Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen. - We don’t live far from the station.

bo – to live somewhere, to reside, to have your home in a place
- Vi bor i Oslo. – We live in Oslo.
- Hvor bor du? – Where do you live?
leve – to live in the sense of to be alive, to be living (not dead), or to live a certain kind of life
- Han lever. – He is alive.
- Hun lever et lykkelig liv. – She lives a happy life.

In Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen, bor is used because we’re talking about where we reside, not whether we are alive.

Why is ikke after bor and not before, like “Vi ikke bor …”?

Norwegian main clauses follow a fairly strict word order rule:

Subject – (finite) verb – sentence adverb (like ikke) – rest of the sentence

So the typical pattern is:

Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen.
Subject – Verb – Ikke – Rest

Putting ikke before the verb (Vi ikke bor …) sounds ungrammatical in normal statements.

You can only move ikke in special structures (for emphasis, or in subordinate clauses, questions, etc.), but the neutral word order in a simple statement is:

Vi bor ikke …

Could I ever say “Vi ikke bor langt fra stasjonen” for emphasis?

In standard, neutral Norwegian: no. That word order sounds wrong in an independent main clause.

For emphasis you would typically change intonation, or restructure the sentence in other ways, for example:

Det er ikke langt fra stasjonen vi bor. (Marked/contrastive structure)
Vi bor jo ikke langt fra stasjonen. (Adding jo for a “you know / as you know” nuance)

But simply moving ikke in front of bor (Vi ikke bor …) is not a normal way to add emphasis in Norwegian.

Why is it langt and not lang?

Lang is the basic adjective meaning long.
Langt here is the neuter/adverbial form, and in this sentence it functions like the English adverb far.

You can think of it like this:

Det er langt. – It is far.
Det er ikke langt. – It isn’t far.
Vi bor ikke langt (fra stasjonen). – We don’t live far (from the station).

So langt is used:

As the neuter form of the adjective (et langt tog – a long train), and
Very commonly as an adverb meaning far.

The phrase langt fra is a fixed, very common combination:
> langt fra = far from

Can I say “Vi bor nær stasjonen” instead? What’s the difference from “ikke langt fra”?

Yes, you can say Vi bor nær stasjonen.

Nuances:

Vi bor nær stasjonen.
→ We live near the station.
This suggests actual closeness, as in truly nearby.
Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen.
→ We don’t live far from the station.
This is a bit weaker/softer. It says the distance is not large, but doesn’t necessarily say it’s right next door. It can mean “fairly close” or “within a reasonable distance.”

So ikke langt fra is slightly more vague and less “strongly close” than nær.

What does fra mean here, and why is it fra stasjonen and not til stasjonen?

fra means from
til means to

In this sentence, we’re describing distance from a point:

langt fra stasjonen – far from the station
ikke langt fra stasjonen – not far from the station

If you said til stasjonen, you’d be describing direction or movement towards the station:

Vi går til stasjonen. – We are walking to the station.
Det er langt til stasjonen. – It is far to the station (from here).

So:

fra stasjonen – distance/position measured from the station
til stasjonen – movement or distance to the station

Why is it stasjonen and not just stasjon?

Stasjon is the basic noun: a station.
Stasjonen is the definite form: the station.

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually a suffix added to the noun:

en stasjon – a station
stasjonen – the station

In this sentence we’re talking about a specific, known station (most likely the local station that both speaker and listener know about), so the definite form stasjonen is natural:

Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen.
We don’t live far from the (that known) station.

Why isn’t there a separate word for “the”, like in English?

Norwegian usually marks definiteness by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word:

en bil – a car
bilen – the car
en stasjon – a station
stasjonen – the station

So stasjonen itself already means the station.
That’s why you do not say “den stasjonen” to simply mean “the station” in a neutral way.

You can say den stasjonen in special contexts, for example to mean that station (with contrast or pointing out a particular one):

Ikke denne stasjonen, men den stasjonen der borte.
Not this station, but that station over there.

What gender is stasjon, and how does that affect stasjonen?

Stasjon is a masculine noun in Bokmål.

Masculine singular forms:

Indefinite: en stasjon – a station
Definite: stasjonen – the station

The -en ending shows masculine definite singular.
(You may sometimes see stasjon used as feminine with stasjonen → stasjonen is actually the same form for masc and fem in standard Bokmål, but it is normally treated as masculine.)

Could the sentence also be “Vi bor langt fra stasjonen”? What would that mean?

Yes:

Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen.
→ We don’t live far from the station. (The distance is relatively short.)
Vi bor langt fra stasjonen.
→ We live far from the station. (The distance is large.)

The only difference is the negation ikke:

With ikke: denies that the distance is large.
Without ikke: states that the distance is large.

How would I make this sentence into a yes/no question?

For yes/no questions in Norwegian, you usually put the verb first:

Statement: Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen.
We don’t live far from the station.
Question 1 (neutral): Bor vi ikke langt fra stasjonen?
Don’t we live far from the station? (expecting confirmation)
Question 2 (no negation): Bor vi langt fra stasjonen?
Do we live far from the station?

So for a question, move bor in front of vi:

Bor vi … ?

Where would ikke go in a question if I want to ask: “Don’t we live far from the station?”

The order is the same basic pattern: Verb – Subject – Ikke – Rest.

So:

Bor vi ikke langt fra stasjonen?
- Bor – verb
- vi – subject
- ikke – negation
- langt fra stasjonen – rest of the sentence

You should not say “Bor ikke vi langt fra stasjonen?” in neutral speech; that sounds marked and unusual, except in special emphatic contexts.

How do you pronounce stasjonen?

A simple way to think of the pronunciation in many accents (e.g. Oslo area) is:

sta-SJON-en

Details:

sta – like “stah” (short a)
sjon – pronounced like English “shohn” (one syllable, with a long o sound)
- sj = sh sound
en – a weak, unstressed ən (similar to the -en in English taken)

So overall: something like sta-SHON-en.

In IPA (approximate): [staˈʂuːnən] or [staˈʃuːnən], depending on accent.

How is vi pronounced? Is it like English “we”?

Vi is very close to English “we”, but with a slightly different vowel quality:

Pronounced like “vee” in English.
IPA: [viː]

So: Vi bor … ≈ “Vee bor …” (with bor sounding a bit like English “boor” without strong r at the end in many accents).

Is bor only used with places, or can it be used in other ways?

Bor (from å bo) is mainly used with places or locations:

Vi bor i Oslo. – We live in Oslo.
Jeg bor i et hus. – I live in a house.
De bor på landet. – They live in the countryside.

It can also be used with adverbs or prepositional phrases describing location:

Vi bor her. – We live here.
Vi bor ikke langt fra stasjonen. – We don’t live far from the station.

When you want to talk about being alive or living life, you use lever instead:

Jeg lever fortsatt. – I’m still alive.
Hun lever godt. – She lives well.