Word
I den siste kolonnen i tabellen skriver vi korte eksempler på hver verbtid.
Meaning
In the last column in the table we write short examples of each verb tense.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of I den siste kolonnen i tabellen skriver vi korte eksempler på hver verbtid.
vi
we
i
in
skrive
to write
kort
short
Questions & Answers about I den siste kolonnen i tabellen skriver vi korte eksempler på hver verbtid.
Why is it i den siste kolonnen i tabellen and not på den siste kolonnen?
In Norwegian, i is used when you are inside something or thinking of it as a container or area, and på is used more for surfaces or “on top of” something.
A column in a table is seen as an area that contains cells, so you write i en kolonne (in a column), just like i en rad (in a row) or i en boks (in a box).
So i den siste kolonnen i tabellen literally means in the last column in the table and sounds natural.
På den siste kolonnen would sound wrong here to a native speaker.
Why do we say den siste kolonnen instead of just siste kolonne?
Both den siste kolonnen and siste kolonne are possible, but they feel slightly different.
- den siste kolonnen = the last column (very clearly “that specific last column we both know about”).
- siste kolonne can also mean the last column, but without the den it sounds a bit more like a neutral description than a pointed reference.
In practice, with a following specification like i tabellen, many speakers will naturally choose den siste kolonnen to make it clear: the last column in that table.
What does the -en ending in mean?