Breakdown of Når strømmen kommer tilbake, setter vi i gang med å lade telefonen.
Questions & Answers about Når strømmen kommer tilbake, setter vi i gang med å lade telefonen.
Når introduces a time clause. Here it means when in the sense of “at the time that the power returns.” Norwegian also uses da for “when,” but da is typically used for a single, specific event in the past. Når is common for present/future situations and for things that can happen repeatedly.
Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause (Når strømmen kommer tilbake). In Norwegian, it’s standard to separate that introductory subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma:
- Når X, Y.
Strømmen is the definite form: the power / the electricity (literally “the current”). In Norwegian, you often use the definite form when referring to a specific thing understood from context—here, the power in the house/building.
Yes. Strøm literally means “stream/current,” but in everyday Norwegian it’s the normal word for electrical power/electricity in the household sense. So strømmen kommer tilbake is a very common way to say the power comes back (after an outage).
Norwegian often uses a verb + particle/adverb to express meanings that English might express with a phrasal verb or a single verb. komme tilbake = come back/return.
You can also say strømmen er tilbake (“the power is back”), which is slightly more “state”-focused.
Because Norwegian follows the V2 rule (the finite verb is in position 2 in main clauses). When you start the main clause with something other than the subject (here, the whole Når… clause comes first), the verb still has to be second, so the subject moves after the verb:
- Normal: Vi setter i gang…
- After an initial clause: Når …, setter vi i gang…
å sette i gang means to get started / set something in motion / start up. It often implies taking action or initiating an activity.
å begynne is more neutral: simply to begin.
So setter vi i gang med å lade feels like “we get going with charging (as soon as we can).”
Yes, it’s typically written as two words: i gang. It’s part of the fixed expression å sette i gang. Norwegian has many such fixed combinations where the meaning comes from the whole phrase rather than the individual words.
After å sette i gang, Norwegian commonly uses med to introduce what you start doing, and if what follows is a verb, you use å + infinitive:
- sette i gang med
- noun: … med ladingen
- sette i gang med å
- verb: … med å lade
So med å lade = “with (the act of) charging / to charge.”
In standard Norwegian, sette i gang med å + infinitive is the safest and most common pattern. Some speakers may drop med in casual speech, but it can sound less natural or less standard depending on dialect and context.
telefonen means the phone, i.e., a specific phone known in context (usually “our/the phone”). In everyday speech, when the listener can infer which phone, Norwegian often uses the definite form.
Yes, if the object is understood. … med å lade can mean “to start charging (it)” or “to start charging (in general).” Adding telefonen makes it explicit what is being charged.
Both kommer and setter are present tense. Norwegian frequently uses the present tense to talk about the future when a time clause makes it clear it’s future:
- Når strømmen kommer tilbake = “When the power comes back (in the future)” No special future form is required.
Common learner points:
- strømmen: the ø is like a rounded vowel (similar to the vowel in some pronunciations of English “burn” but with rounded lips). The double mm gives a slightly longer m sound.
- å (infinitive marker): often pronounced like o in many accents (varies by dialect).
- lade: stress on the first syllable: LA-. The final -e is usually a reduced vowel in many varieties of Norwegian.