

As a simple rule: put longer time expressions like i morgen, neste uke, på fredag either first or last in the clause.

Is i morgen always written as two words? And what’s the difference between i morgen and morgen?

Standard spelling is always two words: i morgen.
- imorgen is not correct in standard Norwegian (though you might see it informally online).

Meaning:

i morgen = tomorrow (adverb)
- Vi går til sentrum i morgen. – We’re going to the city centre tomorrow.
morgen by itself usually = morning (noun)
- en morgen – a morning
- i morgen tidlig – tomorrow morning (literally “in tomorrow early”)

So i morgen points to the next day, while morgen alone normally refers to the morning part of a day.

Why is it i morgen (tomorrow) and not something like på morgenen or om morgenen?

These expressions mean different things:

i morgen – tomorrow (a specific day in the future)
- Jeg drar i morgen. – I’m leaving tomorrow (one specific time).
om morgenen / på morgenen – in the morning in a habitual/general sense:
- Jeg drar om morgenen. – I leave in the mornings (as a habit).
- Jeg trener på morgenen. – I work out in the mornings.

So in Vi går til sentrum i morgen, we’re talking about one particular day (tomorrow), so i morgen is the correct choice.

How do you pronounce Vi går til sentrum i morgen?

In a fairly standard Eastern Norwegian pronunciation, roughly:

Vi – like English “vee”
går – a bit like “gor” in gore, with a rolled or tapped r and a long vowel
til – like English “till”
sentrum – “SEN-trum” (stress on SEN; u is like a fronted “oo”)
i – like English “ee”
morgen – often “MOR-ren” (the g is not clearly pronounced, the last e is a weak sound)

Approximate full sentence:

Vi går til sentrum i morgen. ≈ “Vee gor til SEN-trum ee MOR-ren.”

IPA‑style (very approximate, one possible variant):
[viː ɡoːr tɪl ˈsɛntrʉm iː ˈmɔːɾən]

Pronunciation varies by dialect, but this will be understood everywhere.

Is Vi capitalized because it’s a pronoun, like I in English?

No. In Norwegian:

Pronouns are not normally capitalized:
- jeg, du, han, hun, vi, dere, de
Vi is capitalized in Vi går til sentrum i morgen. only because it is the first word of the sentence.

In the middle of a sentence, it would be:

… at vi går til sentrum i morgen. – “… that we’re going to the city centre tomorrow.”

Note: unlike English I, Norwegian jeg is written with a small j, unless it happens to be the first word of a sentence.