Breakdown of Under forrige streik stod samlebåndet stille i tre dager.
Questions & Answers about Under forrige streik stod samlebåndet stille i tre dager.
In time expressions, under often means during, just like in this sentence: Under forrige streik … = During the last strike …
But under does not always mean during. It can also mean under/beneath in a physical sense:
- under bordet – under the table
- under teppet – under the carpet
For during, under is common, especially with events or periods:
- under møtet – during the meeting
- under ferien – during the holiday
You can often replace under with i løpet av (over the course of) for time:
- Under ferien / I løpet av ferien jobbet jeg litt.
(During the holiday I worked a bit.)
So: under can mean during when talking about periods of time or events, but in other contexts it has its literal spatial meaning under/beneath.
In English you say the last strike, but in Norwegian, when you use forrige (previous/last in a sequence), you normally don’t add an article or a definite ending:
- forrige uke – last week
- forrige måned – last month
- forrige streik – the last/previous strike
Den forrige streiken is possible, but it sounds more contrastive or specific, like:
- Ikke denne streiken, men den forrige streiken var veldig lang.
(Not this strike, but the previous one was very long.)
So in a neutral statement about the last time something happened, forrige + bare noun (no article, no -en/-et) is standard: forrige streik, forrige kamp, forrige jul.
Both can be translated as last, but they’re used a bit differently.
forrige = the previous one in a sequence
- forrige uke – last week (the week before this one)
- forrige streik – the previous strike
siste can mean either:
- last/final (there won’t be more), or
- in some contexts, also previous (esp. in speech)
Examples:
- den siste episoden – the last/final episode
- den forrige episoden – the previous episode (the one before the current one)
In your sentence, Under forrige streik clearly means During the previous strike, not the final strike ever, so forrige is the natural choice.
Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the verb must be in second position in the sentence.
Here, Under forrige streik is a time phrase placed first. That counts as position 1. The finite verb then has to come in position 2:
- Under forrige streik – adverbial (time)
- stod – verb
- samlebåndet – subject
So:
- Under forrige streik stod samlebåndet stille … ✅ (correct V2)
- Under forrige streik samlebåndet stod stille … ❌ (breaks V2)
If you start with the subject instead, then the word order is different:
- Samlebåndet stod stille i tre dager under forrige streik.
Here, samlebåndet is first, so the verb stod is still in second position.
Samlebåndet is a compound noun in the definite form.
- samlebånd = assembly line / conveyor belt
- samle – to collect/assemble
- bånd – band/strip/belt
- samlebåndet = the assembly line
- -et is the definite ending for many neuter nouns in Norwegian.
So the pattern is:
- et samlebånd – an assembly line
- samlebåndet – the assembly line
Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word, not separated:
- skolebok (school book)
- fjernkontroll (remote control)
- samlebånd (assembly line)
Yes, both stod and sto are past tense forms of stå (to stand).
- stod – older/traditional Bokmål form
- sto – newer/simplified form, now more common in modern Bokmål
Both are correct in standard Bokmål. Style-wise:
- Many people and textbooks now prefer sto.
- stod can sound slightly more formal, old-fashioned, or dialect-influenced, depending on context.
So your sentence could also be written:
- Under forrige streik sto samlebåndet stille i tre dager.
Same meaning.
In this sentence, stille describes the state of the assembly line: it was at a standstill, not moving.
- samlebåndet stod stille ≈ the assembly line stood still / was not moving
So stille here is a predicative adjective (a complement of the verb stod), not about noise but about movement.
Other uses:
- Vær stille! – Be quiet! (no noise)
- Hun stod stille. – She stood still (didn’t move).
You could also say:
- Samlebåndet stoppet i tre dager. – The assembly line stopped for three days.
But stod stille focuses more on the state of being still over a period, not just the moment of stopping.
i tre dager here expresses duration – how long something lasted:
- i tre dager – (for) three days (duration)
This is the standard way to say how long something continued:
- Jeg jobbet i åtte timer. – I worked for eight hours.
- Det regnet i to dager. – It rained for two days.
på tre dager is different; it usually expresses how long it took to complete something:
- Han leste boka på tre dager. – He finished reading the book in three days.
So:
- stod samlebåndet stille i tre dager – was at a standstill for three days (duration)
- stod samlebåndet stille på tre dager – would sound wrong here
You want the indefinite plural because you’re talking about an amount of time:
- tre dager – three days (just counting days, not specific, known days)
Forms:
- én dag – one day (singular, indefinite)
- tre dager – three days (plural, indefinite)
- dagene – the days (plural, definite)
So:
- i tre dager – for three days
- i de tre dagene – during those three (specific) days
You only use dagene when you are referring to particular known days, for example:
- I de tre dagene før jul hadde vi det veldig travelt.
(In the three days before Christmas, we were very busy.)
You can move it, but some positions sound more natural than others.
Most natural options:
- Under forrige streik stod samlebåndet stille i tre dager.
- Samlebåndet stod stille i tre dager under forrige streik.
Putting i tre dager between stod and stille:
- Under forrige streik stod samlebåndet i tre dager stille.
is grammatically possible, but sounds a bit marked or less neutral in modern Norwegian; many speakers would prefer it at the end.
As a rule of thumb: time expressions like i tre dager are often placed towards the end of the sentence, after the verb phrase.