Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte trøtt når jeg kommer hjem. - After a long bus ride I am often tired when I get home.

Neutral word order: Jeg er ofte trøtt. – I am often tired.
(1st: jeg, 2nd: er)
When you move an adverbial to the front:
Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte trøtt. – After a long bus ride I am often tired.
(1st: Etter en lang busstur, 2nd: er, then the subject jeg)

So because “Etter en lang busstur” is put first, “er” has to come second, and “jeg” is pushed to third position. You cannot say “Etter en lang busstur jeg er ofte trøtt” in standard Norwegian; that breaks the V2 rule.

Why “etter en lang busstur” and not “etter at jeg har tatt en lang busstur” or just “etter en lang buss”?

All are grammatically possible in some form, but they mean slightly different things and differ in naturalness.

Etter en lang busstur
Literally: After a long bus trip/ride.
Busstur is a natural noun for “bus ride” or “bus trip”, so this is the most idiomatic and compact way to say it.
Etter at jeg har tatt en lang busstur
Literally: After I have taken a long bus trip.
This is a full clause after etter at. It’s more explicit and wordy. It’s okay, but usually you don’t need so much detail if it’s already clear you’re talking about a bus ride.
Etter en lang buss
This sounds wrong. Buss is the vehicle itself. Saying “after a long bus” in Norwegian sounds like the bus is physically long, not that the ride was long.
To talk about the ride, you normally need tur (trip) → busstur.

So “etter en lang busstur” is the natural way to express after a long bus ride.

Why is it “en lang busstur” and not “ei lang busstur” or “et lang busstur”?

Because tur (trip) is a masculine noun in Norwegian:

en tur – the trip
turen – the trip (definite)
turer – trips
turene – the trips

When tur combines with buss to form busstur, the compound noun keeps the gender of the last element, tur.
So busstur is masculine → en busstur.

That’s why you say:

en lang tur
en lang busstur

Using ei (feminine) or et (neuter) would be incorrect for this word:

✗ ei lang busstur
✗ et lang busstur

Why is “busstur” written as one word and not “buss tur”?

Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word:

buss
- tur → busstur (bus trip)
hjem
- reise → hjemreise (journey home)
sommer
- ferie → sommerferie (summer holiday)

If you wrote “buss tur” as two separate words, it looks like two separate nouns standing next to each other, which is not how Norwegian normally forms such meanings. You need the compound to express a single concept: bus trip.

So busstur is the correct, natural spelling.

Why is “ofte” placed between “er” and “trøtt”? Could it go somewhere else?

Ofte (often) is an adverb of frequency. In Norwegian main clauses, such adverbs usually go in the “mid-field”, typically:

subject – verb – (negation / adverbs) – rest of the predicate

Example:

Jeg er ofte trøtt. – I am often tired.
(subject jeg, verb er, adverb ofte, adjective trøtt)

When we move “Etter en lang busstur” to the front, the pattern stays the same after the verb:

Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte trøtt.
(fronted adverbial, verb er, subject jeg, adverb ofte, adjective trøtt)

Other positions:

Jeg er trøtt ofte. – Understandable, but sounds odd/unidiomatic in most contexts.
Ofte er jeg trøtt etter en lang busstur. – This is possible and emphasizes often.

So the most neutral is exactly what we have: er jeg ofte trøtt.

What’s the difference between “trøtt” and “sliten”? Could I say “sliten” here?

Both trøtt and sliten can be translated as “tired,” but they have different nuances:

trøtt
– usually means sleepy / fatigued, lacking energy, often wanting to sleep.
– common after a long day, late at night, or after travel.
sliten
– more like worn out / exhausted, physically or mentally.
– often used after hard work, stress, or intense activity.

So you could say:

Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte trøtt når jeg kommer hjem.
→ You’re often sleepy / a bit tired when you get home.

You can also say:

Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte sliten når jeg kommer hjem.
→ You’re often worn out / exhausted when you get home.

Both are grammatical; which one you choose depends on how strong the tiredness feels.

Why is it “når jeg kommer hjem” and not “da jeg kommer hjem”?

In Norwegian, når and da both can mean “when,” but they’re not interchangeable:

når is used for:
- repeated / habitual events (every time/whenever)
- future events
da is used for:
- single events in the past

In this sentence, we are talking about a general habit:

After a long bus ride I am often tired when I get home.
(This happens many times, not once.)

