Learn Hardcore Norwegian: På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause og kjøper en kanelbolle. - On the corner there is a small bakery where I often take a short coffee break and buy a cinnamon bun.

Why is the verb ligger before et lite bakeri in På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri? In English we would say “On the corner there is a small bakery.”

Norwegian follows the V2 rule (verb in second position) in main clauses, like German.

The first slot in the sentence is taken by På hjørnet (a prepositional phrase).
The finite verb must then come second, so ligger comes next.
The subject (et lite bakeri) is pushed after the verb.

So:

Et lite bakeri ligger på hjørnet.
→ subject first, then verb (neutral order)
På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri.
→ adverbial first, then verb, then subject (more descriptive style)

Both are grammatically correct and mean the same thing. The version in your sentence emphasizes the place (på hjørnet) first, then what is found there.

Could the sentence also be På hjørnet er det et lite bakeri? And what is the difference between ligger and er here?

Yes, På hjørnet er det et lite bakeri is also correct, but there are two differences:

er vs ligger
- ligger literally means lies / is situated, and is very commonly used for the location of buildings and places:
  - Bakeriet ligger på hjørnet. – The bakery is (situated) on the corner.
  - Oslo ligger i Norge. – Oslo is in Norway.
- er is the general to be verb. You can use it too, but ligger often sounds a bit more natural for fixed locations.
The dummy det
- På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri. – no dummy pronoun; the real subject (et lite bakeri) comes after the verb.
- På hjørnet er det et lite bakeri. – det works as a dummy subject, and the real subject follows:
  - Literally: On the corner is there a small bakery.

All of these are natural:

På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri.
Et lite bakeri ligger på hjørnet.
På hjørnet er det et lite bakeri.

The sentence you have is slightly more descriptive and typical in written Norwegian.

Why is it et lite bakeri and not en liten bakeri? How do gender and adjective forms work here?

bakeri is a neuter noun in Norwegian, so it takes:

et as the indefinite article: et bakeri (a bakery)
an adjective in the neuter singular form: lite

The adjective liten (“little/small”) is irregular and has three main forms:

liten – masculine/feminine singular
- en liten by (a small town)
- ei lita jente (a little girl – feminine form lita is also used)
lite – neuter singular
- et lite bakeri (a small bakery)
små – plural
- små bakerier (small bakeries)

In the definite form, the adjective changes too:

et lite bakeri – a small bakery (indefinite)
det lille bakeriet – the small bakery (definite)

So en liten bakeri is wrong because the article en and the adjective form liten are masculine/feminine, but bakeri is neuter and needs et lite.

What does på hjørnet literally mean, and is it more like “on the corner” or “at the corner”?

Literally, på hjørnet is on the corner, where:

på = on
hjørnet = the corner (definite form of et hjørne)

In English, you normally say at the corner, but Norwegian uses på in many places where English uses at.

So:

på hjørnet – at/on the corner
på skolen – at school
på kontoret – at the office

In this context, på hjørnet is naturally translated as at the corner in English, but structurally it is on the corner in Norwegian.

Why is it der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause and not hvor jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause? What is the role of der here?

Here, der is a relative adverb meaning where, and it introduces a relative clause describing the bakery:

et lite bakeri der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause …
→ a small bakery where I often take a short coffee break …

Key points:

der is used to refer back to a place that has just been mentioned:
- byen der jeg bor – the city where I live
- hotellet der vi sov – the hotel where we slept
- bakeriet der jeg ofte tar en kaffepause – the bakery where I often take a coffee break
hvor is mostly used in questions:
- Hvor bor du? – Where do you live?

In written Bokmål, you can sometimes see hvor in relative clauses (influenced by Danish), like bakeriet hvor jeg ofte tar en kaffepause, and it is not wrong, but many speakers prefer der in this function.

You would not use som here, because som refers to the thing itself, not the place as a location:

bakeriet som jeg liker – the bakery that I like
bakeriet der jeg ofte tar en kaffepause – the bakery where I often take a coffee break

So der here is the natural, everyday way to say where in a relative clause about a place.

