Breakdown of Til tross for at hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
Questions & Answers about Til tross for at hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
Til tross for at literally means in spite of the fact that / despite the fact that. It always introduces a whole clause:
- Til tross for at hun er ung, …
= In spite of the fact that she is young, …
Selv om means even though / although and is more neutral and common in everyday speech:
- Selv om hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
In many cases you can switch between them without changing the meaning much. Til tross for at sounds a bit more formal or emphatic than selv om.
Because til tross for at hun er ung is a subordinate clause, and får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene is the main clause.
Norwegian normally separates a subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma:
- (Subordinate clause), (main clause)
- Til tross for at hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
So the comma is there for the same basic reason as in English:
- Even though she is young, she is allowed to light the wood stove by herself.
Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb (here: får) must be in the second position in the clause.
When a subordinate clause comes first, that whole clause counts as position 1. So the verb of the main clause must come immediately after the comma:
- Til tross for at hun er ung, ← first position (the entire subordinate clause)
- får ← finite verb (must be in second position)
- hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
So:
- ✅ Til tross for at hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
- ❌ Til tross for at hun er ung, hun får lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene. (breaks the V2 rule)
If you start with hun, then hun is position 1 and the verb comes second:
- Hun får lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene, til tross for at hun er ung.
Får lov til å means is allowed to / may / gets permission to.
Breakdown:
- får = gets / receives (from å få)
- lov = permission (here: a noun)
- til å + infinitive = to + verb
So får lov til å fyre = gets permission to light / is allowed to light.
Other tenses and persons:
- Jeg får lov til å gå. – I’m allowed to go.
- Hun fikk lov til å gå. – She was allowed to go.
- Får dere lov til å være ute sent? – Are you allowed to be out late?
In this context, å fyre (i ovnen) means to make and/or keep a fire burning in a stove, usually for heating:
- å fyre i vedovnen = to burn wood in the stove / to run the stove.
Å tenne means to light / to ignite something:
- å tenne et lys – to light a candle
- å tenne et bål – to light a bonfire
- å tenne i ovnen – to light a fire in the stove (the moment of starting it)
So:
- Hun får lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
→ She is allowed to operate / keep the wood stove going by herself. - Hun får lov til å tenne i vedovnen alene.
→ She is allowed to light the fire in the stove by herself (focus on starting it).
Vedovnen is a compound noun:
- ved = firewood
- ovn = oven / stove
- vedovn = a wood stove / wood-burning stove
Vedovn is a masculine noun. The definite singular form is:
- en vedovn – a wood stove
- vedovnen – the wood stove
So i vedovnen = in the wood stove.
Norwegian almost always writes compounds as one word: vedovn, not ved ovn.
Because the fire is inside the stove. Norwegian prepositions are often spatial:
- i = in / inside
- på = on / on top of
Examples:
- i ovnen – in the oven / in the stove
- på ovnen – on the stove (on the surface/top)
So to talk about burning wood inside the stove, you use i vedovnen.
In hun er ung, ung is a predicative adjective describing the subject hun.
For predicative adjectives:
- Singular, indefinite: base form (no -e)
- hun er ung – she is young
- han er høy – he is tall
- Plural: -e
- de er unge – they are young
- de er høye – they are tall
You get unge (with -e) mainly:
- Before a definite noun:
- den unge jenta – the young girl
- den gamle mannen – the old man
- Before plural nouns:
- unge jenter – young girls
- gamle menn – old men
But after er (is/are) in the singular, the base form ung is normal: hun er ung.
No. Norwegian does not normally allow dropping subject pronouns in this way.
Each finite verb in a new clause needs its own explicit subject:
- ✅ Til tross for at hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
- ❌ Til tross for at hun er ung, får lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
Compare with English: you also need she after the comma:
- Even though she is young, she is allowed to light the wood stove alone.
No. When til tross for is followed by a clause, you must include at:
- ✅ Til tross for at hun er ung, …
- ❌ Til tross for hun er ung, …
You can drop at only when til tross for is followed by a noun phrase (not a full clause):
- Til tross for alderen hennes, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
(Despite her age, …)
So:
- til tross for at + full clause
- til tross for + noun phrase
Yes, that is also grammatically possible:
- … får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
- … får hun lov til å fyre alene i vedovnen.
Both are understood as she is allowed to do it by herself.
Placing alene at the very end (… vedovnen alene) is very natural in Norwegian and slightly emphasizes that she does it without help. Moving alene around mainly changes the rhythm, not the core meaning, in this sentence.
A very natural everyday variant is:
- Selv om hun er ung, får hun lov til å fyre i vedovnen alene.
This has the same meaning, but selv om sounds a bit more colloquial and is extremely common in speech. Til tross for at is also fine, just a bit more formal or “written-sounding” in many contexts.