Breakdown of På profilen min legger jeg en lenke til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet.
Questions & Answers about På profilen min legger jeg en lenke til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet.
Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the finite verb must be in second position in the sentence.
In your sentence:
- På profilen min – first element (a prepositional phrase)
- legger – finite verb (must come second)
- jeg – subject
- en lenke til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet – the rest
So På profilen min legger jeg … is the normal word order when you move På profilen min to the front for emphasis.
You can absolutely also say:
- Jeg legger en lenke til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet på profilen min.
That is also correct and a bit more neutral. The original version puts more emphasis on where you put the link (on your profile).
What you cannot say is På profilen min jeg legger … – that breaks the V2 rule.
Both profilen min and min profil are grammatically correct, but they differ in style and nuance.
profilen min
- Definite form profilen
- possessive min after the noun
- This is the most common, neutral way to say my profile in everyday Norwegian.
- It often refers to a specific, known thing (the profile we both know about).
- Definite form profilen
min profil
- Possessive min before the noun
- Also correct, but sounds more formal, emphatic, or contrastive.
- You might use it to stress whose profile it is:
- Ikke din profil, men min profil – Not your profile, but *my profile.*
In most contexts like a social media profile, Norwegians will naturally say profilen min.
dagboken is definite because the speaker is referring to a particular diary, not just any diary.
- dagboken jeg skriver på nettet
= the diary (that) I write online
If you said en dagbok jeg skriver på nettet, it would sound more like:
- a diary (one of maybe several) that I write online
In this context, there is one specific diary that you have and that you write online, so the definite form dagboken is natural, just like English uses the diary.
Both profil and dagbok are common gender nouns in Bokmål (they use en in indefinite singular).
profil
- Indefinite singular: en profil
- Definite singular: profilen
- Indefinite plural: profiler
- Definite plural: profilene
dagbok
- Indefinite singular: en dagbok
- Definite singular: dagboken or dagboka (both are standard Bokmål)
- Indefinite plural: dagbøker
- Definite plural: dagbøkene
So in your sentence:
- profilen min = my profile
- dagboken = the diary
The preposition på is very common in Norwegian with:
- surfaces or pages
- platforms and digital spaces
So you say:
- på profilen min – on my profile
- på siden min – on my page
- på Facebook, på Instagram
- på nettet – on the Internet / online
i profilen min would sound strange in this meaning; it would suggest being inside some data structure rather than on the visible profile page.
i nettet is normally understood literally as inside the net (a fishing net, for example), not on the Internet. For the Internet, you use:
- på nettet
- på internett
- or simply på nett (very common, means online).
lenke is the normal Norwegian word for a hyperlink (a clickable link on a website).
- en lenke – a link
- lenken / lenka – the link (two accepted definite forms in Bokmål)
Norwegians also very often use the English loanword link, especially in informal speech and writing:
- en link, linken
Official style and more careful written Norwegian tend to prefer lenke, but in everyday conversation you will hear both lenke and link, and both are understood.
In Norwegian, the standard pattern is:
- en lenke til noe – a link to something
The preposition til expresses the destination / target of the link, just like English to.
- en lenke til dagboken – a link to the diary
Using other prepositions would change the meaning:
- en lenke for dagboken – sounds like a link for the diary (for its benefit or use), not that it leads to the diary.
- en lenke av dagboken – would be interpreted as a link of/from the diary, which does not describe a hyperlink destination.
So for hyperlinks, always think lenke til X = link to X.
Norwegian often uses the relative pronoun som (similar to that/which/who).
In many cases where som would be the object, it can be omitted, especially in speech and informal writing.
- dagboken som jeg skriver på nettet – fully explicit
- dagboken jeg skriver på nettet – with som dropped
Here, dagboken is the object of skriver inside the relative clause, so som is optional.
You cannot drop som when it is the subject of the relative clause:
- mannen som bor her – the man who lives here (you cannot say mannen bor her as a relative clause)
So both:
- dagboken som jeg skriver på nettet
- dagboken jeg skriver på nettet
are correct. The version without som feels a bit more casual and is very common.
These forms are slightly different in structure and feel.
dagboken jeg skriver på nettet
- A relative construction: the diary (that) I write online
- This fits well after en lenke til …
jeg skriver dagboken på nettet
- A full main clause: I write the diary online.
- Grammatically correct, but sounds a bit unusual; Norwegians normally do not talk about writing the diary as a whole object.
jeg skriver dagbok (på nettet)
- This is the most natural way to express I keep a diary (online).
- dagbok is often used like an activity noun here, so you drop the article:
- jeg skriver dagbok – I keep a diary / I write in a diary
In your original sentence, til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet is fine and clearly refers to a specific diary. If you were writing a separate sentence about the activity, jeg skriver dagbok på nettet would usually sound more idiomatic than jeg skriver dagboken på nettet.
Norwegian has only one present-tense form for verbs, and it covers both:
- English simple present: I write a diary every day.
- English present continuous: I am writing a diary right now.
So:
- jeg skriver dagbok
can mean:- I write a diary (regularly).
- I am writing a diary (these days / right now).
Context usually makes it clear which meaning is intended.
There is no special -ing form in Norwegian; you always just use the simple present skriver.
Yes. In Bokmål, many common-gender nouns have two possible definite singular endings: -en and -a.
For dagbok:
- dagboken – more formal / bookish
- dagboka – more colloquial and often closer to many spoken dialects
Both are standard Bokmål, and both are understood everywhere.
Similarly for lenke:
- lenken
- lenka
Which sounds more natural depends on region and style:
- Written texts, textbooks, and formal language often use -en.
- Everyday speech and more informal writing often prefer -a.
In your sentence, both til dagboken jeg skriver på nettet and til dagboka jeg skriver på nettet are correct.
Here is an approximate pronunciation using IPA and a rough English guide:
på – [poː]
- Like English paw but with a purer, long o sound and rounded lips.
profilen min – [pruˈfiːlən mɪn]
- pro- like pro but with a shorter vowel
- -fil- like English feel
- -en = [ən], a very short, weak syllable
- min = min in mini, but shorter.
legger – [ˈlɛɡər]
- le- like English leg (short e as in get)
- -gger: hard g as in go, then a weak er [ər].
lenke – [ˈlɛŋkə]
- le- like let
- -nk- is pronounced [ŋk], like link
- Final -e is a short, unstressed [ə] (schwa).
dagboken – [ˈdɑːɡbuːkən]
- dag – [dɑːɡ], a like in British father, long
- bo- – [buː], like boo
- -ken – [kən], with a weak [ə] then n.
skriver – [ˈskriːvər]
- skri- like skree in scream (long i)
- -ver – [vər], with a weak er.
nettet – [ˈnɛtːə]
- net- like net but with a long / doubled t (held slightly longer)
- Final -e again is a weak [ə].
Norwegian vowels are generally pure (not diphthongs), and unstressed -e at the end of words is almost always a short, neutral [ə] sound.