Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, skal mange ansatte ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år. - If the working hours become shorter, many employees will have gained better quality of life in a year.

you are talking about something that is already known or implied in the situation, or
you are talking about a general, institutionalized concept (like skolen, jobben, arbeidstiden).

Here, arbeidstiden refers to the normal/established working hours people have at their job. It is understood as a specific, known framework, so the definite form feels natural:

arbeidstid = working time / working hours (in general, as a concept)
arbeidstiden = the working time / the working hours (that people actually have)

English is happier than Norwegian to keep such nouns “bare” (no article), so arbeidstiden corresponds to English working hours in this sentence.

2. Why is blir used here and not er? What is the nuance of blir kortere?

bli means “become”. So blir kortere literally means “becomes shorter”.

Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere = If the working time becomes shorter (there is a change).
Hvis arbeidstiden er kortere = If the working time is shorter (just describing a state, not a change).

In this sentence, the idea is: if, in the future, working hours are reduced from what they are now. That is a change, so bli is more natural than være (er).

So blir kortere focuses on a change happening, not just a static condition.

3. Why is the verb in the hvis-clause in the present tense (blir) even though the meaning is future?

Norwegian normally uses the present tense in hvis/om (“if”) clauses when talking about the future. You do not usually put skal or vil in that clause.

Pattern:

Hvis
- present → main clause in present/future

Examples:

Hvis det regner i morgen, blir jeg hjemme.
= If it rains tomorrow, I’ll stay at home.
Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, …
= If the working hours become shorter, …

Using skal bli here (Hvis arbeidstiden skal bli kortere, …) would sound like you’re talking about a plan or decision that working hours are supposed to become shorter, which changes the meaning. For a neutral condition about the future, you keep present tense: blir.

4. Why is the verb skal placed before the subject mange ansatte in the main clause?

This is Norwegian main clause word order (the V2 rule: the verb comes in second position).

The structure is:

First element: the whole hvis-clause
→ Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere,
Then, in the main clause, the finite verb must come next: → skal
Then the subject: → mange ansatte
Then the rest: → ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år.

So we get:

Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, skal mange ansatte ha fått …

If you start directly with the subject (no hvis-clause first), you see the more “English-like” order:

Mange ansatte skal ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år.

But as soon as you move something else (like a time expression or a clause) to the first position, the verb and subject swap places:

Om et år skal mange ansatte ha fått bedre livskvalitet.
Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, skal mange ansatte ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år.

5. What exactly does skal ha fått mean here? Is it obligation (“must have got”) or future (“will have got”)?

In this context, skal ha fått is a future perfect form:

skal = will / shall
ha fått = have got / have received / have achieved

So:

skal ha fått ≈ “will have got” / “will have achieved”

With om et år (“in a year”) it means:

Many employees will have achieved a better quality of life a year from now.

The “obligation” sense of skal (“must, is supposed to”) is also possible in other contexts, but with a clear future time adverbial like om et år, the natural reading is future result that will be completed by that time.

6. Could we also say vil ha fått or just vil få here? What’s the difference from skal ha fått?

Yes, both are grammatically possible, but with different nuances.

vil ha fått
- Also a future perfect: “will have got”.
- Often sounds like a more neutral prediction:
  - Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, vil mange ansatte ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år.
    = If working hours are reduced, many employees will have got a better quality of life in a year.
vil få
- Simple future: will get. Focuses more on the event of getting, not so much on the result being a completed state by that time.
  - Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, vil mange ansatte få bedre livskvalitet.
    (…at some point as a consequence.)
skal ha fått
- Future perfect like vil ha fått, but skal often carries a nuance of:
  - strong expectation,
  - plan, target, or promise
- In some contexts it can sound a bit more “official” or “programmatic”:
  If this happens, then by that time they are supposed/expected to have achieved better quality of life.

In everyday speech, vil få is probably the most common; vil ha fått and skal ha fått feel a bit more formal or written and emphasize the completed result at that future point.

7. Why is there a comma after Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere? In English we might drop it.

In standard written Norwegian (Bokmål and Nynorsk), the rule is:

When a subordinate clause (like one starting with hvis, fordi, når, etc.) comes before the main clause, you must put a comma between them.

So:

Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, skal mange ansatte …
Når jeg kommer hjem, lager jeg middag.

If the subordinate clause comes after the main clause, there is usually no comma:

Jeg lager middag når jeg kommer hjem.
Mange ansatte skal ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere.

