Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Musikken får barna til å sove.

So Musikken får barna til å sove literally means something like:
The music gets the children to sleep / The music makes the children sleep.

Why do we need til in til å sove?

In this construction, til is part of a fixed pattern, not a separate preposition with its own meaning.

The standard causative pattern is:

få noen til å gjøre noe – make / get someone to do something

Some examples:

Han fikk henne til å le. – He made her laugh.
Læreren fikk elevene til å være stille. – The teacher made the pupils be quiet.

You cannot drop til here.
❌ Musikken får barna å sove is ungrammatical.
You must say:
✅ Musikken får barna til å sove.

Why is it å sove and not sover?

Å sove is the infinitive form (to sleep). After til å, you must use the infinitive, not the conjugated present tense.

Structure:

til å + infinitive

So:

til å sove – to sleep
not til å sover

Compare:

Jeg vil sove. – I want to sleep. (infinitive sove)
Jeg sover. – I am sleeping / I sleep. (present tense sover)

After få … til å, you always use the infinitive, just like English uses to + verb.

What is the difference between sove and sovne in this context?

Both are related to sleep, but they mean different things:

sove – to sleep (the state)
sovne – to fall asleep (the process of going from awake to asleep)

So:

Musikken får barna til å sove.
Focus on them being in a sleeping state; the music keeps them asleep / causes them to sleep.
Musikken får barna til å sovne.
Focus on the moment of falling asleep; the music makes them fall asleep.

Both are grammatically correct, but the meaning is slightly different. In many real situations, sovne (fall asleep) is more precise.

Why is it barna and not barnene?

Barna is already the definite plural of barn (child).

Singular:
- et barn – a child
- barnet – the child
Plural:
- barn – children
- barna – the children

There is no form barnene in standard Norwegian; that would be double-definite and incorrect.

So barna means the children, and that is the correct definite plural form after får here.

Why is it musikken and not musikk?

Both are possible, but they mean different things:

musikk – music (in general, indefinite)
musikken – the music (specific, definite)

So:

Musikk får barn til å sove.
Music makes children sleep. (a general statement about music)
Musikken får barna til å sove.
The music makes the children sleep. (refers to particular music and particular children that speaker and listener know about)

In your sentence, we are talking about specific music that is playing now (or in a given situation), so musikken is natural.

Can I change the word order, like Barna får musikken til å sove?

No, that changes the meaning and becomes nonsense.

Musikken får barna til å sove.
Subject: Musikken – the music causes barna to sleep.
Barna får musikken til å sove.
Now barna is the subject and musikken is the object:
The children make the music sleep.
That is grammatically possible but semantically absurd.

So the word order in Musikken får barna til å sove correctly reflects who is causing what.

How would you say The music makes them sleep?

You replace barna with the object pronoun dem:

Musikken får dem til å sove. – The music makes them sleep.

A quick comparison:

barna – the children (definite plural noun)
dem – them (object pronoun)

The structure får … til å sove stays the same.

Could I use hjelper instead of får, like Musikken hjelper barna til å sove?

You can use hjelper, but the structure and meaning change slightly.

Natural options:

Musikken hjelper barna med å sove.
The music helps the children sleep.
(It supports them in sleeping.)
Musikken hjelper barna med å sovne.
The music helps the children fall asleep.

Notice:

With hjelpe, Norwegians more often use med å + infinitive:
- hjelpe noen med å gjøre noe
With få, the pattern is få noen til å gjøre noe.

Also, få is stronger and more causative (makes / gets them to), while hjelpe is softer (helps them to).

How can I emphasize that it is the music (and not something else) that makes the children sleep?

You can use a cleft sentence with det er … som …:

Det er musikken som får barna til å sove.
It is the music that makes the children sleep.

This structure puts strong focus on musikken.

You can also stress musikken in speech, but grammatically, Det er musikken som … is the standard way to emphasize the subject.

How do I say this in the past tense, like The music made the children sleep?

You just put får into the past tense (fikk):

Present: Musikken får barna til å sove.
Past: Musikken fikk barna til å sove. – The music made the children sleep.

The rest of the sentence stays the same:

til å + infinitive does not change with tense:
- får … til å sove – present
- fikk … til å sove – past

Can I omit til and say Musikken får barna å sove?

No. That is incorrect in Norwegian.

The correct pattern with få in this meaning is:

få noen til å gjøre noe

So you must say:

✅ Musikken får barna til å sove.
❌ Musikken får barna å sove.

The til is required; it is part of the fixed construction, not optional.