Ring meg med en gang hvis barnehagen ringer.

Call me right away if the daycare calls.

Breakdown of Ring meg med en gang hvis barnehagen ringer.

• ringe: to call
• hvis: if
• meg: me
• med en gang: right away
• barnehagen: the kindergarten/daycare

Questions & Answers about Ring meg med en gang hvis barnehagen ringer.

Why is Ring used at the start—what form is it?

Ring is the imperative (command) form of the verb å ringe (to call/phone). Norwegian often uses the plain verb stem as the imperative:

• å ringe → imperative Ring! = Call! You can soften it by adding kan du / vær så snill:
• Kan du ringe meg …? = Could you call me …?
• Ring meg, vær så snill. = Call me, please.

Why is it ringe in the infinitive but ringer later?

Because the sentence uses two different verb forms:

• Ring = imperative (Call!)
• ringer = present tense (calls/is calling) Present tense in Norwegian covers several English possibilities (simple present and often “will” in future contexts).

Does ringer mean “is calling” or “calls”?

It can mean either, depending on context. Norwegian present tense is broader than English:

• Hvis barnehagen ringer can be understood as If the daycare calls (general/future possibility) or If the daycare is calling (right now), but in this type of instruction it usually means if they call (at any point).

Why is it hvis barnehagen ringer and not hvis ringer barnehagen?

In a subordinate clause introduced by hvis (if), Norwegian typically keeps normal SVO word order:

• hvis
  • subject
    • verb → hvis barnehagen ringer In main clauses, Norwegian often has V2 word order, but hvis-clauses are not V2.

If the hvis-clause comes first, would the word order change?

Yes—in the main clause. If you front the conditional clause, the main clause becomes V2, so the verb comes right after the clause:

• Hvis barnehagen ringer, ring meg med en gang. (Not: Hvis barnehagen ringer, meg ring …)

What does med en gang literally mean, and is it the usual way to say “immediately”?

Literally med en gang is with one time/one go, but idiomatically it means immediately / right away. It’s very common and natural. Close alternatives:

• straks = immediately (a bit more formal)
• med det samme = right away / at once

Is it en or én in med en gang?

Most commonly you’ll see med en gang (no accent). You can write med én gang to emphasize one (contrastive stress), but in this fixed expression the accent is usually omitted.

Why is it Ring meg and not Ring til meg?

Norwegian normally uses a direct object for calling someone:

• å ringe noen = to call someone → Ring meg You can use ringe til when focusing on placing a call to a number/place or in some dialect/usage patterns:
• ringe til kontoret = call the office But Ring meg is the standard everyday phrasing for calling a person.

What is meg here—object pronoun?

Yes. meg is the object form of jeg (I/me):

• jeg ringer deg. = I call you.
• Ring meg. = Call me. (Subject form jeg would be wrong after the verb here.)

Why is it barnehagen with -en at the end?

barnehagen is the definite form of barnehage (a daycare / kindergarten):

• en barnehage = a daycare
• barnehagen = the daycare (the specific one you both know) Norwegian often uses the definite form where English might just use a bare noun, especially when the referent is obvious.

Could I say hvis barnehage ringer without the definite ending?

Not in normal Norwegian. You’d typically say either:

• hvis barnehagen ringer = if the daycare calls (a specific daycare) or, if you mean “a daycare (some daycare)” in a more abstract sense:
• hvis en barnehage ringer = if a daycare calls
  But that second one is unusual in real life unless you truly mean any daycare.

Is ringer ambiguous because en ringer can mean a “caller” or “ringer”?

In this sentence it’s clearly the verb ringer (present tense of å ringe) because it follows a subject (barnehagen) and functions as the predicate. Context and word order make it unambiguous.

How would I negate the sentence—“Don’t call me…” or “if the daycare doesn’t call”?

Two common negations:

• Command negation: Ikke ring meg med en gang … = Don’t call me right away …
• Conditional negation: … hvis barnehagen ikke ringer. = … if the daycare doesn’t call. ikke typically goes after the subject in the clause it negates.