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Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.

Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.
The newsletter makes us take waste sorting more seriously.
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Questions & Answers about Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.

Why is it oss and not vi in this sentence?

Norwegian, like English, has different pronouns for subject and object:

  • vi = we (subject)
  • oss = us (object)

In the sentence "Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.", the structure is:

  • Nyhetsbrevet (subject)
  • får (verb)
  • oss (object – the ones being made/caused to do something)

So oss is correct because it is the object of the verb får (“The newsletter makes *us …”*), not the subject.

What does the construction "får oss til å ta" mean, exactly?

The pattern få (noen) til å (gjøre noe) means:

to get / make / persuade (someone) to do (something)

So:

  • får oss til å ta ≈ “makes us take” / “gets us to take”

This is a very common construction:

  • Hun fikk meg til å le. – She made me laugh.
  • Læreren fikk elevene til å lese mer. – The teacher got the students to read more.

In your sentence, Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor literally:
“The newsletter gets us to take source sorting more seriously.”

Could you say "Nyhetsbrevet gjør at vi tar kildesortering mer på alvor" instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say:

  • Nyhetsbrevet gjør at vi tar kildesortering mer på alvor.

This means roughly the same thing. The nuance:

  • får oss til å ta emphasizes influencing / causing people to act
  • gjør at vi tar emphasizes causing a state or result

So:

  • får oss til å ta … – more like “gets us to take …” (focus on us doing something)
  • gjør at vi tar … – more like “means that we take …” (focus on the result)

Both are natural; the original is a bit more “active” about influencing people.

Why do we need til å after får? Could we just say "får oss ta"?

No, you can’t drop til å here. The standard pattern is:

få + (person in object form) + til å + infinitive

Examples:

  • Han fikk meg til å gråte. – He made me cry.
  • Reklamen får folk til å kjøpe mer. – The advertisement makes people buy more.

So you must say:

  • får oss til å ta,
    not
  • ❌ får oss ta

Without til å, the sentence is ungrammatical.

What does "ta … på alvor" mean? Is it the same as English “take … seriously”?

Yes. "ta (noe) på alvor" is the direct equivalent of English “take (something) seriously.”

  • Vi må ta klimaendringene på alvor.
    We must take climate change seriously.

In your sentence:

  • ta kildesortering mer på alvor = “take recycling / waste sorting more seriously.”

It’s a very common idiom, used just like in English.

Why is it "mer på alvor" and not "på mer alvor"?

In Norwegian, with this idiom, the degree word (like mer, veldig, ikke, etc.) usually comes with the verb phrase, not inside the prepositional phrase:

  • ta noe mer på alvor
  • ta noe veldig på alvor
  • ikke ta noe på alvor

"På mer alvor" sounds odd and is not how the idiom is used. So you say:

  • Vi tar det mer på alvor. – We take it more seriously.
    not
  • ❌ Vi tar det på mer alvor.
What exactly is "kildesortering"? Is it a verb or a noun?

Kildesortering is a noun. It’s a compound:

  • kilde = source
  • sortering = sorting

Together, in environmental context, kildesortering means sorting waste at the source (i.e., separating your trash into paper, plastic, food waste, etc.) – often just translated as recycling or waste sorting.

Grammar:

  • It’s usually treated as a common-gender noun: en kildesortering (but in practice it’s often used as an uncountable concept, like “recycling” in English).
  • In your sentence it’s used like an abstract, uncountable noun:
    … ta kildesortering mer på alvor.
Why is it Nyhetsbrevet and not just Nyhetsbrev?

Nyhetsbrev is a neuter noun:

  • et nyhetsbrev – a newsletter
  • nyhetsbrevet – the newsletter

The -et at the end is the definite singular ending for neuter nouns.

So:

  • Nyhetsbrev får oss … – A newsletter makes us … (generic, sounds a bit odd)
  • Nyhetsbrevet får oss … – The newsletter makes us … (a specific one we know about)

In this sentence, the speaker is referring to a particular newsletter already known in the context, so the definite form Nyhetsbrevet is used.

How is "nyhetsbrev" formed, and why is it neuter?

Nyhetsbrev is a compound noun:

  • nyhet = news (a piece of news)
  • brev = letter

Literally, “news letter”, so: newsletter.

The gender:

  • brev is a neuter noun: et brev
  • In Norwegian, compounds generally take the gender of the last part of the compound.

Therefore:

  • et nyhetsbrev – a newsletter
  • nyhetsbrevet – the newsletter
Could we say "Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering seriøst" instead of "… på alvor"?

You could say seriøst, and people would understand, but:

  • ta (noe) på alvor is the most natural and idiomatic choice.
  • seriøst is usually used as an adverb modifying verbs:
    Hun trener seriøst. – She trains seriously.

"Ta noe seriøst" is used, especially under English influence, but many speakers feel "ta noe på alvor" is more idiomatic and slightly “better style” in Norwegian. So:

  • Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.
    is the most natural phrasing.
Is "får" here present tense? Can it also refer to ongoing or general effects?

Yes, får is present tense of få:

  • Jeg får – I get
  • Du får – You get
  • Han/hun får – He/she gets
  • Vi får – We get

In Norwegian, present tense can describe:

  1. Current, ongoing actions

    • Jeg leser nå. – I’m reading now.

  2. General truths or repeated actions

    • Nyhetsbrevet får oss til å ta kildesortering mer på alvor.
      = The newsletter generally/regularly makes us take recycling more seriously.

So here it’s a general, present-time statement about the effect of the newsletter.