Jeg er uvanlig trøtt i dag.

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Breakdown of Jeg er uvanlig trøtt i dag.

• være: to be
• i dag: today
• trøtt: tired

Questions & Answers about Jeg er uvanlig trøtt i dag.

What exactly does uvanlig mean here? Is it more like very or really?

Uvanlig literally means unusual.

In this sentence (Jeg er uvanlig trøtt i dag), it functions like an adverb and means unusually:

• Jeg er uvanlig trøtt i dag.
  = I am unusually tired today (more tired than I normally am).

So it’s not just very/really tired; it carries the idea that this amount of tiredness is not normal for you.

Why is uvanlig placed before trøtt?

In Norwegian, adverbs that modify an adjective are normally placed in front of that adjective:

• uvanlig trøtt – unusually tired
• veldig trøtt – very tired
• ganske trøtt – quite tired

Putting it after (trøtt uvanlig) would sound wrong here. So the word order uvanlig + adjective is the standard pattern.

Is uvanlig here an adjective or an adverb, and does it change form?

Here uvanlig is used as an adverb, because it modifies the adjective trøtt.
As an adverb, uvanlig does not change form.

As an adjective (describing a noun) it does change:

• en uvanlig dag – an unusual day
• et uvanlig problem – an unusual problem
• uvanlige dager – unusual days

But in uvanlig trøtt, it stays in the base form because it’s acting as an adverb.