Breakdown of På nettet prøver jeg å beskytte personvernet mitt ved å bruke et annet navn.
Questions & Answers about På nettet prøver jeg å beskytte personvernet mitt ved å bruke et annet navn.
In Norwegian, på nettet is the standard way to say “on the internet / online.”
- på literally means on, but with nett(et) it’s idiomatic: på nettet = on the internet (in general).
- i nettet would literally mean in the net (like physically inside a fishing net or a goal net), so it sounds wrong in this context.
You can also say:
- på internett – also correct and common.
- på nett – a bit shorter and also used (especially in informal speech/writing).
So the most natural options here are på nettet, på internett, or på nett, but not i nettet when you mean “online.”
Both are possible, but the word order has different focus:
På nettet prøver jeg å beskytte personvernet mitt…
– The phrase på nettet is put first for emphasis: “On the internet, I try to protect my privacy…”Jeg prøver på nettet å beskytte personvernet mitt…
– Grammatically possible, but sounds a bit clumsy and less natural.
The key rule in Norwegian is verb-second word order:
- Whatever you put first (here: På nettet), the finite verb (prøver) must come in second position, and the subject (jeg) comes right after the verb:
- På nettet (1) prøver (2) jeg (3) …
You could also say:
- Jeg prøver å beskytte personvernet mitt på nettet ved å bruke et annet navn.
This version is also very natural: subject first, then verb, then the rest.
In Norwegian, infinitive verbs almost always need the marker å:
- å beskytte = to protect
- å bruke = to use
So after prøver, you say:
- prøver å beskytte = try to protect
- prøver å bruke = try to use
Leaving out å (prøver beskytte) is wrong in standard Norwegian. Unlike in English, you don’t alternate between “try to do” and “try do”; you consistently need å before an infinitive.
They are completely different words:
- å = to (infinitive marker)
- å beskytte, å bruke, å lese, å spise
- og = and (conjunction)
- mor og far (mother and father)
- jeg leser og skriver (I read and write)
In the sentence:
- å beskytte, å bruke are infinitives with å = to.
- You must not write og beskytte or og bruke here; that would mean and protect / and use and change the meaning.
Both are grammatically correct, but personvernet mitt is more natural here.
Postposed possessive (after the noun):
- personvernet mitt = my privacy
This is the most common pattern in Norwegian and often feels more neutral or natural in many contexts.
- personvernet mitt = my privacy
Preposed possessive (before the noun):
- mitt personvern
This can sound a bit more formal, emphatic, or contrastive, like “my privacy (as opposed to someone else’s)”.
- mitt personvern
In your sentence, personvernet mitt just neutrally states my privacy. Using mitt personvern would sound a bit more marked, like you are stressing my specifically.
Norwegian often uses the definite form for abstract nouns when we talk about “my/your/our X” in a specific, personal way:
- personvern = privacy (in general, as a concept)
- personvernet = the privacy / my (specific) privacy
Because you add a possessive (mitt), you are referring to your specific privacy, so the definite form sounds more natural:
- personvernet mitt ≈ “my (own) privacy”
Without a possessive, you’d be more likely to use the indefinite if you’re talking about the concept in general:
- Personvern er viktig. = Privacy is important.
Yes, å beskytte mitt personvern is grammatically correct, but the nuance changes slightly:
å beskytte personvernet mitt
– Most natural and neutral; how people would usually say it.å beskytte mitt personvern
– Sounds a bit more formal or emphatic on mitt:
like “protect my privacy (as opposed to other privacy / in particular mine).”
Everyday speech and writing tends to prefer noun + definite ending + possessive after:
- huset mitt (my house), bilen min (my car), barnet mitt (my child), personvernet mitt (my privacy).
ved å + infinitive is a common way to express “by doing X / by using X” (method or means):
- ved å bruke et annet navn = by using another name
It explains how you protect your privacy.
You can’t simply write jeg beskytter personvernet mitt bruke et annet navn – you need something to link the method, and ved å is the natural choice.
med å is not used in this meaning. med usually corresponds to with:
- med et annet navn = with another name (sounds odd here as a method)
So, for “by doing X”, use ved å + infinitive:
- Jeg lærer norsk ved å høre på podkaster.
- Hun sparer penger ved å lage mat hjemme.
annet vs. andre
The adjective annen (other/another) has special forms:- en annen (masc./fem. singular)
- et annet (neuter singular)
- andre (plural, all genders)
Since navn is a neuter noun, you need:
- et annet navn = another name
et andre navn is wrong in this context.
Indefinite form of the noun
You are talking about some other name, not a specific, known one, so it’s indefinite:- et navn = a name
- navnet = the name
“By using another name” = ved å bruke et annet navn, not a specific “the other name.”
Because navn is a neuter noun in Norwegian.
Neuter nouns use et as the indefinite article:
- et navn (a name)
- et hus (a house)
- et språk (a language)
Masculine (and most feminine) nouns use en:
- en bil (a car)
- en gutt (a boy)
- en bok (a book – feminine)
So you must say:
- et navn → et annet navn
If the noun were masculine/feminine, you would say en annen:
- en annen by (another city)
- en annen idé (another idea)
The form of the possessive pronoun depends on the gender and number of the noun:
- min – masculine/feminine singular
- min bil (my car)
- mi – feminine (often optional; many use min instead)
- mi bok (my book)
- mitt – neuter singular
- mitt hus (my house)
- mitt språk (my language)
- mine – plural (all genders)
- mine venner (my friends)
personvern is treated as a neuter noun here (and we have the definite form personvernet), so the correct possessive is:
- personvernet mitt = my privacy
Yes, Norwegian word order is fairly flexible for adverbial phrases, as long as you respect verb-second and keep the sentence clear:
All of these are acceptable:
- På nettet prøver jeg å beskytte personvernet mitt ved å bruke et annet navn.
- På nettet prøver jeg ved å bruke et annet navn å beskytte personvernet mitt. (possible but heavier)
- Jeg prøver på nettet å beskytte personvernet mitt ved å bruke et annet navn.
- Jeg prøver å beskytte personvernet mitt på nettet ved å bruke et annet navn.
The original version is very natural and nicely structured. If you move ved å bruke et annet navn too far forward, the sentence can feel clunky, so the given placement is a good model to copy.