Jeg rører i suppen før jeg serverer den.

I stir the soup before I serve it.

Breakdown of Jeg rører i suppen før jeg serverer den.

• jeg: I
• i: in
• den: it
• før: before
• suppen: the soup
• servere: to serve
• røre: to stir

Questions & Answers about Jeg rører i suppen før jeg serverer den.

Why is it rører i and not just rører?

Because Norwegian often uses a preposition with certain verbs to show what kind of action you’re doing.
Å røre can mean “to stir,” but å røre i noe specifically means to stir in something / stir something (by stirring inside it)—i.e., you’re moving the spoon in the soup.
So Jeg rører i suppen = “I stir the soup.”

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Is i here the same as English in, and can it ever be på?

Here i corresponds closely to English in: you stir in the soup (inside the liquid).
På (“on”) generally wouldn’t fit because you’re not stirring on the surface of something; you’re stirring in the contents.

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Why do we get før jeg serverer den and not før jeg den serverer?

Norwegian main word order in a normal clause is: subject – verb – object.
So in the subordinate clause after før (“before”), you still say:

• jeg serverer den (S–V–O)
  not jeg den serverer.

(Word order changes in Norwegian mainly with adverbs like ikke in subordinate clauses, not with objects.)

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Why is jeg repeated? Can I omit the second jeg?

You normally keep it. Norwegian requires an explicit subject in each finite clause, so:

• Jeg rører i suppen før jeg serverer den.
  is the natural structure.

You can sometimes avoid repetition by rephrasing, but you wouldn’t usually drop jeg after før.

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What does den refer to, and why not det?

Den refers back to suppen (“the soup”), and suppe is a common-gender noun in Norwegian (en-noun), so the pronoun is den.
Det would be used for a neuter noun (et-noun) or sometimes for a whole idea/statement, but here it’s clearly “the soup,” so den.

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Could I say før jeg serverer suppen instead of using den?

Yes. Both are correct:

• før jeg serverer den = before I serve it
• før jeg serverer suppen = before I serve the soup

Using den is very common to avoid repeating the noun.

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Is there a difference between serverer den and serverer den opp?

Often, yes:

• å servere = to serve (general)
• å servere opp = to serve up (often emphasizing presenting/bringing the food out)

Both can work, but serverer den is perfectly natural and neutral here.

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Why is it i suppen and not suppa?

Both are possible, depending on style and dialect:

• suppen is the more bookish/common Bokmål definite form you’ll see in writing.
• suppa is also definite and very common in spoken Norwegian and many informal contexts.

So you might hear: Jeg rører i suppa før jeg serverer den.

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Does rører have anything to do with rød (“red”) or rører as in “touches/moves”?

It’s the verb å røre, which can mean:

• to stir (common in cooking, often with i)
• to touch / move / affect (in other contexts)

Here, with food and i suppen, it’s clearly the “stir” meaning.

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What tense is rører / serverer, and why not past tense?

Both rører and serverer are present tense. Norwegian present tense can describe:

• what you do habitually (“I stir before I serve”)
• what you are doing now in a recipe/narration (“I stir… before I serve…”)

If you mean a specific completed past event, you’d typically use past:

• Jeg rørte i suppen før jeg serverte den.