I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.

In the corner of the living room stands my armchair.

Breakdown of I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.

• i: in
• min: my
• av: of
• stå: to stand
• stuen: the living room
• lenestolen: the armchair
• hjørnet: the corner

Questions & Answers about I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.

Why is the verb står in front of lenestolen min?

Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be the second element in the sentence.

The structure here is:

• I hjørnet av stuen – first element (a prepositional phrase, not the subject)
• står – finite verb (must come second)
• lenestolen min – subject

So: I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.

If you start the sentence with the subject instead, you get normal “subject–verb” order:

• Lenestolen min står i hjørnet av stuen.

Both are correct; the first one just puts more emphasis on the place (“in the corner of the living room…”).

Could I say Lenestolen min står i hjørnet av stuen instead? Is there any difference?

Yes, Lenestolen min står i hjørnet av stuen is perfectly correct and very natural.

The difference is mostly about information structure / emphasis:

• Lenestolen min står i hjørnet av stuen.
  – Neutral way to tell where the armchair is; starts with the subject.

• I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.
  – Slightly more focus on the place; you might be describing the room, then mention what is in that corner.

Grammatically they are equivalent; word order here is about style and what you want to highlight first.

Why is it står and not er? In English we just say “is”.

Norwegian often uses position verbs instead of just er for location. The three main ones are:

• stå – to stand
• ligge – to lie
• sitte – to sit

For things standing upright on the floor (like an armchair, a bookshelf, a fridge), Norwegians usually use står:

• Lenestolen min står i hjørnet av stuen. – My armchair is (stands) in the corner of the living room.
• Boken ligger på bordet. – The book is (lies) on the table.
• Han sitter i sofaen. – He is (sits) on the sofa.

You can use er for location, but in many everyday sentences it sounds less natural than using står / ligger / sitter.

Why is it i hjørnet av stuen? Could I use på instead of i?

Here, i means “in” and is the normal preposition for being inside a room or in a corner:

• i stuen – in the living room
• i hjørnet – in the corner

På often means “on” or “at” and is used with some rooms, but not all:

• på kjøkkenet – in the kitchen
• på badet – in the bathroom
• but i stuen, not på stuen in standard usage

So:

• ✅ I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.
• ❌ På hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min. (wrong here)

Use i for being in a corner of a room.

What does av mean in i hjørnet av stuen? Why not i hjørnet i stuen?

In this sentence, av means “of”, showing belonging/part-of:

• hjørnet av stuen – the corner of the living room

This is like English: the corner *of the living room*.

You might occasionally hear i hjørnet i stuen, but i hjørnet av stuen is more natural and specific: it clearly says that the corner belongs to the living room, not just some corner that happens to be in there.

So the typical pattern for “the X of Y” is:

• X av Y
  
  • døren av huset (often: husdøren) – the door of the house
  • hjørnet av stuen – the corner of the living room

Why do we say hjørnet and stuen with endings? What are the base forms?

Norwegian usually marks definite nouns with an ending, not with a separate word like “the”.

Base (indefinite) forms here:

• et hjørne – a corner (neuter)
• en / ei stue – a living room (common gender, can be treated as masculine or feminine)
• en lenestol – an armchair (masculine/common gender)

Definite forms:

• hjørnet – the corner
• stuen (or stua, see below) – the living room
• lenestolen – the armchair

So the phrase literally is:

• i hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min
  = in the corner of the living room stands the armchair of-mine.

Why is it lenestolen min instead of min lenestol? Are both correct?

Both patterns are correct in Norwegian, but they have different structures and slight differences in feel:

1. lenestolen min

   • definite noun + possessive after it
   • en lenestol → lenestolen min
   • very common, neutral, everyday style
   • focus is more on the thing itself

2. min lenestol

   • possessive before an indefinite noun
   • min lenestol
   • can sound a bit more emphatic or contrastive (“my armchair (not yours)”) depending on context

In your sentence, lenestolen min is the most natural, neutral way to say “my armchair is in the corner of the living room”.

Incorrect combinations to avoid:

• ❌ min lenestolen
• ❌ lenestol min (in standard Bokmål)

Why is it min and not mi, mitt or mine?

The form of the possessive depends on the gender and number of the noun:

• min – masculine / common gender singular
• mi – feminine singular
• mitt – neuter singular
• mine – plural (all genders)

The word lenestol is masculine/common gender:

• en lenestol – lenestolen – lenestolen min
  → so you use min.

Examples:

• min stol – my chair (masc.)
• mi bok – my book (fem.)
• mitt hus – my house (neuter)
• mine bøker – my books (plural)

Why stuen and not stua? Are both forms correct?

Yes, both stuen and stua are correct Bokmål forms; they reflect two ways of handling the noun stue:

• Masculine/common pattern:
  
  • en stue – stuen
• Feminine pattern:
  
  • ei stue – stua

In modern Bokmål you’re allowed to treat some nouns as either masculine or feminine. So you can choose:

• I hjørnet av stuen står lenestolen min.
• I hjørnet av stua står lenestolen min.

Stuen sounds a bit more formal/“bookish”, stua a bit more informal/everyday, but both are widely used and accepted.

How is hjørnet pronounced? Do you say the h?

In words beginning with hj- in Norwegian, the h is silent. You only pronounce the j sound.

Approximate pronunciation (very roughly in English terms):

• hjørnet ≈ “YUR-neh”
  
  • hj → like English y in yes
  • ø → a vowel between “uh” and “er” (like French peur)
  • final -et → a weak “eh” sound

So the start of the sentence:

• I hjørnet av stuen …
  → roughly: “ee YUR-neh av STOO-en …”

The key point: don’t pronounce the h in hjørnet.