Breakdown of Forestillingen er lang, men morsom.
Questions & Answers about Forestillingen er lang, men morsom.
Norwegian usually marks “the” with an ending on the noun instead of a separate word.
- en forestilling = a show / a performance
- forestillingen = the show / the performance
So Forestillingen er lang, men morsom literally has the built into forestillingen, and you do not add another word for the in front of it.
Forestilling is a common‑gender noun (the en gender). The main forms are:
- Indefinite singular: en forestilling – a show
- Definite singular: forestillingen – the show
- Indefinite plural: forestillinger – shows
- Definite plural: forestillingene – the shows
You can also use ei forestilling in some dialects (feminine article), but in standard Bokmål en is most common.
They are used after the verb er (they are predicative adjectives), so in the singular they usually appear in their basic form:
- Forestillingen er lang. – The show is long.
- Forestillingen er morsom. – The show is funny.
Compare this with adjectives before a noun (attributive), where you often see endings:
- en lang forestilling – a long show
- en morsom forestilling – a funny show
In the plural predicative, the adjectives do take -e:
- Forestillingene er lange, men morsomme. – The shows are long but funny.
In Norwegian, you normally put a comma before men when it connects two clauses or two separate statements, even if the verb in the second part is omitted:
- Forestillingen er lang, men (den er) morsom.
The second er and den are just left out because they are understood from context. The comma marks the break between the two ideas: “it’s long” vs. “it’s funny.”
Yes, that is perfectly correct:
- Forestillingen er lang, men den er morsom.
It sounds a bit heavier and more explicit. Leaving out den er is very normal and slightly more natural in this short sentence, because Norwegian likes to avoid repeating the same verb when the meaning is clear.
- lang is an adjective: it describes something that has a large length or duration.
- Forestillingen er lang. – The show is long.
- lenge is an adverb: it describes how long an action or state lasts.
- Forestillingen varer lenge. – The show lasts a long time.
So you use lang with nouns (or after er referring to a noun), and lenge with verbs.
All can be positive, but they are not identical:
- morsom ≈ funny, amusing (neutral, works in both formal and informal contexts).
- En morsom forestilling. – A funny show.
- gøy ≈ fun (more informal, often used with det):
- Det var gøy. – That was fun.
- kul ≈ cool (informal, more about being stylish/impressive than funny):
- En kul film. – A cool movie.
For “funny show/performance,” morsom forestilling is the standard phrase.
In a typical Eastern Norwegian pronunciation, you can think of it roughly as:
FOH-reh-stil-ling-en
More precisely (approximate IPA): [ˈfoːrəˌstɪlɪŋən]
- Main stress on the first syllable FO-.
- The -en at the end is unstressed and quite weak, almost like -uhn.
Yes, that is grammatically correct:
- Forestillingen er morsom, men lang.
Both sentences are fine, but the emphasis changes slightly:
- lang, men morsom: you first highlight that it’s long, then “redeem” it by saying it’s funny.
- morsom, men lang: you first praise it as funny, then add a small complaint that it’s long.
You need the plural forms of the noun and adjectives:
- Forestillingene er lange, men morsomme.
Here:
- forestillingene = the shows (definite plural)
- lange, morsomme = plural adjective forms, agreeing with a plural subject.
Forestilling most commonly means a performance or show in a theatre, cinema, or similar setting:
- teaterforestilling – theatre performance
- kinoforestilling – film screening
It can also mean idea / notion in some contexts, but when you see it with something being lang and morsom, it almost always refers to a live show or performance.