Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.

I am used to starting the day with a short workout session in the swimming hall.

Breakdown of Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.

• jeg: I
• en: a
• med: with
• i: in
• kort: short
• dagen: the day
• starte: to start
• være vant til å: to be used to
• treningsøkten: the workout session
• svømmehallen: the swimming hall

Questions & Answers about Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.

What does er vant til mean exactly, and how is it different from English used to?

vant is the past participle of å venne (seg) til – to get used to, to accustom (oneself) to.
er vant til therefore means is/am/are used to, in the sense accustomed to / comfortable with / familiar with.

• Jeg er vant til kulde. – I am used to the cold.
• Jeg er vant til å starte dagen tidlig. – I am used to starting the day early.

English used to has two meanings:

1. be used to + -ing (accustomed):
   
   • I am used to getting up early. → Jeg er vant til å stå opp tidlig.
2. used to + verb (past habit, no longer true or not necessarily true now):
   
   • I used to get up early. → Jeg pleide å stå opp tidlig.

In Norwegian, the sentence Jeg er vant til å starte dagen ... is only the “accustomed to” meaning, not the “I used to do this (in the past)” meaning. For that past-habit meaning, you would normally use pleide å.

Why do we have both til and å in vant til å starte? Isn’t that like saying “to to start”?

They belong to different parts of the construction:

• vant til is a fixed expression: å være vant til noe = to be used to something.
• å starte is the infinitive: to start.

So in vant til å starte:

• til goes with vant: vant til ...
• å goes with starte: å starte (infinitive)

You cannot drop either one:

• ✗ Jeg er vant å starte dagen ... – incorrect
• ✓ Jeg er vant til å starte dagen ... – correct

Compare:

• Jeg er vant til kaffe. – I am used to coffee. (noun)
• Jeg er vant til å drikke kaffe. – I am used to drinking coffee. (verb phrase)

Can I say Jeg pleier å starte dagen med ... instead of Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med ...?

Yes, both are grammatical, but the nuance is different:

• Jeg pleier å starte dagen med ...
  – Focuses on what you usually do, your typical routine.
  – Closer to I usually / normally start the day with ...

• Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med ...
  – Focuses on what you are accustomed to, what feels normal or natural for you.
  – Closer to I am used to starting the day with ...

In everyday conversation, they will often describe almost the same reality, but:

• If you want to stress habit/frequency, use pleier å.
• If you want to stress being comfortable/accustomed, use er vant til.

Why is it dagen (the day) and not en dag or just dag?

Norwegian often uses the definite form for parts of the day and for “the day” when talking about regular routines:

• Jeg liker å starte dagen rolig. – I like to start the day calmly.
• om morgenen, om kvelden, hele dagen

Here, dagen refers to each specific day as it comes, not “a random day” as a countable item.
en dag would sound like “one/any day” and dag without an article is not natural in this context.

So:

• ✓ å starte dagen – start the day (your day)
• ✗ å starte en dag – sounds odd here
• ✗ å starte dag – ungrammatical

Why is the phrase med en kort treningsøkt used? Could we say med kort trening or something similar?

med en kort treningsøkt literally means with a short workout session:

• med – with
• en ... økt – one session/period
• treningsøkt – a workout session

You could say med litt trening (with a bit of exercise), but:

• en kort treningsøkt emphasizes one complete, but short, session.
• kort trening is not wrong grammatically, but it sounds unusual; you would normally say litt trening, mye trening, hard trening, etc., not kort trening.

So med en kort treningsøkt is the most natural way to express with a short workout.

What is the difference between trening and treningsøkt?

trening is usually uncountable, meaning training/exercise in general:

• Jeg liker trening. – I like exercise.
• Jeg skal på trening. – I’m going to training / to work out.

treningsøkt is countable, meaning a specific workout session:

• Jeg hadde en hard treningsøkt i går. – I had a hard workout yesterday.
• To treningsøkter om dagen. – Two workout sessions a day.

In your sentence, en kort treningsøkt highlights one single, short workout session at the start of the day.

Why does the adjective kort come before treningsøkt, and does kort change form?

In Norwegian, adjectives that describe a noun in front of it (attributive adjectives) normally come before the noun:

• en kort treningsøkt – a short workout
• en lang dag – a long day
• et stort hus – a big house

About the form:

• kort is used for indefinite singular with this noun:

  • en kort treningsøkt (masculine/feminine)
  • et kort brev (neuter)

• korte is used in plural and definite forms:

  • korte treningsøkter – short workout sessions
  • den korte treningsøkten – the short workout session

So in en kort treningsøkt, kort has its regular, base form.

What does svømmehallen literally mean, and why is it in the definite form?

svømmehallen can be broken down like this:

• svømme- – swimming
• hall – hall
• svømmehall – an indoor swimming facility / swimming pool building
• svømmehallen – the swimming hall (definite singular, adding -en)

The indefinite and definite forms are:

• en svømmehall – a swimming hall
• svømmehallen – the swimming hall

It is definite here (svømmehallen) because the speaker is thinking of a specific place where they usually swim – their local pool, not just any pool.

Why is the preposition i used in i svømmehallen? Could we say på svømmehallen?

In standard Norwegian, you normally use i with enclosed spaces/buildings when you mean inside them:

• i svømmehallen – in the swimming hall
• i kirken – in the church
• i butikken – in the shop

på is used with some institutions and activities (på skolen, på jobben, på trening, på kino), but svømmehall behaves more like a physical building:

• ✓ i svømmehallen – natural and standard
• ? på svømmehallen – would sound unnatural in standard Bokmål

So i svømmehallen is the normal, idiomatic choice.

Could I use begynne instead of starte here?

Yes. You can say:

• Jeg er vant til å begynne dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.

Both starte and begynne work here and are very common:

• starte – a loan from English to start, very widely used and neutral.
• begynne – the older, native verb to begin.

In everyday speech, there is practically no difference in meaning in this sentence.

How would I say this sentence in the past, like I was used to starting the day with a short workout in the swimming pool?

Use the past tense of være (å være = to be):

• Jeg var vant til å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.
  – I was used to starting the day with a short workout in the swimming pool.

If you specifically mean a past habit (you used to do it regularly, but maybe not now), you can also use pleide å:

• Jeg pleide å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.
  – I used to start the day with a short workout in the swimming pool.

Can I move i svømmehallen earlier in the sentence, and does that change the meaning?

You have some freedom with word order, but small changes can slightly shift the focus:

• Original:
  Jeg er vant til å starte dagen med en kort treningsøkt i svømmehallen.
  – Emphasis: the workout session is in the swimming hall.

• Alternative:
  Jeg er vant til å starte dagen i svømmehallen med en kort treningsøkt.
  – Emphasis: you start the day in the swimming hall, and you do that by having a short workout there.

Both are grammatical. In practice, the difference is small, but Norwegian tends to place location and other details close to what they describe, so i svømmehallen is most natural right after treningsøkt when you mean a workout in the pool.