Breakdown of Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
Questions & Answers about Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
In Norwegian you normally use a simple present-tense verb to express what English shows with “is/are + -ing”.
- Vi står = We are standing
- Vi sitter = We are sitting
- Vi ligger = We are lying
You do not say *vi er står. The verb å stå itself already means “to be in a standing position,” so adding å være (er) would be redundant and ungrammatical in this context.
There is a form like stående (present participle), but vi er stående is rare and sounds very marked in modern Norwegian; you’d normally only see it in special, often literary, contexts. For everyday speech you simply use står.
Ved is a preposition that here means “by / next to / at”, implying you are very close to something, typically right beside it.
- ved vinduet = by the window / at the window (standing next to it)
Other options have slightly different meanings:
- i vinduet (literally “in the window”)
- Often used for something in the window opening, like en blomst i vinduet (a flower in the window), or sometimes for a person appearing in the window, e.g. Han sto i vinduet og vinket (He stood in the window and waved).
- foran vinduet = in front of the window
- Focuses more on being in front of it; you might not be right up against it.
In Vi står ved vinduet, ved nicely captures the idea that you are standing right next to the window, probably looking out.
Norwegian uses suffixes instead of a separate word like English “the”.
- et vindu = a window (indefinite)
vinduet = the window (definite)
- en hage = a garden (indefinite)
- hagen = the garden (definite)
So vinduet and hagen each already include the meaning of “the”.
In this sentence, we are talking about a specific window and a specific garden that both the speaker and listener know about (for example, the window and garden of the house we’re in), so the definite form is natural.
You cannot say *ved vindu or *utover hage here; those would sound incomplete/unnatural, like saying “by window” or “over garden” in English.
The bare verb se (“to see”) behaves differently in Norwegian than in English “see”.
- å se noe often means simply to perceive something with your eyes (you notice it).
- To express looking at / looking out at / looking over something, Norwegian usually adds a preposition or adverb, such as på, ut, utover, etc.
So:
- Vi ser hagen = We see the garden (we notice it, it’s in our field of vision).
- Vi ser utover hagen = We are looking out over the garden (our gaze is moving across the garden; we are actively looking at the view).
In the original sentence, the idea is clearly that we’re standing at the window looking out over the garden as a view, not just that we are able to see that it exists, so ser utover hagen is the natural expression.
All of these are related to “out”, but they’re used differently:
- ut
- Basic direction: out(ward)
- Example: Vi går ut. = We’re going out.
- ute
- Location: (being) outside
- Example: Vi er ute. = We are outside.
- utover
- Literally: out(wards) over / across
- Often used with looking, spreading, stretching over an area
- Example: Vi ser utover hagen. = We look out over/across the garden.
- Example: Veien fortsetter utover landet. = The road continues out across the country.
So in ser utover hagen, utover means your gaze goes outwards and across the garden, not just “out” in a general sense, and not just “outside” as a location.
Yes, that’s possible, and it’s still natural Norwegian, but the nuance is a bit different:
ser utover hagen
- Emphasizes looking out over / across the garden as a scene or landscape.
- Suggests you see a wide area, maybe scanning the view.
ser ut på hagen
- Emphasizes that your gaze is directed out towards the garden.
- Focus is more on the direction (out) and the target (på hagen) than on covering the whole area.
In many everyday contexts, these can overlap, and both may be acceptable. Utover hagen just paints a slightly more “panoramic” picture.
Both versions are grammatically correct:
- Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
- Vi står ved vinduet og vi ser utover hagen.
In Norwegian, when two verbs share the same subject, it’s very common (and usually more natural) to mention the subject only once, then connect the verbs with og:
- Vi spiser og drikker. = We eat and drink.
- Hun sitter og leser. = She is sitting and reading.
You normally repeat the subject if you want to:
- add emphasis, or
- make the sentence clearer when it’s long or complex.
Here, the short, natural way is without repeating vi: Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
You can move parts around, but not all orders sound equally natural.
Some possibilities:
Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
- Neutral, natural, and idiomatic.
Vi står og ser utover hagen ved vinduet.
- Grammatically okay, but can sound slightly awkward or unclear, as if utover hagen ved vinduet were one unit (“over the garden by the window”).
Ved vinduet står vi og ser utover hagen.
- Also correct; puts extra emphasis on Ved vinduet (“At the window, we stand and look out over the garden”). More stylistic/poetic.
In practice, the original sentence is the most straightforward and natural: Vi står ved vinduet og ser utover hagen.
Both are present tense forms:
- å stå → står (present)
- This verb is irregular. It doesn’t follow the typical -er pattern.
- å se → ser (present)
- Also irregular; again, no simple -er ending.
Compare with regular verbs:
- å snakke → snakker (present)
- å vente → venter (present)
So you need to memorize the present forms står and ser, because you can’t just “guess” them from regular rules.
You change the verbs to their past tense forms:
- Vi stod ved vinduet og så utover hagen. (Bokmål – common spelling)
- stod = past of står
- så = past of ser
Meaning: We were standing by the window and looking out over the garden.
In spoken Norwegian, you’ll also hear sto instead of stod, and both spellings are accepted in Bokmål:
- Vi sto ved vinduet og så utover hagen.