Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden er travel. - Tuesday is calm, but the evening is busy.

Norwegian uses the definite form more often than English uses the. In a sentence like this, where you are talking about that particular Tuesday in general (as a type of day, or “Tuesdays in general”), you can say:

Tirsdag er rolig. – Tuesday is calm.
Tirsdagen er rolig. – (The) Tuesday is calm.

Both are possible. Using the definite form (Tirsdagen) can make it sound a bit more like “this specific Tuesday / Tuesday as we experience it”, but in many contexts it overlaps with general “Tuesday” in English.

Why is it kvelden (the evening) when the English translation is just “evening”?

Again, this is the Norwegian definite form:

kveld = evening
kvelden = the evening

Norwegian often uses the definite form where English uses a bare noun:

Kvelden er travel. – (The) evening is busy.
Morgenen er kald. – (The) morning is cold.

In English you’d usually drop the in these “in general” statements (Evening is busy, Morning is cold), but Norwegian prefers the definite form in this type of description, especially when it’s “the evening (today / in our routine)”.

Why do the adjectives stay in the form rolig and travel? Why don’t they change ending?

Here the adjectives are used after the verb er (are/is), so they are predicative adjectives:

Tirsdagen er rolig. – Tuesday is calm.
Kvelden er travel. – The evening is busy.

In Norwegian, predicative adjectives with a singular subject (regardless of gender or definiteness) usually take the basic form:

Dagen er lang. – The day is long.
Helgen er fin. – The weekend is nice.
Natten er kald. – The night is cold.

If the adjective comes before the noun (attributive), you often add -e in the definite form:

en rolig kveld – a calm evening
den rolige kvelden – the calm evening
en travel tirsdag – a busy Tuesday
den travle tirsdagen – the busy Tuesday

So: after er with a singular subject → rolig, travel. Before a definite noun → rolige, travle.

What exactly is the difference between rolig and other words like stille or fredelig?

All can relate to calm/quiet, but the nuances differ:

rolig – calm, relaxed, not hectic
- Focus on lack of stress/hurry, atmosphere is not busy.
- Dagen er rolig. – The day is calm (not much going on).
stille – quiet, silent
- Focus on sound level (little or no noise).
- Det er stille i huset. – It is quiet in the house.
fredelig – peaceful
- Often more about peace, no conflict, a peaceful feeling or situation.
- Et fredelig nabolag. – A peaceful neighborhood.

In Tirsdagen er rolig, you are mainly saying the day is not busy / not hectic, rather than emphasizing silence.

Why travel and not opptatt when both can mean “busy”?

They overlap but are not used in the same way:

travel – busy, hectic (a period of time, a day, a schedule)
- En travel dag. – A busy day.
- Kvelden er travel. – The evening is busy/hectic.
opptatt – busy / occupied (a person or a resource)
- Jeg er opptatt. – I’m busy.
- Toalettet er opptatt. – The toilet is occupied.
- Hun er opptatt med arbeid. – She is busy with work.

So you normally say:

Dagen er travel. – The day is busy.
but
Jeg er opptatt. – I’m busy.

You can say Jeg har det travelt (I’m in a hurry / I’m very busy), but that’s a fixed expression.

Can I drop the second er and say Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden travel?

No. In standard Norwegian you cannot omit the second er here. Each clause needs its own verb:

Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden er travel. ✅
Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden travel. ❌

In English you can sometimes drop the second verb (“Tuesday is calm, but the evening busy”) in a slightly poetic style, but that does not work in normal Norwegian prose.

Does men (“but”) change the word order like some other words do?

No. Men is a coordinating conjunction and does not cause inversion by itself. The word order after men in a main clause stays Subject – Verb – (rest):

Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden er travel.
- Clause 1: Tirsdagen (S) – er (V) – rolig
- Clause 2: kvelden (S) – er (V) – travel

Compare with words placed at the front of a main clause, like i dag, which do cause inversion:

I dag er kvelden travel. (Fronted adverbial → V comes before S)
Kvelden er travel i dag. (Neutral order)

But with men joining two main clauses, each clause keeps normal S–V order.

Could I also say På tirsdag er det rolig, men om kvelden er det travelt? Is that similar?

Yes, that’s a very natural alternative with slightly different structure:

På tirsdag er det rolig, men om kvelden er det travelt.
- På tirsdag – on Tuesday
- om kvelden – in the evening / during the evening
- det er rolig / det er travelt – it is calm / it is busy (impersonal det)

Original:

Tirsdagen er rolig, men kvelden er travel. – Tuesday (as a day) is calm, but the evening is busy.

Alternative:

På tirsdag er det rolig, men om kvelden er det travelt. – On Tuesday it is calm, but in the evening it is busy.

Same basic idea; the second version sounds a bit more like “on Tuesday / in the evening (in general) it is…”

Why is Tirsdagen capitalized but kvelden is not?

Two separate reasons:

First word of the sentence
- The first word of any sentence is capitalized: Tirsdagen.
Days of the week are not normally capitalized in Norwegian
- In Norwegian, days, months, and languages are written with a lowercase letter in the middle of a sentence:
  - tirsdag, onsdag, norsk, engelsk, januar.

So if the day came in the middle of a sentence, it would be:

I dag er tirsdagen rolig, men kvelden er travel.

How do I pronounce rolig and travel so they don’t sound like the English words?

Rough guide in “English-ish” sounds (actual Norwegian sounds vary by dialect):

rolig
- ro- like “roo” (but shorter)
- -lig roughly like “lee” (often the g is very soft or almost silent)
- Approx: ROO-lee (with a short, clean “oo” and clear r).
travel (Norwegian “busy”)
- tra- like “trah” (short a as in “father” in many dialects, not tray)
- -vel like “vell” (as in English “vell” in “vellum”, short e)
- Approx: TRAH-vell, not like English “TRAV-el”.

The main points:

Norwegian a is more like “ah”, not “ay”.
Final -el / -ig endings are short and unstressed.