Breakdown of Fagforeningen hjelper oss å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale.
Questions & Answers about Fagforeningen hjelper oss å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale.
Norwegian normally marks definiteness on the noun itself, using an ending:
- fagforening = a (or any) trade union
- fagforeningen = the trade union
So fagforeningen hjelper oss ... means the union (a specific, known one) is helping us.
If you said:
- En fagforening hjelper oss å forhandle ...
that would mean a trade union (not a specific one) helps us negotiate …
Both are grammatically correct, but they say slightly different things about how specific the union is.
Yes, that is grammatically fine:
- En fagforening hjelper oss å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale.
This would be used if you are speaking more generally, e.g. in a textbook or a description of what unions do in general:
- A trade union helps us negotiate a new collective agreement.
The original fagforeningen suggests that both speaker and listener know which union is being talked about (for example, your own union at work).
Norwegian, like English, has different forms for subject and object pronouns:
- vi = we (subject)
- oss = us (object)
In the sentence:
- Fagforeningen = subject (the one doing the helping)
- hjelper = verb
- oss = object (the ones being helped)
So it must be:
- Fagforeningen hjelper oss … = The union helps us …
Using vi here (hjelper vi) would be like saying helps we in English; it’s ungrammatical.
Yes. In å forhandle, å is the infinitive marker, similar to to in English to negotiate.
The pattern here is:
- hjelpe + (object) + å + infinitive
So:
- hjelper oss å forhandle ≈ helps us (to) negotiate
You can break it down as:
- hjelper – helps
- oss – us
- å forhandle – to negotiate
The å is required before the infinitive forhandle in this construction.
You cannot say hjelper oss forhandle in standard Norwegian.
Yes, at least hjelper oss med å forhandle is very common and perfectly natural:
- Fagforeningen hjelper oss med å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale.
Nuance:
- hjelper oss å forhandle – neutral, very common in speech; straightforward helps us negotiate
- hjelper oss med å forhandle – emphasizes the activity as something practical you get help with; also very common and often stylistically preferred in writing.
hjelper oss til å forhandle is grammatically possible but often sounds a bit more formal or old-fashioned; it can also imply enables us to negotiate.
All three can be understood, but in everyday modern Norwegian, å or med å are the most typical.
In Norwegian, forhandle (to negotiate) normally takes the preposition om when you say what you are negotiating:
- forhandle om lønn – negotiate about salary
- forhandle om pris – negotiate the price
- forhandle om en ny tariffavtale – negotiate about a new collective agreement
So the basic pattern is:
- forhandle om + thing being negotiated
Using forhandle directly with an object (forhandle en avtale) is not typical in everyday Norwegian and will usually sound foreign or old-fashioned. Forhandle om is the natural choice.
Tariffavtale is a compound noun:
- tariff – in this context, a wage/working-conditions scale or system agreed between unions and employers
- avtale – agreement
Together, tariffavtale means something like collective agreement or collective bargaining agreement (a formal agreement on wages and working conditions).
Norwegian normally writes such combinations as one word:
- arbeidsavtale – work contract
- husleiekontrakt – rental contract
- tariffavtale – collective agreement
Writing tariff avtale with a space is incorrect in standard Norwegian.
Both are possible, but they mean different things:
en ny tariffavtale
- a new collective agreement (indefinite)
- neutral, not referring to one specific agreement that has already been clearly identified.
den nye tariffavtalen
- the new collective agreement
- definite; used when both speaker and listener already know which specific new agreement you’re talking about.
In negotiations, forhandle om en ny tariffavtale is natural, because you are generally aiming to create some new agreement (you don’t have it yet).
Once it exists, you might refer to den nye tariffavtalen (the new agreement).
The main clause follows normal Norwegian main-clause word order:
- Subject: Fagforeningen
- Verb: hjelper
- Object: oss
- (Verb phrase/complement): å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale
So: Subject – Verb – Object – Rest
Within the infinitive phrase:
- å forhandle – infinitive verb
- om en ny tariffavtale – prepositional phrase (what you negotiate about)
You cannot move oss after å forhandle:
- ❌ Fagforeningen hjelper å forhandle oss om en ny tariffavtale – ungrammatical
The object oss belongs to hjelper, so it must stay right after hjelper (or at least before the å forhandle phrase).
Norwegian present tense covers both English simple present and present continuous:
- Fagforeningen hjelper oss … can mean:
- The trade union helps us … (in general, as a habitual fact), or
- The trade union is helping us … (right now, these days), depending on context.
If you really want to emphasize the “right now / in progress” idea, you can add nå or use holder på å with the infinitive verb:
- Fagforeningen hjelper oss nå. – The union is helping us now.
- Vi holder på å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale. – We are in the process of negotiating a new collective agreement.
But the simple present hjelper is usually enough.
Literally, om often translates to about:
- snakke om noe – talk about something
- tenke om noe – think about something
- forhandle om noe – negotiate about something
In English, we might say:
- negotiate *a new collective agreement*
- negotiate *for a new collective agreement*
- negotiate *over a new collective agreement*
Norwegian just uses om in all these negotiation contexts. So you can think of:
- forhandle om en ny tariffavtale ≈ negotiate for/about a new collective agreement
Yes, normally fagforening and fagforeningen are written with lowercase f:
- fagforening – a trade union
- fagforeningen – the trade union
You only capitalize it if it’s part of a proper name:
- Fellesforbundet – (name of a union)
- Norsk Sykepleierforbund – Norwegian Nurses’ Organisation
So your example sentence is correctly written with lowercase:
Fagforeningen hjelper oss å forhandle om en ny tariffavtale.
Approximate pronunciation (in a standard Eastern Norwegian accent):
fagforeningen:
- fag – /fɑːg/ (long a, the g is pronounced but not strongly)
- for – like English for, but shorter
- ening – roughly /eːning/
- en – /ən/
So: FAAG-fo-reh-ning-en (stress mainly on fag).
tariffavtale:
- tariff – similar to English tariff, but with clear r and short vowels: /tɑˈrɪf/
- av – /ɑːv/ (long a, v pronounced)
- tale – /ˈtɑː-le/ (stress on ta, e like eh)
So: ta-RIFF-av-TAH-le, with the main stress on riff and a secondary on ta.
Precise sounds vary a bit by dialect, but this gives you a workable approximation.