Kan jeg låne boken din?

Because this is a yes/no question. In Norwegian, yes/no questions usually put the verb first:

• Kan jeg låne boken din?
• literally: Can I borrow your book?

In a normal statement, the order would be:

• Jeg kan låne boken din.
• I can borrow your book.

So the change from statement to question is mainly the verb-subject inversion: kan jeg instead of jeg kan.

Kan is the present tense of kunne, and here it means can.

In this sentence, it is being used to make a polite request, similar to English:

• Can I borrow your book?

So it is not only about ability; it is also a common way to ask for permission politely.

Låne is the infinitive form of the verb, meaning to borrow or sometimes to lend, depending on context.

After a modal verb like kan, Norwegian normally uses the infinitive without å:

• Kan jeg låne ...
• not Kan jeg å låne ...

This is similar to English:

• I can borrow
• not I can to borrow

Yes, very often it can.

Norwegian låne can mean either borrow or lend, and the meaning is usually understood from the context.

For example:

• Kan jeg låne boken din? = Can I borrow your book?
• Kan du låne meg boken? = Can you lend me the book?

If someone wants to make lend extra clear, they may say låne bort.

So this is a very common thing for English speakers to notice, since English uses two different verbs.

Both are possible, but they do not feel exactly the same.

The most neutral and common pattern in Norwegian is:

• noun in the definite form + possessive
• boken din = your book

So:

• bok = book
• boken = the book
• boken din = your book

You can also say din bok, but that usually sounds more emphatic, contrastive, or a bit more formal/literary in some contexts.

Compare:

• boken din = the normal everyday way
• din bok = your book, not someone else’s

Because Norwegian usually uses the definite form of the noun when a possessive comes after it.

• bok = a book / book
• boken = the book

Then:

• boken din = your book

This is one of the big differences from English. English says your book, without the, but Norwegian often builds the idea of the directly into the noun.

Both can be correct in Bokmål.

The noun bok is often treated as either:

• common gender: en bok – boken
• or feminine: ei bok – boka

So these are both possible in Bokmål:

• Kan jeg låne boken din?
• Kan jeg låne boka di?

The version with boken din may look a little more standard or conservative in some textbooks, while boka di is also very common in everyday speech.

Because din matches the form boken, which is treated here as a common gender noun.

Possessives change according to gender and number:

• din for common gender singular
• di for feminine singular
• ditt for neuter singular
• dine for plural

So:

• boken din
• boka di

Both can refer to your book, but the form changes depending on whether the noun is written as common gender or feminine.

Yes, absolutely. That is very common.

• Kan jeg låne boken din?
• Kan jeg få låne boken din?

The version with få often sounds especially natural in spoken Norwegian when asking to borrow something. It is a bit like saying:

• Can I get to borrow your book?

In practice, both are used, and both are correct.

Yes. It is a normal, polite everyday way to ask.

• Kan jeg låne boken din? sounds natural and courteous.

If you want to sound a little softer or more indirect, you could also say:

• Kan jeg få låne boken din?
• Kunne jeg låne boken din?
• Kunne jeg få låne boken din?

Using kunne instead of kan can make the request sound a bit more tentative or polite, similar to Could I ...? in English.

The pronunciation of jeg varies a lot by region and speaking style, so learners often hear different versions.

Common real-life pronunciations include something like:

• yai
• yay
• sometimes something closer to jai

In careful textbook-style pronunciation, you may hear a clearer version, but in everyday speech it often gets reduced.

So if you hear different pronunciations of Kan jeg låne boken din?, that is completely normal.

A helpful breakdown is:

• Kan = can
• jeg = I
• låne = borrow
• boken = the book
• din = your

So the structure is:

• Can I borrow the-book your?

That sounds strange in English, but it shows an important Norwegian pattern:

• definite noun + possessive
• boken din, bilen min, huset vårt

This is one of the most useful patterns to get comfortable with early on.