Breakdown of Vi leser kommentarene i tråden i dag.
Questions & Answers about Vi leser kommentarene i tråden i dag.
- Vi – subject pronoun: we.
- leser – finite verb, present tense of å lese: read / are reading.
- kommentarene – direct object, definite plural: the comments.
- i tråden – prepositional phrase of place: in the thread.
- i dag – adverbial phrase of time: today.
So the structure is: Subject – Verb – Object – Place – Time.
Norwegian only has one present tense form for å lese: leser. It covers both English simple present and present continuous, so:
- Vi leser kommentarene … can mean We read the comments … (habit)
- or We are reading the comments … (right now / arranged for today)
The exact nuance (habit vs right now vs plan for today) comes from context and the time expression i dag.
- kommentarer = comments (indefinite plural)
- kommentarene = the comments (definite plural)
- kommentaren = the comment (definite singular)
In this sentence, we are talking about specific, known comments in a particular thread, so Norwegian uses the definite plural: kommentarene – literally “comments-the”.
Both are normally treated as masculine nouns in Bokmål:
kommentar (a comment)
- Singular: en kommentar, kommentaren
- Plural: kommentarer, kommentarene
tråd (a thread)
- Singular: en tråd, tråden
- Plural: tråder, trådene
In the sentence you see kommentarene (definite plural) and tråden (definite singular).
Norwegian tends to say i tråden (in the thread) for an online discussion thread, imagining it as something you are “inside”.
Some set expressions use på (e.g. på nettet – on the internet), but for a single thread the idiomatic choice is i tråden.
If you said på tråden, it would normally be understood as the idiom “on the line” (on the phone), not about an internet thread.
The two i’s do different jobs:
- i tråden = in the thread (place)
- i dag = today (time; literally “in day” but as a fixed phrase)
You cannot drop either i here; tråden dag and tråden i dag are not equivalent, and dag by itself just means day, not today.
The standard Bokmål spelling is i dag (two words).
You will often see idag (one word) in informal writing, social media, and older texts, but in modern standard language i dag is the recommended form in dictionaries and school grammar.
So in careful or formal writing, prefer i dag.
Yes. Norwegian allows several word orders, with slightly different emphasis, but the verb must stay in second position in a main clause (the V2 rule):
- Vi leser kommentarene i tråden i dag. (neutral, time at the end)
- I dag leser vi kommentarene i tråden. (emphasis on today)
- Vi leser i dag kommentarene i tråden. (more formal / written style, focus on today as a contrast)
All three are grammatically correct; the first is most neutral in everyday speech.
Both are possible:
Vi leser kommentarene i tråden i dag.
– Often used for a plan or schedule: We’re reading the comments today (that’s what we’re doing today).Vi skal lese kommentarene i tråden i dag.
– Slightly clearer future meaning: We are going to read / will read the comments today.
Norwegian present tense (leser) is very often used for near-future plans, especially when you add a time word like i dag.
- kommentarene = the comments, but without saying where they are.
- kommentarene i tråden = the comments in the thread, specifying which comments you mean.
If the thread is already very obvious from context, speakers might sometimes just say Vi leser kommentarene i dag, but adding i tråden makes it explicit that you mean the comments in that particular thread, not comments somewhere else.
Yes, that’s grammatically correct, but it changes the meaning slightly:
Vi leser kommentarer i tråden i dag.
– We read (some) comments in the thread today (not necessarily all).Vi leser kommentarene i tråden i dag.
– We read the comments in the thread today (usually understood as all or all relevant ones, a specific set).
The definite form kommentarene makes the group of comments more clearly defined and known.
Approximate pronunciation (Standard East Norwegian, rough English-like hints):
leser ≈ [LEH-ser]
- le- like leh in let but a bit longer;
- -ser with a clear s, e like e in set.
kommentarene ≈ [kom-men-TAA-re-ne]
- stress on -TA-;
- o like in British got;
- final -ne is short and unstressed.
tråden ≈ [TRÅ-den]
- trå has a long vowel like traw in British straw;
- d
- en often merge into a single sound with a slight retroflex dn in many accents.
These are approximations; real pronunciation varies slightly by dialect.
- i tråden = in the thread, referring to one particular, known thread (for example, the one you are both looking at).
- i en tråd = in a thread, introducing a thread that has not been specified before, or where its identity doesn’t matter.
In your sentence, the context is usually a specific, already identified thread, so the definite form tråden is natural.