Breakdown of Vi lager en tabell over hver verbtid for å se hvilke verb som er uregelmessige.
Questions & Answers about Vi lager en tabell over hver verbtid for å se hvilke verb som er uregelmessige.
In Norwegian, å lage is the normal verb for “to make/create/produce” something concrete, like:
- lage en tabell – make a table
- lage middag – make dinner
- lage en plan – make a plan
å gjøre (“to do”) is more general and often used with activities or actions, for example:
- gjøre lekser – do homework
- gjøre et forsøk – make an attempt
You would not normally say gjøre en tabell; lage en tabell is the natural phrase.
Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender. Tabell is a masculine noun, so it takes the article en:
- en tabell – a table (of data)
- tabellen – the table
- tabeller – tables
- tabellene – the tables
You use et with neuter nouns (e.g. et hus), and ei/en with feminine nouns (e.g. ei/en bok). Since tabell is masculine, en tabell is correct.
Here over means “of / listing / covering”. En tabell over X is a set phrase meaning “a table of X”:
- en tabell over hver verbtid – a table of each verb tense
- en oversikt over regler – an overview of rules
You could say en tabell om verbtider, and it would be understood as “a table about verb tenses,” but over is more idiomatic when you’re talking about a systematic list or overview of items.
Hver / hvert agrees with the gender of the noun:
- hver for masculine and feminine nouns
- hvert for neuter nouns
Verbtid is masculine, so:
- hver verbtid – each verb tense
If the noun were neuter, you’d say hvert:
- hvert språk – each language (because språk is neuter)
Yes, verbtid is a compound noun written as one word:
- verb – verb
- tid – time
So verbtid literally means “verb time,” i.e. “verb tense.” Norwegian often forms new nouns by combining two (or more) nouns into one word:
- barnehage (barn + hage) – kindergarten
- språklærer (språk + lærer) – language teacher
So:
- hver verbtid – each verb tense
- verbtider – verb tenses (plural)
After hver (“each / every”), the noun is always in the indefinite singular form, without a definite article:
- hver verbtid – each verb tense
- hver dag – every day
- hver elev – each student
You do not say:
- ✗ hver verbtiden
- ✗ hver dagen
So hver + [indefinite singular noun] is the correct pattern.
For å introduces a purpose clause: “in order to / to (for the purpose of)”.
- Vi lager en tabell … for å se …
– We are making a table in order to see …
If you remove for, å se would just be an infinitive (“to see”) without clearly expressing purpose. With for å, the sentence explicitly states why they are making the table.
Typical patterns:
- Jeg leser boken for å lære mer. – I’m reading the book (in order) to learn more.
- Hun trener for å bli sterkere. – She trains to become stronger.
In Norwegian, many loanwords like verb have the same form in singular and plural for the indefinite:
- et verb – a verb
- verb – verbs (indefinite plural)
So hvilke verb = “which verbs”.
Hvilke is the plural form of “which” / “what (kind of)”:
- hvilken verbtid – which verb tense (singular, masculine/feminine)
- hvilket språk – which language (singular, neuter)
- hvilke verb – which verbs (plural)
Som is a relative pronoun, like “that/which/who” in English. Here it introduces a relative clause describing verb:
- hvilke verb som er uregelmessige
– which verbs that are irregular
Structure:
- verb – the nouns being described
- som – “that/which”
- er uregelmessige – are irregular
You can’t drop som here; Norwegian generally needs it in such relative clauses, especially when the relative pronoun is the subject of the clause (here, the verbs are the ones that are irregular).
Uregelmessig is an adjective meaning “irregular.” Adjectives change form depending on the noun:
Basic pattern:
- Singular, indefinite:
- et uregelmessig verb – an irregular verb
- en uregelmessig bøyning – an irregular inflection
- Plural (indefinite and definite):
- uregelmessige verb – irregular verbs
- de uregelmessige verbene – the irregular verbs
In the sentence, we’re talking about verb in the plural, so the adjective must take the plural -e ending:
- hvilke verb som er uregelmessige – which verbs are irregular
Hvilke verb som er uregelmessige is a subordinate clause (an embedded question/relative clause) inside the larger sentence:
- Vi lager en tabell … for å se [hvilke verb som er uregelmessige].
Inside such subordinate clauses, the word order is:
subject – verb – rest
Here:
- subject: som (standing for “the verbs”)
- verb: er
- adjective: uregelmessige
So you get: som er uregelmessige.
Hvilke verb er uregelmessige? would be a direct question on its own:
- Hvilke verb er uregelmessige? – Which verbs are irregular?
But in this sentence, it is not a direct question; it’s part of a purpose clause (“to see which verbs are irregular”), so the “question word order” is not used.
Yes, you could say:
- Vi lager en tabell over alle verbtider.
Both are understandable, but there is a nuance:
- hver verbtid – focuses on each individual tense, almost like you’ll treat them one by one.
- alle verbtider – simply says “all verb tenses” as a group.
In practice, both could fit here, but over hver verbtid slightly emphasizes that the table will systematically list each tense.