Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere. - The audiobook makes the long bus ride feel shorter.

å føle (seg) = to feel (something) / to feel (oneself)
- Jeg føler meg trøtt. = I feel tired.
- Jeg føler glede. = I feel joy.
å føles = to feel / seem (used about how something is experienced, not about someone’s inner feelings)
- Dagen føles lang. = The day feels long / seems long.
- Det føles riktig. = It feels right.

In til å føles kortere, the thing that feels is the bus trip (an object), not a person who feels something.

✗ til å føle kortere – ungrammatical here: the trip feels (something)? No.
✗ til å føle seg kortere – sounds like the trip feels itself shorter, which is wrong.

You need å føles because we’re describing how the trip feels/seems, not what it feels.

Why is kortere (shorter) used instead of just kort (short)?

Because the idea is “feels shorter (than it otherwise would)”, not “feels short (in absolute terms)”.

kort = short
kortere = shorter (comparative form)

Norwegian uses the comparative here the same way English does:

Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kort.
= The audiobook makes the long bus trip feel short.
(sounds like the trip actually feels short)
Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere.
= The audiobook makes the long bus trip feel shorter.
(shorter than it would otherwise feel → exactly the intended meaning)

Why do we say den lange bussturen with both den and -en? Isn’t that “double definite”?

Yes, this is double definiteness, which is standard in Norwegian for noun phrases with an adjective.

Pattern:

bare noun, definite: busstur → busstur
- -en = bussturen (the bus trip)
with adjective, definite: den lange bussturen (the long bus trip)

So:

en busstur = a bus trip
bussturen = the bus trip
en lang busstur = a long bus trip
den lange bussturen = the long bus trip

Whenever you have an adjective before a definite noun, you typically need:

den / det / de + adjective (with -e) + definite noun (-en / -et / -ene)

Here:
den (for masculine/feminine) + lange + bussturen.

What grammatical roles do the words play in this sentence?

Breaking it down:

Lydboken – subject (nominative): the audiobook
får – main verb in the present tense: gets / makes / causes
den lange bussturen – direct object of får: the long bus trip
til – part of the construction få noe til å + infinitive
å føles – infinitive verb: to feel / to seem
kortere – predicative adjective describing den lange bussturen: shorter

Structure:

[Subject] Lydboken
[Verb] får
[Object] den lange bussturen
[Infinitive clause] til å føles kortere

Could I say Lydboken gjør den lange bussturen kortere instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, and it’s grammatical:

Lydboken gjør den lange bussturen kortere.
= The audiobook makes the long bus trip shorter.

Differences in nuance:

får … til å føles kortere
– Emphasizes how the trip feels / is experienced.
– More subjective.
gjør … kortere
– Sounds more like it objectively makes the trip shorter (as if it changed the actual length), even though we understand it’s perception.
– Less explicit about the feeling aspect.

The original with til å føles matches the idea that time seems to pass faster rather than the distance/time actually changing.

Can I drop til and just say Lydboken får den lange bussturen å føles kortere?

No. In this construction, til is required:

å få noe til å + infinitive = correct
✗ å få noe å + infinitive = incorrect

So you must say:

får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere
not
✗ får den lange bussturen å føles kortere

Why is the verb føles and not føler? What does the -s ending do?

The -s ending here makes føles a deponent/“passive-like” form used with the meaning to feel / to seem (about a situation or thing).

Compare:

å føle = to feel (something)
- Jeg føler smerte. = I feel pain.
å føle seg = to feel (a certain way)
- Jeg føler meg bra. = I feel good.
å føles = to feel / to seem (from someone’s perspective)
- Det føles rart. = It feels/weird.

In føles kortere, the bus trip is behaving like “it seems/feels shorter”. That’s why føles (with -s) is used.

Could the sentence also be written as Den lange bussturen føles kortere med lydboken?

Yes, that’s a natural alternative:

Den lange bussturen føles kortere med lydboken.
= The long bus trip feels shorter with the audiobook.

Differences:

Original: Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere.
– Puts focus on the audiobook as the “agent” causing the effect.
Alternative: Den lange bussturen føles kortere med lydboken.
– Puts focus on the bus trip and describes it as feeling shorter, with med lydboken explaining why.

Both are correct; the choice is mostly about emphasis.

What’s the difference between lang and lenge? Could I say den lenge bussturen?

You cannot say den lenge bussturen. Here’s why:

lang – adjective: long
- en lang busstur = a long bus trip
- den lange bussturen = the long bus trip
  (adjective form becomes lange in definite and plural)
lenge – adverb: for a long time
- Jeg venter lenge. = I wait for a long time.
- Det tar lenge. = It takes a long time. (colloquial; more neutral: Det tar lang tid.)

So in front of busstur (a noun), you need the adjective form:

en lang busstur
den lange bussturen

✗ den lenge bussturen is incorrect because lenge doesn’t modify nouns; it modifies verbs/clauses (how long something takes/lasts).

Why is it Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere and not Lydboken får til å føles den lange bussturen kortere? Is the word order fixed?

Yes, the word order inside this pattern is essentially fixed:

få + [object] + til å + [infinitive] + (rest)

So the object (den lange bussturen) must come right after får:

Lydboken får den lange bussturen til å føles kortere. ✅
✗ Lydboken får til å føles den lange bussturen kortere. ❌

Think of it like English:

The audiobook makes the long bus trip feel shorter. ✅
✗ The audiobook makes feel the long bus trip shorter. ❌

Norwegian has similar constraints here.

Is Lydboken here just “the audiobook,” or could it also mean “my audiobook / that audiobook” depending on context?

Lydboken literally means “the audiobook.” It’s definite singular:

en lydbok = an audiobook
lydboken = the audiobook

Whether it’s understood as the audiobook we’re talking about just now (that one), or my audiobook, depends on context, just like in English when you say “the audiobook”.

If you specifically want “this audiobook” or “that audiobook,” you can say:

denne lydboken = this audiobook
den lydboken = that (particular) audiobook (context-dependent)

Is this structure får … til å føles + adjective common with other nouns too?

Yes, it’s very common. Some examples:

Musikken får treningen til å føles lettere.
= The music makes the workout feel easier.
Selskapet får kvelden til å føles kortere.
= The company makes the evening feel shorter.
Humoren hans får møtene til å føles mindre kjedelige.
= His humor makes the meetings feel less boring.

Pattern:

[Cause] får [something] til å føles [adjective (often comparative)]
= [Cause] makes [something] feel [adjective].