Breakdown of Vi hadde glemt bakepapiret, men naboen lånte oss både bakepapir og en ekstra kjele.
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Questions & Answers about Vi hadde glemt bakepapiret, men naboen lånte oss både bakepapir og en ekstra kjele.
Why is it hadde glemt instead of just glemte?
Hadde glemt is the past perfect, literally had forgotten. It shows that the forgetting happened before the next past event in the sentence.
So the timeline is:
- first: we forgot the baking paper
- then: the neighbor lent us some
That is why Norwegian uses hadde glemt here.
Compare:
- Vi glemte bakepapiret. = We forgot the baking paper.
- Vi hadde glemt bakepapiret. = We had forgotten the baking paper.
The second version fits especially well when another past event follows.
Why is it glemt and not glemte after hadde?
After hadde, Norwegian uses the past participle, not the simple past.
So:
- å glemme = to forget
- glemte = forgot
- glemt = forgotten
That gives:
- Vi glemte ... = We forgot ...
- Vi hadde glemt ... = We had forgotten ...
This is the same basic pattern as in English:
- forgot
- had forgotten