Breakdown of Jeg er ferdig med e-posten, så jeg kan gå hjem.
Questions & Answers about Jeg er ferdig med e-posten, så jeg kan gå hjem.
Norwegian commonly expresses “to be done/finished” with å være ferdig (literally “to be finished”). It’s a state/result expression, so er (present tense of å være) is natural:
- Jeg er ferdig. = I’m done / I’ve finished (in the sense that the task is completed).
You can also say Jeg har gjort ferdig e-posten (“I have finished the email”), but that’s a different construction (more action-focused).
ferdig med + noun is a fixed, very common pattern meaning “done with + something.” med here is like “with”/“with regard to,” but you should treat ferdig med as a chunk:
- Jeg er ferdig med e-posten. = I’m done with the email.
You’ll hear the same with many tasks: ferdig med leksene, ferdig med rapporten, etc.
Yes. e-post is a noun, and e-posten is the definite singular form (“the email”).
- en e-post = an email
- e-posten = the email
Norwegian often uses the definite form when referring to a specific thing that’s understood from context (e.g., “the email I was working on”).
Usually you’d say e-posten if you mean a specific email. Without definiteness, e-post tends to sound more like “email (as a general concept)” or like you’re talking about email in general rather than one particular message. In everyday situations (“I’ve finished the email”), e-posten is the natural choice.
After så meaning “so/therefore,” Norwegian normally uses main clause word order: subject before the verb:
- ..., så jeg kan gå hjem. (subject jeg
- verb kan)
You can also hear ..., så kan jeg gå hjem, but that often feels a bit more like “and then I can go home” (more sequential). With a clear cause → result meaning, så jeg kan ... is very common.
- verb kan)
It can be either in different contexts, but in this sentence it’s most naturally “so/therefore”: finishing the email is the reason you can go home.
If the context were more about sequence (“First I finish the email, then I go home”), så could lean more toward “then.”
kan (from å kunne) covers several English meanings: “can / be able to / be allowed to / may.”
In så jeg kan gå hjem, it usually implies “I’m now able to / it’s now possible for me to go home,” often with an implied workplace permission/condition: the task is done, so leaving is acceptable.
Norwegian uses hjem as an adverb meaning “home (wards)” in set expressions like gå hjem, dra hjem, komme hjem. You don’t normally say til hjemmet unless you literally mean “to the home/institution” (like a nursing home) or you’re being unusually specific.
Yes, both are common:
- gå hjem = go home (often implies walking, or just focuses on “leaving” without specifying transport)
- dra hjem = go home/leave for home (more general; can be by any transport and is extremely common in speech)
Many Norwegians would naturally say ..., så jeg kan dra hjem.
It’s commonly treated as masculine in Bokmål: en e-post → e-posten. Some speakers may treat some nouns as feminine depending on dialect/preferences, but e-posten is the standard/common form you’ll see.
You’re connecting two main clauses:
1) Jeg er ferdig med e-posten
2) så jeg kan gå hjem
In Norwegian, you normally put a comma before coordinating connectors like og/men/for/eller/så when they join main clauses. Here the comma helps show the break between the two independent parts.
Yes. Splitting it is perfectly natural, especially in speech or informal writing. It can also add a slight pause/emphasis:
- Jeg er ferdig med e-posten. Så kan jeg gå hjem.
Meaning stays basically the same, though it may sound a bit more like “Now/then I can go home.”
Yes, a few common alternatives (same core meaning):
- Jeg er ferdig med e-posten, så jeg kan dra hjem.
- Nå er jeg ferdig med e-posten, så jeg kan gå hjem. (nå = “now,” adds clarity)
- Jeg har gjort ferdig e-posten, så jeg kan gå hjem. (more “I have completed the email”)