Breakdown of Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk hjemme og snakker om hva som er fantasi og hva som er virkelighet.
Questions & Answers about Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk hjemme og snakker om hva som er fantasi og hva som er virkelighet.
Norwegian has a strict V2 word order rule in main clauses: the verb must be in second position, no matter what comes first.
- Etter forestillingen = first element (a time expression)
- spiller = the verb, so it must come second
- vi = the subject, which then comes after the verb
So:
- ✅ Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk...
- ❌ Etter forestillingen vi spiller sjakk... (verb is not in second position)
If the sentence starts with the subject, you get:
- ✅ Vi spiller sjakk hjemme etter forestillingen...
The base noun is forestilling, which usually means "show / performance" (a theatre performance, concert, etc.).
Norwegian marks definiteness with an ending:
- en forestilling = a performance (indefinite)
- forestillingen = the performance (definite, singular)
So forestilling (common gender) + -en = forestillingen (the performance).
In this sentence, etter forestillingen means "after the performance", referring to a specific show both speaker and listener know about.
Yes:
- etter en forestilling = after a performance (any, not specified)
- etter forestillingen = after the performance (a particular one)
So:
Etter en forestilling spiller vi sjakk...
→ After a performance (in general / any time this happens)Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk...
→ After the performance we’ve just seen / are talking about
The original sentence suggests a specific performance.
In Norwegian, as in English, games like chess, tennis, football are normally used without an article when you mean play the game:
- spille sjakk = to play chess
- spille fotball = to play football/soccer
- spille kort = to play cards
So you say:
- ✅ Vi spiller sjakk.
- ❌ Vi spiller en sjakk.
Using an article would sound wrong or change the meaning to something odd (like "a chess [game/piece]" but that’s not idiomatic).
- hjemme = at home (location, where you are)
- hjem = (to) home (direction, where you are going)
Examples:
- Jeg er hjemme. = I am at home.
- Jeg går hjem. = I’m going home.
In the sentence, the activity happens at home, so we need the location form:
- spiller vi sjakk hjemme = we play chess at home
Norwegian (like English) doesn’t need to repeat the subject if it’s the same in coordinated verbs:
- Vi spiller sjakk hjemme og snakker om...
- Subject vi applies to both spiller and snakker
You could say:
- Vi spiller sjakk hjemme og vi snakker om...
but that sounds heavier and is usually only used for emphasis or clarity. The natural choice is to mention vi once.
snakke om is a fixed verb–preposition combination meaning "to talk about":
- snakke om noe = talk about something
So:
- snakker om hva som er fantasi og hva som er virkelighet
= talk about what is fantasy and what is reality
Without om, snakke would just be "to speak/talk", but not "talk about [a topic]".
Because this is not a direct question, but an embedded (indirect) question inside a larger sentence.
Direct question:
Hva er fantasi?
→ What is fantasy?Embedded question inside another clause:
Vi snakker om hva som er fantasi.
→ We talk about what is fantasy.
In embedded questions in Norwegian, you do not use question word order. Instead, you keep normal clause order, and often you insert som:
- Jeg vet ikke hva som er sant. = I don’t know what is true.
- Kan du forklare hva som skjedde? = Can you explain what happened?
So "hva er fantasi" would sound like a standalone question, not part of "vi snakker om...".
Here som works as a dummy subject/relative marker in the embedded clause after hva:
- hva som er fantasi = literally what that is fantasy / what which is fantasy
In these "hva som..." structures:
- hva refers to the thing/idea you’re talking about
- som links that "what" to the verb as a kind of grammatical subject marker
Common patterns:
- hva som er viktig = what is important
- hva som skjedde = what happened
- hva som er sant = what is true
You usually need som in this kind of embedded clause; leaving it out (hva er fantasi) would change it into a direct question.
Here fantasi and virkelighet are abstract, uncountable concepts being talked about in general, like "love", "freedom", "reality", "happiness".
In Norwegian, as in English, abstract nouns used in a general sense often appear without an article:
- Kjærlighet er vanskelig. = Love is difficult.
- Virkelighet og fantasi blander seg. = Reality and fantasy mix.
So:
- hva som er fantasi = what (counts as) fantasy
- hva som er virkelighet = what (counts as) reality
Adding en would usually make it sound like a concrete instance ("a fantasy" as a single imagined thing), which is not the intended meaning here.
Yes. Norwegian often uses the present tense for scheduled or expected future actions, especially when the time is made clear by an adverbial like etter forestillingen:
- Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk.
Literally: After the performance we play chess.
Naturally understood as: After the performance we will play chess.
Other examples:
- I morgen drar jeg til Oslo. = I’m going to Oslo tomorrow.
- Neste uke begynner kurset. = The course starts next week.
The future sense comes from context and time expressions, not from a special future tense.
Yes, that’s also correct. Norwegian allows some flexibility in placing time and place adverbials, as long as V2 is respected:
Etter forestillingen spiller vi sjakk hjemme...
(time first, then verb in 2nd position)Vi spiller sjakk hjemme etter forestillingen...
(subject first, verb still in 2nd position)
Both are grammatical.
Subtle differences:
- Etter forestillingen spiller vi... — slightly more emphasis on "after the performance".
- Vi spiller sjakk hjemme etter forestillingen... — more neutral narrative order (subject–verb–details).
You need to repeat (or at least strongly prefer to repeat) "hva som er" here because you are talking about two separate things:
- what is fantasy
- what is reality
So:
- snakker om hva som er fantasi og hva som er virkelighet
= talk about what is fantasy and what is reality
If you say:
- snakker om hva som er fantasi og virkelighet
it becomes ambiguous and unidiomatic; it could sound like you are treating "fantasi og virkelighet" as one combined thing.
Repeating the structure keeps the parallelism and clarity.
In Norwegian, you normally do not put a comma before og when it connects two verbs with the same subject in one clause:
- Vi spiller sjakk hjemme og snakker om...
- Han sitter og leser.
- Hun går hjem og lager middag.
You would use a comma before og when it joins two full main clauses (each with its own subject and verb):
- Vi spiller sjakk hjemme, og vi snakker om hva som er fantasi.
Here, since spiller and snakker share the same subject vi, no comma is needed.