So the comma here is not optional style; it’s part of the standard punctuation rule.

8. Why is om used in om et år? What’s the difference between om et år and i et år?

om and i both appear in time expressions, but they mean different things:

om et år = in a year (from now), a year from now
→ focuses on the point in time in the future
i et år = for a year / for one year
→ focuses on duration

So:

Jeg skal flytte om et år.
= I’m going to move a year from now.
Jeg har bodd her i et år.
= I have lived here for a year.

In this sentence:

… ha fått bedre livskvalitet om et år.
= … will have got better quality of life a year from now.

If you said i et år here, it would instead sound like:

“have had better quality of life for a year” (duration), which is not what the original sentence is expressing.

9. Is there a difference between hvis and om for “if”? Could we say Om arbeidstiden blir kortere instead?

Both hvis and om can mean “if”, and in many everyday sentences they are interchangeable.

You could say:

Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, …
Om arbeidstiden blir kortere, …

The main nuances:

hvis is the clearest and safest choice for conditional “if” in modern Norwegian.
om can mean both:
- “if” (conditional)
- “whether” (in indirect questions)

Because of that ambiguity, hvis is preferred in written language when you want to avoid confusion.

Here, Om arbeidstiden blir kortere would be understood as a conditional “if” and is fine, especially in speech; Hvis is just slightly more standard/neutral.

10. What kind of word is ansatte here? It looks like an adjective but is used as a noun.

You’re right: ansatt is originally an adjective meaning “employed”.

Singular:
- en ansatt = an employee (literally: an employed (person))
Plural:
- ansatte = employees

In this sentence, ansatte is used as a substantivized adjective: an adjective being used as a noun (“the employed ones”).

So:

mange ansatte = many employees
(literally: many “employed” (people))

This is very common in Norwegian. Other examples:

en syk / syke (a sick person / sick people)
en fattig / fattige (a poor person / poor people)

11. Why is there no article before mange ansatte? Why not something like mange de ansatte?

A few points:

mange (many) normally combines with indefinite plural nouns:
- mange bøker = many books
- mange barn = many children
- mange ansatte = many employees
You do not add an article in indefinite plural:
- not mange de ansatte (wrong as a direct translation of “many employees”)
- not mange en ansatte (ungrammatical)
If you want to refer specifically to a known group, you use:
- mange av de ansatte = many of the employees

So:

mange ansatte = many employees (in general / not tied to a specific, mentioned group)
mange av de ansatte = many of the (particular) employees (at some specific place you have in mind)

In the sentence, we are talking more generally, so mange ansatte is appropriate.

12. How is livskvalitet formed, and what gender is it? Does bedre agree with it?

livskvalitet is a compound noun:

liv = life
kvalitet = quality

Together: livskvalitet = “quality of life”.

In Bokmål it is usually treated as a feminine or masculine noun; in practice for the indefinite singular it doesn’t matter, because both genders share the form:

(en/ei) livskvalitet = a quality of life

The phrase in the sentence is:

bedre livskvalitet = better quality of life

Regarding bedre:

bedre is the comparative form of god (“good”), and as a comparative it is invariable:
- bedre livskvalitet
- bedre mat
- bedre dager
- et bedre liv
So bedre does not change form to agree with livskvalitet; it stays bedre in all genders and numbers in the comparative.

13. Could we say bedre kvalitet på livet instead of bedre livskvalitet? Would that sound natural?

It would be understood, but bedre livskvalitet is the standard and idiomatic expression.

Norwegian, like English, prefers certain set compounds:

livskvalitet (quality of life)
arbeidsforhold (working conditions), not usually forhold på jobben in neutral, technical language

You can say things like:

bedre kvalitet på livet sitt,
but it sounds more clumsy and is less common, especially in formal or neutral style.

So in most contexts you should stick to:

bedre livskvalitet = better quality of life

14. Would Hvis arbeidstida blir kortere be correct instead of arbeidstiden?

Yes, that is also correct, but it’s a different allowed form in Bokmål.

arbeidstid (indefinite)
- definite singular can be:
  - arbeidstiden (more “bookish”/standard Bokmål)
  - arbeidstida (more colloquial / also allowed in Bokmål, and typical in dialects and in Nynorsk)

So both:

Hvis arbeidstiden blir kortere, …
Hvis arbeidstida blir kortere, …

are grammatically fine in Bokmål; the version with -en just looks slightly more formal/standard in written language.