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Etter middagen setter vi i gang med å rydde, og vi skal få ryddet stuen før klokken åtte.

Etter middagen setter vi i gang med å rydde, og vi skal få ryddet stuen før klokken åtte.
After dinner we get started tidying, and we’ll have the living room tidied before eight o’clock.
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Questions & Answers about Etter middagen setter vi i gang med å rydde, og vi skal få ryddet stuen før klokken åtte.

Why is it setter vi and not vi setter?

Because Norwegian has V2 word order in main clauses: the finite verb (here setter) must be the second element in the clause.
When you start with an adverbial like Etter middagen (After dinner), that first position is taken, so the verb comes next and the subject moves after it:

  • Etter middagen (1st) + setter (2nd) + vi …
What does setter … i gang mean, and how do I use it?

å sette i gang is an idiom meaning to start / get going / get started.
It often appears as sette i gang med + noun or sette i gang med å + infinitive:

  • sette i gang med rydding = start tidying (noun)
  • sette i gang med å rydde = start to tidy (verb)
Why do we say med å rydde—what is that å doing there?

After med (with) you can’t directly place a bare verb in Norwegian. You typically use either:

  • a noun: med rydding (with tidying), or
  • med å + infinitive: med å rydde (with to tidy)

So å rydde is the infinitive phrase that functions like “tidying” in English.

Is rydde the same as rydde opp?

They overlap, but there’s a nuance:

  • å rydde = to tidy/clear/put things away (general)
  • å rydde opp = to tidy up / clean up (often emphasizes “making it neat again” or “fixing a mess”)

In your sentence, rydde is perfectly natural; rydde opp would just sound a bit more like “clean up.”

What does vi skal mean here—future, obligation, or something else?

skal can express:

  • plan/intention (“we’re going to”)
  • future (“we will”)
  • sometimes obligation (“must/shall”)

Here it most naturally means a plan/expectation: we’re going to / we will get it done before eight.

What does skal få ryddet mean? Why not just skal rydde?

skal få + past participle is a common Norwegian way to express managing to get something done / having something done by a certain time.
So vi skal få ryddet stuen før klokken åtte is like:

  • “We’ll get the living room tidied before eight”
  • “We’ll manage to tidy the living room before eight”

vi skal rydde stuen før klokken åtte is also correct, but it focuses more on the action (“we will tidy”) than on the result (“we will have it done”).

Why is it ryddet (past participle) and not rydde after få?

In this construction, få works with a past participle to emphasize the completed result:

  • få ryddet = get (it) tidied / get it done
  • få gjort = get done
  • få skrevet = get written

It’s similar in meaning to English “get + past participle” (get cleaned, get fixed), though Norwegian uses it even more freely.

Why is stuen definite (the living room) instead of en stue?

Norwegian commonly uses the definite form when referring to a specific, known thing—especially rooms in your home:

  • stuen = the living room (the one we all know)
  • kjøkkenet = the kitchen
  • badet = the bathroom

Using en stue would sound like “a living room” (any living room), which isn’t what’s meant here.

How does før klokken åtte work—why no word like “at” before the time?

Norwegian typically uses før/etter + time expression directly:

  • før klokken åtte = before eight o’clock
  • etter klokken åtte = after eight o’clock

No extra preposition like “at” is needed. klokken is “the clock/time (o’clock).”

Can I say klokka instead of klokken? And what about writing the time as a number?

Yes:

  • klokken is slightly more formal/neutral (common in writing).
  • klokka is very common in speech and informal writing.

Both work here. You can also write:

  • før klokken 8 or før klokken 20.00 (24-hour format is common in Norway).