Why is the word order der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause and not der jeg tar ofte en kort kaffepause? Where does ofte usually go?

In Norwegian, sentence adverbs like ofte (often), ikke (not), alltid (always) usually come:

In main clauses: after the verb or after the subject?
The normal pattern is Subject – Verb – Adverb – Object:
- Jeg tar ofte en kort kaffepause.
  Subject = jeg, verb = tar, adverb = ofte
In subordinate clauses (introduced by der, at, fordi, når, hvis etc.), the pattern changes slightly to: Subject – Adverb – Verb – …

Since der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause is a subordinate clause (relative clause), the word order is:

jeg (subject)
ofte (adverb)
tar (verb)

So:

Riktig: der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause
Sounds wrong/odd: der jeg tar ofte en kort kaffepause

Compare:

Main clause: Jeg tar ofte en pause.
Subordinate: Når jeg ofte tar en pause, …

The sentence follows the standard subordinate-clause pattern.

Why do you say tar en kort kaffepause? Could you also say har en kaffepause or drikker kaffe?

The verb ta (“take”) is the most natural choice with pause:

å ta en pause – to take a break
å ta en kaffepause – to take a coffee break
å ta en røykepause – to take a smoking break

So tar en kort kaffepause directly mirrors English take a short coffee break.

Alternatives:

har en pause – have a break
- This is possible but ta en pause is more idiomatic in everyday language.
drikker kaffe – drink coffee
- This focuses on the drinking itself, not the idea of a break from work or activity.
- Example:
  - På hjørnet ligger et lite bakeri der jeg ofte drikker kaffe.
    → Here, you’re just saying that you drink coffee there; it doesn’t explicitly sound like “coffee break from work”.

The word kort (short) is just an extra detail. You could drop it:

… der jeg ofte tar en kaffepause og kjøper en kanelbolle.

That would still be perfectly natural.

What exactly do kaffepause and kanelbolle mean as compounds?

Both are compound nouns, which are extremely common in Norwegian.

kaffepause
- kaffe = coffee
- pause = break, pause
  → kaffepause = coffee break
Stress is usually on the first part: KAFFEpause.
kanelbolle
- kanel = cinnamon
- bolle = bun/roll (also used for “bowl” in other contexts)
  → kanelbolle = cinnamon bun / cinnamon roll
Again, stress on the first part: KANELbolle.

Compounds in Norwegian are written as one word, not like coffee break or cinnamon bun in English.

Why is it en kanelbolle and not et kanelbolle? What are the definite forms?

kanelbolle is a masculine noun, so:

Indefinite singular: en kanelbolle – a cinnamon bun
Definite singular: kanelbollen – the cinnamon bun
Indefinite plural: kanelboller – cinnamon buns
Definite plural: kanelbollene – the cinnamon buns

Masculine gender uses en in the indefinite singular.
If the noun were neuter, you would use et, like et bakeri.

Note: in everyday Bokmål, many speakers treat a lot of traditionally feminine nouns as masculine, but kanelbolle is masculine in any case.

Why is it et lite bakeri and en kanelbolle, both in the indefinite form? Could you also use the definite form here?

In the original sentence:

et lite bakeri – a small bakery
en kanelbolle – a cinnamon bun

Both are indefinite because you are introducing or mentioning them in a general or non-specific way in the flow of the narrative.

Definite forms would be:

det lille bakeriet – the small bakery
kanelbollen – the cinnamon bun

You could say, for example:

På hjørnet ligger det lille bakeriet der jeg ofte tar en kort kaffepause og kjøper en kanelbolle.

But then you are assuming the listener/reader already knows which bakery you are talking about (it is some specific, previously identified bakery).

Typical pattern:

First mention: et lite bakeri (introduce it)
Later mentions: det lille bakeriet or bakeriet (now it is known/specific)

In your single-sentence example, using the indefinite forms gives a more neutral, descriptive feel, as if you’re painting the scene for the first time.