So we must use når:

… er jeg ofte trøtt når jeg kommer hjem. ✅

Examples to contrast:

Jeg er alltid trøtt når jeg kommer hjem fra jobb.
I am always tired when I get home from work. (habit → når)
Da jeg kom hjem i går, var jeg veldig trøtt.
When I got home yesterday, I was very tired. (one event in the past → da)

Why is “kommer” in the present tense, not something like a future or past form?

Norwegian often uses the present tense for:

Habits / general truths
- Jeg er ofte trøtt når jeg kommer hjem.
  → I am often tired when I get home. (describes a recurring pattern)
Future with time reference or context
- Jeg ringer deg når jeg kommer hjem.
  → I’ll call you when I get home.

In this sentence, we are describing a general situation that happens regularly:
Every time there is a long bus trip, the person is tired when they get home. Norwegian naturally uses present tense for this.

So “når jeg kommer hjem” is best, even though in English you might think of it as “when I get home” (also present) or “when I come home”.

Why do we say “kommer hjem” and not “går hjem” or “til hjem”?

There are three different ideas to separate here:

Verb choice: kommer vs. går
- å komme – to come / arrive
- å gå – to go / walk
In “når jeg kommer hjem”, the focus is on arriving home, not on the way you travel. Even if you arrive by bus, car, or walking, you “come home” in the sense of arrive home.
You could say “når jeg går hjem”, but that describes specifically the walking home phase, not the arrival itself, and it also changes the meaning slightly (it focuses on the time while going home).
No preposition before “hjem”
- When you talk about movement towards home, you use hjem without a preposition:
  - Jeg kommer hjem. – I (am) come(ing) home.
  - Jeg drar hjem. – I go home.
  - Jeg reiser hjem. – I travel home.
You don’t say ✗ til hjem in this meaning.
“hjem” vs “hjemme”
- hjem – direction (home as destination)
- hjemme – location (at home)
So:
- Jeg kommer hjem. – I come home. (towards home)
- Jeg er hjemme. – I am at home. (already there)

How do you pronounce tricky words like “etter”, “busstur”, “trøtt”, and “hjem”?

Approximate standard Norwegian (Eastern) pronunciation, with rough English hints:

etter – [ˈɛtːər]
- like “ETT-er”, with a short, open e (like bed), and a long t sound.
busstur – [ˈbʉstːʉr]
- buss: the u is rounded, like the vowel in French tu, not like English bus.
- tur: similar to English toor but with tight, rounded lips.
- Together: something like “BOOST-toor” (but with tighter, fronted u).
trøtt – [trœtː]
- ø is a rounded vowel, between English uh and er in her, but with rounded lips.
- Think of something like “treutt” but shorter and more compact.
hjem – [jem] or [jɛm] (varies slightly by dialect)
- like “yem”, with j as in yes.
- No audible h in many dialects; it’s more like “yem” than “hyem”.

Pronunciation varies a bit across Norway, but these approximations will be understood.

Why is it “lang busstur” and not something like “langt busstur”? How do adjectives agree with nouns?

In Norwegian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and definiteness.

lang is the basic (indefinite, singular) form used with masculine and feminine singular nouns:
- en lang tur
- en lang busstur
- ei lang bok
For neuter singular, you usually add -t:
- et langt hus – a long house
For plural, you usually add -e:
- lange turer – long trips

Here, busstur is masculine singular, indefinite → you use lang, not langt:

en lang busstur ✅
✗ et lang busstur – wrong gender
✗ en langt busstur – wrong adjective form

If you made it definite, it would be:

den lange bussturen – the long bus trip

Could I say “blir jeg ofte trøtt” instead of “er jeg ofte trøtt”? What’s the difference between “er” and “blir” here?

Yes, you can say both, but they have slightly different nuances:

er – am (state)
- Etter en lang busstur er jeg ofte trøtt…
  Focus on the resulting state: After a long bus ride, I’m (already) often tired when I get home.
blir – become / get
- Etter en lang busstur blir jeg ofte trøtt når jeg kommer hjem.
  Emphasizes the change: After a long bus ride, I often get tired when I get home.

Both are grammatical and natural.

er describes the condition you’re in at that time.
blir highlights the process of starting to feel tired.