Breakdown of Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
Questions & Answers about Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
Skal here marks a planned or intended action in the (very) near future. With nå it’s like saying “we’re going to light the wood stove now” / “we’re about to light it now.”
Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
→ We’re going to light it now (plan/intention, about to happen).Vi fyrer opp vedovnen nå.
→ We’re lighting it now (the action is in progress, or just starting right now).
Both are natural. Skal + infinitive often corresponds to English “going to” for future or planned actions.
Fyre opp is a particle verb (like an English phrasal verb), made of:
- fyre = to fire / to heat / to burn (in this sense, to run or light a stove, fireplace, etc.)
- opp = a particle that often adds the idea of starting or getting going / up.
In your sentence, the most neutral word order is:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
You can move the particle after the object:
- Vi skal fyre vedovnen opp nå.
This is grammatically correct, but with a full noun like vedovnen, most speakers prefer fyre opp vedovnen. Where the particle must move is with a pronoun object:
- Vi skal fyre den opp nå. (not fyre opp den)
So:
- Full noun object: usually fyre opp vedovnen
- Pronoun object: fyre den opp
Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:
- fyre opp focuses on starting/lighting a fire or stove.
- fyre on its own can mean:
- to run a fire or stove, keep it burning (“to heat with it”), and
- in many contexts also “to light” it.
So:
Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
→ Strong focus on the initial lighting.Vi skal fyre vedovnen nå.
→ More general “we’re going to heat with the stove now / we’re going to fire the stove now.” In practice many people would still understand this as “light it,” but fyre opp makes the idea of lighting it very clear and is the more idiomatic choice when you’re starting from cold.
Vedovn is a compound noun:
- ved = firewood
- ovn = oven / stove
So vedovn = a wood-burning stove (a heater that burns firewood, usually for heating a room or house, not mainly for cooking).
Definite form:
- vedovnen = the wood-burning stove.
Common related words:
- ovn – general word for an oven or heater. Context decides: it can be an electric heater, wall-mounted heater, etc.
- komfyr – a kitchen stove / cooker (for cooking food, with hobs and an oven).
- peis – a fireplace (built into the wall, open front, usually with a chimney).
- vedovn – a freestanding wood stove made for burning logs efficiently, often made of cast iron or steel.
So vedovnen specifically suggests a wood-burning heater, not just any heater.
Base form (indefinite singular):
- en vedovn = a wood stove
It’s a masculine noun. The definite singular ending for masculine nouns is -en:
- vedovn + en → vedovnen = the wood stove
The double n is just because ovn already ends in n, and then you add -en:
- ovn
- en → ovnen (“the stove”)
- In the compound: vedovn
- en → vedovnen
Summary of forms (Bokmål, masculine):
- Indefinite singular: en vedovn – a wood stove
- Definite singular: vedovnen – the wood stove
- Indefinite plural: vedovner – wood stoves
- Definite plural: vedovnene – the wood stoves
No. In vedovnen, ved is part of the compound noun and means “firewood,” not the preposition ved (“by / near”).
Compare:
- ved ovnen = by the oven / next to the oven
- Two separate words: ved (preposition) + ovnen (the stove).
- vedovnen = the wood stove
- One word: vedovn
- definite ending -en.
- One word: vedovn
Spacing is important in Norwegian. A space changes the meaning:
- ved ovnen → location: by/near the oven
- vedovnen → one object: the wood-burning stove
Grammatically, skal + infinitive is a future / planned action:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen → We are going to light the stove.
Adding nå (“now”) makes it a near future: something that will happen right away or very soon.
In English terms, it’s closest to “We’re going to light the wood stove now” or “We’re about to light the wood stove now.”
If you say:
- Vi fyrer opp vedovnen nå.
then the time reference is present: it’s happening now (or is just starting now). So:
- skal + infinitive = intention / plan (often near future)
- bare present (fyrer) + nå = action in progress now
Yes, you can move nå:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
- Nå skal vi fyre opp vedovnen.
Both are correct. The basic meaning (we’re going to light it now) is the same.
The difference is in emphasis and word order:
Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
– Neutral statement; nå is just giving the time.Nå skal vi fyre opp vedovnen.
– Nå is fronted for emphasis; it can sound a bit more like:
“Now (finally / at this point), we’re going to light the wood stove.”
Norwegian main clauses follow V2 word order: the verb (here skal) must come in the second position. When you put Nå first, the verb moves to second place, and the subject vi comes after the verb:
- Nå (1st position) skal (2nd = verb) vi (3rd) fyre opp vedovnen.
In a fairly standard Eastern Norwegian pronunciation, something like:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå
/viː skal ˈfyːrə ɔp ˈveːdɔvnɛn nɔː/
Approximate tips:
- Vi – like English “vee”.
- skal – like “skahl”; a is open, like in British “father”.
- fyre – fy like German “für” or French “u” in “lune”; two syllables: FY-re.
- opp – short o (like “off” but shorter), final pp just sounds like a short p.
- vedovnen – main stress on ve-: VE-dovn-en.
- ve like English “ve” in “Vey” but longer.
- The d in ved is often weak or almost silent in fast speech.
- Three syllables: VE-dovn-en.
- nå – like “no” but with a slightly more open vowel and often a bit longer.
Speech rhythm tends to stress skal, fyre, and ved- in vedovnen.
Yes, that is also correct, and very natural.
- tenne (opp) = to light / ignite (a candle, a fire, etc.).
- tenne opp i vedovnen – literally “light up in the wood stove.”
Nuances:
Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå.
– Very typical for talking about getting the stove going; focuses on starting a fire for heating.Vi skal tenne opp i vedovnen nå.
– Emphasises the act of igniting something inside the stove (lighting the kindling, etc.).
They overlap a lot in everyday speech. Both would be easily understood as “We’re going to light the wood stove now.”
You must use the subject pronoun in normal Norwegian sentences. Norwegian is not a “null subject” (pro-drop) language like Spanish or Italian.
So:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedovnen nå. – correct
- Skal fyre opp vedovnen nå. – incorrect as a neutral sentence (feels like something is missing).
You only omit the subject in certain imperatives or headline-style fragments:
- Fyr opp vedovnen nå! – imperative “Light the wood stove now!”
But for a normal statement, you need vi.
Yes, there are some differences in standard Nynorsk and in dialects, mostly in spelling and endings.
Standard Nynorsk could look like:
- Vi skal fyre opp vedomnen no.
Changes:
- vedomn instead of vedovn (Nynorsk prefers omn for “oven/stove”).
- vedomnen = definite form (“the wood stove”), instead of vedovnen.
- no instead of nå for “now.”
In many dialects you’ll also hear:
- me instead of vi for “we” (e.g. in Western Norway).
- Different vowel qualities or intonation, but the structure with skal fyre opp stays very recognisable.
The Bokmål sentence you have is completely standard and widely understood everywhere.