Etter streiken føltes det som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut.

After the strike it felt as if the whole factory floor breathed a sigh of relief.

Breakdown of Etter streiken føltes det som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut.

• det: it
• etter: after
• som om: as if
• føles: to feel
• hele: whole
• fabrikkgulvet: the factory floor
• streiken: the strike
• puste lettet ut: to breathe a sigh of relief

Questions & Answers about Etter streiken føltes det som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut.

In føltes det, what does det refer to? Is it talking about something specific?

Here det is a dummy (expletive) subject, just like “it” in English sentences such as “It feels like…” or “It seems that…”

• Norwegian often uses det when there isn’t a concrete thing that is “feeling” something.
• The real content comes in the som om-clause: som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut.

So Etter streiken føltes det som om … = After the strike, it felt as if …, where det doesn’t point to a particular noun.

Why is it føltes and not følte? What does the -s ending do here?

Føltes is the middle/passive form of the verb å føle (to feel).

• følte = the normal past tense (preterite):
  
  • Jeg følte meg trøtt. = I felt tired.
• føltes = “felt” in an impersonal / middle voice sense, often used with dummy det:
  
  • Det føltes rart. = It felt strange.
  • Etter streiken føltes det som om … = After the strike, it felt as if …

So you typically use det føltes … when you describe a general feeling or atmosphere, not what some specific person is actively feeling.

What’s the difference between som and som om? Why is it som om here?

• som on its own usually means “as / like”:

  • Han jobber som lærer. = He works as a teacher.
  • Hun synger som en engel. = She sings like an angel.

• som om is a fixed expression meaning “as if / as though” and introduces a hypothetical or figurative comparison:

  • Det ser ut som om det skal regne. = It looks as if it’s going to rain.
  • Det føltes som om tiden stoppet. = It felt as if time stopped.

In your sentence, it’s figurative – the factory floor can’t literally breathe – so Norwegian correctly uses som om:
… føltes det som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut. = … it felt as if the whole factory floor …

Why is it streiken with -en (the strike) after etter? Could it be just etter streik?

Streiken is the definite form: streik (a strike) → streiken (the strike).

• Etter streiken means “after the (specific) strike” – a particular strike everyone knows about from context.
• Etter streik (“after strike”) is not idiomatic in this meaning; you normally need the definite (streiken) or an indefinite phrase (en streik):
  
  • Etter en streik = after a strike (some strike)
  • Etter streiken = after the strike (the one we’ve been talking about)

So with a known, concrete event, Norwegian typically uses the definite form.

Why is it hele fabrikkgulvet and not hele fabrikkgulv? How does hele work with nouns?

Hele (“the whole / entire”) normally goes with a definite noun in Norwegian:

• et fabrikkgulv = a factory floor
• fabrikkgulvet = the factory floor
• hele fabrikkgulvet = the whole / entire factory floor

Compare:

• en dag → dagen → hele dagen (the whole day)
• et hus → huset → hele huset (the whole house)

So hele fabrikkgulvet literally is “the whole factory floor”, with fabrikkgulvet in the definite form.

Why is fabrikkgulv written as one word? Can’t it be fabrikk gulv?

Norwegian, like other Scandinavian languages, compounds nouns into one word:

• fabrikk (factory) + gulv (floor) → fabrikkgulv (factory floor)

Writing it as fabrikk gulv would be seen as incorrect or at least nonstandard. Other examples:

• hus
  • dør → husdør (house door)
• sommer
  • ferie → sommerferie (summer holiday)

So fabrikkgulvet is simply the definite form of the compound noun fabrikkgulv.

What exactly does pustet lettet ut mean? Is it just “breathed out,” or is there an idiomatic sense?

Literally, pustet lettet ut = “breathed out relieved(ly)”.

• å puste ut = to exhale / to breathe out, and idiomatically also to relax after tension, to let out a sigh of relief.
  
  • Til slutt kunne vi puste ut. = Finally we could relax / breathe a sigh of relief.
• lettet is the past participle of å lette in the sense “to become relieved”, and it works here like an adverb of manner: breathed out in a relieved way.

So pustet lettet ut in context really means “let out a sigh of relief”, which is why English translations use that phrasing rather than a literal “breathed out relieved”.

Why is ut at the end of pustet lettet ut? Can puste ut be split like that?

Yes. Puste ut is a verb + particle combination, and the particle ut is very often separated from the main verb in Norwegian word order:

• Jeg må puste ut. = I need to breathe out / relax.
• With something in between:
  
  • Jeg pustet tungt ut. = I breathed out heavily.
  • Han pustet lettet ut. = He breathed out in relief / let out a sigh of relief.

So the structure is:

• pustet (verb, past tense)
• lettet (manner: “in a relieved way”)
• ut (particle completing the verb puste ut)

This separation is normal and natural in Norwegian.

Why is the word order Etter streiken føltes det … and not Etter streiken det føltes …?

Norwegian follows the V2 word order rule in main clauses: the finite verb must be in second position.

• Føltes is the finite verb here.
• Etter streiken is an adverbial phrase put in the first position.
• Therefore the verb must come next: Etter streiken føltes det …

Compare:

• Neutral order: Det føltes rart. = It felt strange.
• With a fronted time phrase:
  
  • I går føltes det rart. = Yesterday it felt strange.
  • Not: I går det føltes rart. (incorrect)

So Etter streiken føltes det … follows the standard V2 rule.

Could the sentence use a different tense, like har pustet instead of pustet? How would that change the meaning?

Current sentence: … som om hele fabrikkgulvet pustet lettet ut.

• pustet is preterite (simple past): fits a narrative about a completed past event (after the strike was over).

If you said som om hele fabrikkgulvet har pustet lettet ut, it would sound odd in this figurative sentence. Present perfect (har pustet) usually:

• connects the past action more directly to the present, or
• refers to something whose result is still relevant now.

Here, the focus is on how the situation felt at that moment in the past, so preterite (pustet) is the natural choice.