Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Jeg liker når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi og ikke bare skrive om virkelighet. - I like when the teacher asks us to use imagination and not only write about reality.

Use når for:
- Repeated, habitual, or general situations
  - Jeg liker når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
    = I like it whenever the teacher asks us to use imagination.
- Future events
  - Jeg ringer deg når jeg kommer hjem.
Use da for:
- A single, specific event in the past
  - Da læreren ba oss bruke fantasi i går, ble jeg glad.
    = When the teacher asked us to use imagination yesterday, I was happy.

In your sentence, it’s about something that happens repeatedly/regularly, not one specific past moment, so når is correct.

In English we say “I like it when…”. Why is there no det in Jeg liker når læreren…?

Norwegian often leaves out det in this kind of structure.

Fully “English-like” Norwegian:
- Jeg liker det når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
Natural, slightly lighter Norwegian (your sentence):
- Jeg liker når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.

Both are correct. Jeg liker det når … can sound a bit more explicit/emphatic; Jeg liker når … is very common in everyday speech and writing.

So the missing det is not a mistake; it’s just optional here.

What exactly does ber mean here, and how does å be work grammatically?

The verb å be is tricky because it has several meanings:

to ask / to request (someone to do something)
- Læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
  = The teacher asks us to use imagination.
- Pattern: be + (person) + infinitive
  - Hun ba meg komme tidlig. = She asked me to come early.
to ask (for something), request
- Jeg ber deg om hjelp. = I ask you for help.
- Pattern: be (noen) om (noe)
to pray
- Hun ber til Gud. = She prays to God.

In your sentence, it’s sense (1): the teacher is asking/telling us to do something.
Grammatically, it follows this pattern:

ber (asks) + oss (us) + bruke (use) + fantasi (imagination)

Why is it oss and not vi in læreren ber oss?

Vi and oss are subject vs object forms:

vi = we (subject)
- Vi skriver. = We write.
oss = us (object)
- Læreren ser oss. = The teacher sees us.

In læreren ber oss bruke fantasi, læreren is the subject (the one who asks), and oss is the object (the ones being asked). So oss is the only correct form here:

✅ Læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
❌ Læreren ber vi bruke fantasi.

Why are bruke and skrive in the infinitive without å?

In Norwegian, some verbs are followed directly by an infinitive without å. Å be used in this “ask someone to do something” pattern is one of them.

Compare:

Læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
- ber (finite verb) + oss (object) + bruke (bare infinitive)
More explicit version with om å:
- Læreren ber oss om å bruke fantasi.

Both are correct, but in the pattern be + person + infinitive, you don’t use å:

✅ Hun ba meg komme.
✅ Hun ba meg om å komme.
❌ Hun ba meg å komme. (sounds wrong/unnatural)

In your sentence, the same logic applies to both infinitives:

ber oss bruke fantasi
(ber oss) … ikke bare skrive om virkelighet

What is the role of ikke bare in og ikke bare skrive om virkelighet? Why no men også?

Ikke bare literally means not only or not just.

The full, “complete” pattern is:

ikke bare … men også … = not only … but also …

For example:

Jeg vil ikke bare skrive om virkelighet, men også bruke fantasi.
= I don’t want to just write about reality, but also use imagination.

In your sentence, only the ikke bare part is stated; the men også … part is understood from context:

… ber oss bruke fantasi og ikke bare skrive om virkelighet.
≈ “… asks us to use imagination and not just write about reality (all the time).”

So the structure is:

bruke fantasi (do this)
og ikke bare skrive om virkelighet (and not only do that other thing)

Leaving out men også is very normal when the contrast is already clear.

Why is the word order når læreren ber oss… and not når ber læreren oss…?

This is about Norwegian word order in subordinate clauses.

Main clauses (normal statements) have V2 word order:
- The finite verb is in second position.
- I dag liker jeg setningen. (Today like I the sentence.)
Yes/no questions:
- The verb comes before the subject:
- Ber læreren oss bruke fantasi? (Is the teacher asking us to use imagination?)
Subordinate clauses (introduced by når, at, fordi, hvis, etc.) normally have:
- Subject + finite verb + rest
- … når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.

So:

når læreren ber oss … = subordinate clause, so subject first, then verb
når ber læreren oss …? would be a question (“When does the teacher ask us…?”)

Your sentence is not a question, so når læreren ber oss… is the correct order.

Why is it læreren (the teacher) and not just lærer?

Norwegian usually marks definiteness with a suffix on the noun:

en lærer = a teacher
læreren = the teacher

In this sentence:

Jeg liker når læreren ber oss …
→ It refers to a specific, known teacher (probably our teacher).

Often, Norwegians don’t need to say vår lærer (our teacher); læreren alone is enough if context makes it clear who you mean.

If you said:

Jeg liker når en lærer ber oss bruke fantasi.
= I like it when a teacher asks us to use imagination. (any teacher, in general)

So læreren here is “the teacher (we both know who)”.

Why is there no article before fantasi and virkelighet? Could it be fantasien or virkeligheten?

Abstract nouns in Norwegian often appear without an article when you talk about them in a general sense:

bruke fantasi = use imagination (imagination in general)
skrive om virkelighet = write about reality (reality in general)

You can also use the definite forms, but the meaning shifts slightly:

bruke fantasien
- more like use (your) imagination, a bit more concrete/personal.
skrive om virkeligheten
- like write about the (real) world / the actual reality we live in.

So:

bruke fantasi / skrive om virkelighet
→ neutral, general concepts.
bruke fantasien / skrive om virkeligheten
→ more specific, almost “the imagination / the reality we have in this situation.”

Your sentence is perfectly natural with the bare nouns; it sounds like a general preference about imagination vs reality.

What does om mean in skrive om virkelighet?

Here om is the preposition meaning about:

skrive om noe = write about something
- Vi skriver om virkelighet. = We write about reality.
- Hun skriver om historie. = She writes about history.

Other common uses of om (for contrast):

tenke om:
- Hva tenker du om dette? = What do you think about this?
snakke om:
- Vi snakker om filmen. = We talk about the movie.

So in the sentence, skrive om virkelighet simply means write about reality.

Could I say Jeg liker at læreren ber oss bruke fantasi instead of når? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

Jeg liker at læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.

But når and at don’t mean the same thing:

når = when, whenever (time/frequency)
- Jeg liker når læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
  → I like it whenever the teacher does this; it’s about the situations when this happens.
at = that (introduces a fact/content clause)
- Jeg liker at læreren ber oss bruke fantasi.
  → I like the fact that the teacher does this (it’s a quality/characteristic of the teacher or the teaching style).

In many contexts both are possible, but når emphasizes the moments/occasions, while at emphasizes the fact/state.

Why is it liker with jeg? In English it changes (I like / he likes), but here it doesn’t.

Norwegian verb forms do not change with the person (I, you, he/she, we, they). The present tense is the same for all subjects.

Verb: å like (to like)

jeg liker = I like
du liker = you like
han/hun liker = he/she likes
vi liker = we like
dere liker = you (plural) like
de liker = they like

So Jeg liker … is just “I like …” — no extra -s like English likes.