Breakdown of Hun koker pasta til barna, og hun lager en mild saus til seg selv.
Questions & Answers about Hun koker pasta til barna, og hun lager en mild saus til seg selv.
Hun means she. It’s the subject pronoun used for a female person.
Other basic subject pronouns are jeg (I), du (you), han (he), vi (we), dere (you plural), de (they).
Norwegian verbs don’t conjugate for person in the present tense the way English does.
So the present tense form is the same with all subjects:
- jeg koker (I boil/cook)
- hun koker (she boils/cooks)
- de koker (they boil/cook)
Same idea for lager (make/prepare).
It’s in the present tense. In Norwegian, the present tense can describe:
- what someone does habitually (She cooks pasta for the children), or
- what is happening now, depending on context.
Both can work, depending on context. Å koke literally means to boil, but in everyday Norwegian koke pasta is the normal way to say cook/boil pasta (because pasta is typically cooked by boiling).
If you needed a broader “cook” (any method), you might see å lage used instead.
Pasta here is used as a general/uncountable food item, similar to English “She’s cooking pasta.”
Pastaen would mean the pasta (a specific pasta already known in the context), like “She’s cooking the pasta (we talked about).”
Til often means to/for in the sense of intended recipient or who it is for.
So til barna means for the children (intended for them to eat).
Norwegian often uses til where English uses “for,” especially with food, gifts, and intended use.
Sometimes, yes, but it can change the nuance.
- til barna = intended for the children (very common with food)
- for barna = for the benefit of the children / on behalf of the children
In many everyday cases both are understandable, but til barna is a very natural choice here.
Barn = child/children (the basic form; can be singular or plural depending on context)
barn(a) plural forms are a bit special because barn is a neuter noun:
- Indefinite plural: barn = children
- Definite plural: barna = the children
Barnene also exists as a definite plural form, but barna is extremely common and often preferred in everyday Norwegian.
Because it’s an indefinite singular count noun: a mild sauce.
Norwegian typically uses an article (en/ei/et) with singular count nouns when they’re indefinite:
- en saus = a sauce
- en mild saus = a mild sauce
You can drop the article in some special styles (recipes, headings, shorthand), but in a normal full sentence you usually keep it.
Adjective agreement depends on the noun’s gender and number:
- en saus (common gender) → en mild saus
- et hus (neuter) → et mildt hus
- plural → milde (e.g., milde sauser)
Since saus is common gender (en-word), it takes mild, not mildt.
Seg is the reflexive pronoun meaning himself/herself/themselves depending on the subject.
Adding selv makes it more emphatic: herself (and not someone else) / for her own part.
So:
- til seg = for herself (neutral)
- til seg selv = for herself (emphatic/contrastive)
Both can be correct, but seg selv stresses that the sauce is specifically for her.
Yes, it can often be omitted in the second clause:
- Hun koker pasta til barna og lager en mild saus til seg selv.
Repeating hun is still perfectly natural and can add clarity or emphasis, especially in speech or when the clauses are longer.
It’s common (and often recommended) when og connects two complete main clauses (each with its own subject + verb), as here:
- Hun koker … , og hun lager …
If you don’t repeat the subject in the second clause, people often skip the comma:
- Hun koker pasta til barna og lager en mild saus til seg selv.
Both versions are seen; the comma helps highlight that it’s two separate full clauses.