Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire, men hun jobber ofte overtid. - Her working hours are from eight to four, but she often works overtime.

Putting hennes after it gives arbeidstiden hennes = “her working hours” (literally “the working hours hers”). This is a normal and very common possessive structure in Norwegian.

Why is it hennes and not sin in Arbeidstiden hennes?

Norwegian has two kinds of third‑person possessives:

hans / hennes / deres = his / her / their (non‑reflexive)
sin / sitt / sine = his/her/their own (reflexive, used when the possessor is the subject of the clause)

In Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire, the subject of the clause is arbeidstiden, not hun. The person (hun) only appears in the second clause: …men hun jobber ofte overtid.

Because the owner (she) is not the grammatical subject of the first clause, you cannot use sin there. You must use hennes, so:

✅ Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire.
❌ Arbeidstiden sin er fra åtte til fire. (ungrammatical here)

If you wanted to use sin, you would make hun the subject in that clause, for example:

Hun liker arbeidstiden sin. – She likes her (own) working hours.

Can I also say Hennes arbeidstid er fra åtte til fire? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say both:

Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire.
Hennes arbeidstid er fra åtte til fire.

They mean the same thing: Her working hours are from eight to four.

Differences:

Noun + possessive after (arbeidstiden hennes) is the most neutral and most common pattern in everyday Norwegian.
Possessive before the noun (hennes arbeidstid) can sound a bit more formal or slightly more emphatic on hennes (“her working hours, not someone else’s”), but it’s fully correct.

Why do we use fra … til for the hours? Could I say something else?

Fra … til is the normal way to express a time range:

fra åtte til fire = from eight to four

Two common alternatives:

mellom … og
- Hun jobber mellom åtte og fire.
  This means “She works between eight and four.”
  It can suggest “any time in that interval” rather than a fixed schedule, but in practice it’s often used similarly.
With klokka / klokken (see next question):
- Arbeidstiden hennes er fra klokka åtte til klokka fire.

In your sentence, fra åtte til fire is the most idiomatic and straightforward way to state fixed working hours.

Should it really be fra klokka åtte til klokka fire? When can I omit klokka?

You can include or omit klokka (or klokken) depending on context:

Full form:
- Arbeidstiden hennes er fra klokka åtte til klokka fire.
Shorter, very common form:
- Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire.

If it’s obvious that you’re talking about times of day (like working hours), Norwegians often drop klokka in casual speech and writing.

Forms:

klokka – more informal / spoken Bokmål
klokken – more formal / written Bokmål

All of these are correct; the sentence without klokka is completely natural.

What is the difference between å jobbe and å arbeide? Why is it hun jobber here?

Both verbs mean “to work”, but they differ a bit in style and usage:

å jobbe
- Very common in everyday speech.
- Neutral, informal.
- Used for “to work (at a job)” and also sometimes “to work on something”.
- Example: Hun jobber på kontor. – She works in an office.
å arbeide
- Slightly more formal or written.
- Often used in more set expressions: arbeidstid (working hours), arbeidsplass (workplace), etc.
- Example: Han arbeider som ingeniør. – He works as an engineer.

In the sentence men hun jobber ofte overtid, jobber is the most natural choice in everyday Norwegian.
You could say hun arbeider ofte overtid, but it sounds more formal or bookish.

What exactly does overtid mean, and why is there no article or preposition (no en/ei or på)?

Overtid means “overtime” in the sense of working longer than your normal working hours.

It is a noun: typically en overtid in dictionaries.
But in the expression å jobbe overtid, it works like an uncountable noun (no article).

So you say:

Hun jobber ofte overtid. – She often works overtime.
Han får betalt for overtiden. – He gets paid for the overtime.

Notice the patterns:

With the verb jobbe, you usually say jobbe overtid (no article, no preposition):
- ✅ Hun jobber overtid.
- ❌ Hun jobber en overtid.
- ❌ Hun jobber på overtid. (occasionally heard, but jobbe overtid is standard)

In English you also say “work overtime”, so the structure is quite parallel.

Why is the adverb ofte placed between jobber and overtid?

In Norwegian main clauses, common adverbs (like ofte, often) usually go after the verb and before the rest of the sentence:

Hun jobber ofte overtid.
Subject – Verb – Adverb – Object/complement

That’s the neutral word order.

Other positions:

❌ Hun ofte jobber overtid. – Incorrect.
Hun jobber overtid ofte. – Possible, but sounds marked/emphatic, as if you are stressing often at the end.

So the normal pattern is exactly what you see in the sentence: jobber ofte overtid.

What does men do in this sentence, and could I use og or selv om instead?

Men is the coordinating conjunction “but”. It introduces a contrast:

Arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire, men hun jobber ofte overtid.
= Her working hours are from 8 to 4, but she often works overtime (in contrast to what you’d expect).

Alternatives:

og = “and”
- …og hun jobber ofte overtid.
  Just adds information; the contrast is weaker.
selv om = “even though / although” (subordinating conjunction)
- Selv om arbeidstiden hennes er fra åtte til fire, jobber hun ofte overtid.
  Restructures the sentence and makes the contrast even stronger: Even though her hours are 8–4, she (still) often works overtime.

In the original sentence, men is the normal, simple way to show contrast.

Why is the verb jobber in the present tense if this is about something that happens regularly?

Norwegian present tense covers both:

Simple present / habitual actions:
- Hun jobber ofte overtid. – She often works overtime.
Present progressive (ongoing “is working”):
- Hun jobber nå. – She is working now.

So jobber is used for general, repeated habits as well as actions happening right now. You don’t need a special continuous form like English “is working”.

If you want to stress that it’s going on right now, you usually add an adverb like nå (now), or a time expression:

Hun jobber overtid nå. – She is working overtime now.

Why is it arbeidstiden and not arbeidstida? What gender is this noun?

The base noun is arbeidstid (working time / working hours). In Bokmål:

It can be treated as common gender (like a “masculine/feminine merged” class).
Indefinite: en arbeidstid
Definite: arbeidstiden

Some Bokmål writers also use feminine forms:

Indefinite: ei arbeidstid
Definite: arbeidstida

So both arbeidstiden and arbeidstida exist in Bokmål, but:

arbeidstiden is the more neutral, standard written form.
arbeidstida can feel more colloquial or dialect‑coloured, and it also matches Nynorsk patterns more closely.

In your sentence, arbeidstiden is exactly what you would expect in standard written Bokmål.

How are some of these tricky words pronounced, like arbeidstiden, åtte, and overtid?

Approximate pronunciations (standard East Norwegian; written in a rough English‑style way):

arbeidstiden ≈ “AR-bide-stee-den”
- ar like “are”
- -beid like English “bide” (but often a bit reduced)
- -sti- like “stee”
- -den like “den”, often with a fairly light final n
åtte ≈ “OT-teh”
- å like the vowel in English “off” or “awe”, but shorter
- Double t gives a clear, short t sound
- Final e is a short “eh”
overtid ≈ “OH-ver-teed”
- o here is like “oh”
- ver like “vair” but with a shorter vowel
- tid like English “teed” (long i sound)

These are just approximations; actual Norwegian pronunciation can vary a bit by region, but this will be close to the standard.