Learn Hardcore Norwegian: I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post. - Today I received a meeting invitation from the union by email.

I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling …
→ Emphasizes today (contrast with other days).
Jeg fikk en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post i dag.
→ A more neutral statement; i dag is just extra information at the end.

Both are normal and idiomatic. Norwegian is quite flexible with where you place time adverbials like i dag, as long as the V2 rule is respected.

Why is it fikk and not something like har fått?

Fikk is the simple past (preterite) of å få (to get/receive).

I dag fikk jeg … = Today I got/received … (a completed event in the past, anchored to a clear time: today).

You could also say:

I dag har jeg fått en møteinnkalling …
→ Today I have received …

Both are grammatically correct, but:

fikk sounds more like reporting a specific event that is simply over.
har fått can sound a bit more like focusing on the result (that you now have the meeting invitation).

In everyday speech, Norwegians often just use fikk in this kind of sentence.

What exactly does fikk mean here? Is it only “got” or also “received”?

Fikk is the past form of å få, which is flexible and often translates as:

got
received
was given

In this context, fikk = received in a neutral way.

You could also say:

Jeg mottok en møteinnkalling … (from å motta, “to receive”)
→ More formal; used in official language, letters, etc.

But fikk is the most common, everyday choice.

What is en møteinnkalling exactly, and how is this word built?

Møteinnkalling is a compound noun:

møte = meeting
innkalling = summons / call / notice to attend

Together:

møteinnkalling = a call/notification to attend a meeting
(often from an employer, union, board, etc.)

Norwegian loves compound nouns. Spacing it out like møte innkalling would be wrong and might be confusing. It must be written as one word: møteinnkalling.

Why is it en møteinnkalling and not ei or et møteinnkalling?

Every Norwegian noun has a grammatical gender.

innkalling is a feminine noun.
In Bokmål, feminine nouns can take either:
- ei (feminine article), or
- en (masculine article used for feminine nouns as well).

So in Bokmål you can say:

en møteinnkalling (very common, fully correct)
ei møteinnkalling (also correct, more explicitly feminine; often seen in more dialect-influenced writing)

But et møteinnkalling ❌ is wrong, because the noun is not neuter.

What is the difference between fagforeningen and fagforening?

fagforening = a (trade) union (indefinite singular)
fagforeningen = the union / the trade union (definite singular)

Norwegian usually marks definiteness with a suffix on the noun:

en fagforening → fagforeningen (the union)
fagforeninger → fagforeningene (the unions)

In the sentence, fagforeningen implies a specific, known union – probably the one the speaker belongs to.

What does fagforening mean in practice?

Fagforening is a trade union / labor union:

fag = profession/trade/subject
forening = association/union

So fagforening is an organization that represents workers in a specific trade or sector, dealing with working conditions, wages, collective agreements, etc.

In context, fagforeningen is “my union” or “the union I’m a member of.”

Why is it fra fagforeningen and not av fagforeningen?

Both fra and av can relate to an agent, but they’re used differently:

fra = from (origin/source)
- en e-post fra fagforeningen = an email from the union
av = by (often in passive constructions)
- E-posten ble sendt av fagforeningen. = The email was sent by the union.

In your sentence, fra fagforeningen describes the source of the meeting invitation, so fra is the natural preposition.

Why do we say på e-post and not i en e-post or med e-post?

The most idiomatic way to express “by email / via email” in Norwegian is:

på e-post = by email / via email

Examples:

Kan du sende meg det på e-post? = Can you send me that by email?
Jeg fikk bekreftelsen på e-post. = I got the confirmation by email.

You can say i en e-post in some contexts, but it means in an email (inside the content of a specific email), not the medium:

Han forklarte det i en e-post. = He explained it in an email.

med e-post for this meaning is not idiomatic.

Is e-post always written with a hyphen? Can I write epost?

The most common and standard form in Norwegian is:

e-post

You will also see epost, especially in more informal contexts or in user interfaces. It’s becoming more accepted, but e-post is still the safest choice in standard writing.

So:

på e-post ✅ (most standard)
på epost ✅ (informal but widely used)

Why is it I dag with a space, and not idag?

Modern standard Norwegian writes:

i dag = today
i går = yesterday
i morgen = tomorrow

All with a space.

Writing idag, igår, imorgen is old-fashioned or non-standard in modern Bokmål. At the start of the sentence, I dag gets a capital I because it’s the first word, not because it’s one word.

Is it possible to drop jeg and just say I dag fikk en møteinnkalling …?

No. Norwegian normally requires an explicit subject pronoun in finite clauses.

I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling … ✅
I dag fikk en møteinnkalling … ❌ (sounds like something is missing)

Unlike some languages (e.g., Spanish, Italian), Norwegian is not a “null subject” language. You need jeg, du, han, etc., if you mean “I, you, he…”.

Where can the phrase på e-post go in the sentence? Is the current position the only option?

You have some flexibility with adverbials like på e-post, as long as word order rules are respected. All of these are acceptable:

I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post.
I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling på e-post fra fagforeningen.
Jeg fikk en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post i dag.
Jeg fikk i dag en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post. (a bit more formal)

What you usually avoid is splitting things in a way that sounds heavy or unnatural, like:

I dag fikk jeg på e-post en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen. (grammatical but awkward in everyday speech)

A good rule of thumb: keep the sentence parts that naturally belong together (e.g. møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen) fairly close.

How do you roughly pronounce I dag fikk jeg en møteinnkalling fra fagforeningen på e-post?

A rough guide using English-like sounds (very approximate):

I dag ≈ ee dahg
fikk ≈ fik (short i, like in pick)
jeg ≈ most often yai (like English yay with a little y at the start)
en ≈ en (like end without d)
møteinnkalling ≈ MUH-te-inn-kalling
- ø like the vowel in British bird or French deux
- stress on mø- and -inn-: MØ-te-INN-kalling
fra ≈ frah (rolled or tapped r)
fagforeningen ≈ FAHG-foh-ray-ning-en
- g in fag is hard, like in go
- main stress on fag, secondary on re
på ≈ paw (but shorter)
e-post ≈ eh-post (short e like in bet)

In natural speech, many sounds will flow together, but this gives you a starting point.