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Jeg liker å reise i landet.

Jeg liker å reise i landet.
I like to travel in the country.

Breakdown of Jeg liker å reise i landet.

jeg
I
å
to
i
in
reise
to travel
like
to like
landet
the country
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Questions & Answers about Jeg liker å reise i landet.

What does å mean here, and why do we need it before reise?

Å is the infinitive marker, roughly like English to in to travel.

  • å reise = to travel
  • å spise = to eat
  • å lese = to read

In this sentence, å reise i landet is what you like doing. It’s an infinitive phrase acting as the object of liker:

  • Jeg (subject)
  • liker (conjugated verb)
  • å reise i landet (what you like – “to travel in the country”)

You cannot leave out å here; *Jeg liker reise i landet is ungrammatical.

Are there times when you don’t use å before a verb in Norwegian?

Yes. You normally drop å after modal verbs and a few similar verbs:

  • Jeg kan reise i landet. – I can travel in the country.
  • Jeg vil reise i landet. – I want to travel in the country.
  • Jeg skal reise i landet. – I’m going to travel in the country.
  • Jeg må reise i landet. – I must have to travel in the country.
  • Jeg bør reise i landet. – I should travel in the country.
  • Jeg får reise i landet. – I’m allowed / I get to travel in the country.

Here the pattern is:

[subject] + [modal verb] + [infinitive verb without å]

But with liker, elsker, hater, pleier, etc., you normally must use å:

  • Jeg liker å reise.
  • Jeg elsker å reise.
  • Jeg pleier å reise om sommeren.
Why is the word order Jeg liker å reise and not Jeg å liker reise?

Norwegian main clauses follow the V2 rule: the conjugated verb (here liker) must be the second element in the sentence.

In Jeg liker å reise i landet:

  1. Jeg = first element (subject)
  2. liker = second element (conjugated verb)
  3. å reise i landet = the rest of the clause (an infinitive phrase)

So Jeg liker å reise i landet is correct.

*Jeg å liker reise breaks this rule (the conjugated verb is not in second position), so it’s ungrammatical.

What exactly does landet mean here, and why is it definite (with -et)?

Land is a neuter noun meaning country. Its forms are:

  • et land – a country
  • landet – the country
  • land – countries (indefinite plural)
  • landene – the countries (definite plural)

In i landet, the -et ending marks definite singular: landet = the country.

Using landet usually means a specific country that you and the listener already know from context:

  • Maybe you were already talking about Norway, so landet = Norway.
  • Or you were talking about “this country we’re in now”.

If you said Jeg liker å reise i et land, that would literally be I like to travel in a country (not natural in most contexts; it sounds like “in some country or other” rather than a specific one).

Can landet also mean “the countryside”?

Yes, landet can mean “the countryside”, but then the preposition usually changes:

  • på landet = in the countryside
    • Jeg liker å bo på landet. – I like living in the countryside.

With i landet, the default meaning is “in the (specific) country” (inside its borders), not specifically “in the countryside”.

So:

  • Jeg liker å reise i landet.
    → I like traveling in the country (as in “within the country’s borders”).
  • Jeg liker å være på landet.
    → I like being in the countryside (rural areas).
What is the difference between å reise i landet and å reise til landet?

The preposition changes the meaning:

  • å reise i landet
    = to travel *in the country
    You are *already inside     the country, moving around within it.

  • å reise til landet
    = to travel *to the country
    You are *going from somewhere else to that country    .

Examples:

  • Jeg liker å reise i landet.
    → I like traveling around inside the country.

  • Jeg liker å reise til landet om sommeren.
    → I like traveling to the country in the summer (e.g., I live abroad the rest of the year).

Would Jeg liker å reise rundt i landet sound more natural for “I like to travel around the country”?

Yes, rundt adds the nuance of around, all over:

  • Jeg liker å reise i landet.
    → I like to travel in the country (neutral).

  • Jeg liker å reise rundt i landet.
    → I like to travel around the country / all over the country.

The second sentence makes it clearer that you enjoy moving from place to place within the country, not just one specific trip or area.

What’s the difference between å reise, å dra, and å gå?

All three can be related to “going”, but their usage differs:

  • å reise

    • Means to travel, usually involving some distance and often transport (train, plane, bus, car).
    • Jeg liker å reise i landet. – I like to travel in the country.

  • å dra

    • More like to go / to leave (often by some vehicle, but also general “go”).
    • Jeg drar til byen. – I’m going to town.
    • Can replace gå in many spoken contexts.

  • å gå

    • Literally to walk, or to go in some idiomatic uses.
    • Jeg går til skolen. – I walk to school.

In your sentence, å reise is best, because it clearly means travel rather than just go or walk.

Does Jeg liker å reise i landet describe a general preference, or something I like right now?

With liker in the present tense, it normally expresses a general preference / habit:

  • Jeg liker å reise i landet.
    → In general, I like traveling in the country.

To talk about the past:

  • Jeg likte å reise i landet.
    → I liked to travel in the country (before; past habit).

For something more ongoing but still general, Norwegian still uses the simple present:

  • English: “I am liking” is rare; Norwegian: Jeg liker is standard.

If you want to say you are currently enjoying a specific trip, you’d typically phrase it differently, e.g.:

  • Jeg liker denne reisen i landet. – I’m enjoying this trip in the country.
  • Jeg koser meg med å reise i landet nå. – I’m having a good time traveling in the country now.
Can I leave out Jeg, like in some languages where the subject is often dropped?

Normally, no. Norwegian is not a “null‑subject” language like Spanish or Italian.

You usually must say the subject pronoun:

  • Jeg liker å reise i landet. – correct
  • *Liker å reise i landet. – incorrect (sounds like a fragment, unless it’s an answer to a question and even then it’s incomplete)

You can drop jeg only in very informal text messages sometimes, or in imperatives and fixed expressions, but as a learner you should always include it.

Why is jeg not always capitalized like English I? How should I write it?

In Norwegian, the first‑person singular pronoun is jeg, and it is not special‑cased like English I.

  • It follows the normal rule: capitalize only at the beginning of a sentence.
  • So you write:
    • Jeg liker å reise i landet. – at the start of the sentence.
    • Han sa at jeg liker å reise i landet. – in the middle of a sentence, jeg is lower‑case.

English: I is always capitalized.
Norwegian: jeg only gets a capital J when it’s first in the sentence, like any other word.

How do you pronounce liker, å, reise, and landet?

Approximate pronunciations (standard Eastern Norwegian, written with English-like hints):

  • liker ≈ LEE-ker

    • li like lee
    • ker with a light, unstressed ker (the r is tapped or lightly rolled)

  • å ≈ a long aw sound, like the aw in law (British-ish), held a bit longer.

  • reise ≈ RAY-seh

    • rei like English ray
    • se like seh (short e as in bet)

  • landet ≈ LAHN-neht

    • la like la in lava but with a more open a
    • nn doubled n, short and clear
    • et like eht with short e as in bet

So the whole sentence roughly: YEG LEE-ker aw RAY-seh ee LAHN-neht (where YEG is a common pronunciation of Jeg).