Møtet ble kortere enn forventet.

the meeting

Breakdown of Møtet ble kortere enn forventet.

• bli: to become
• enn: than
• kortere: shorter
• forventet: expected

Questions & Answers about Møtet ble kortere enn forventet.

Why is it møtet and not møte?

Because møtet is the definite singular form of the noun.

• et møte = a meeting
• møtet = the meeting

Møte is a neuter noun, so many neuter nouns take -et in the definite singular.

So the sentence is talking about the meeting, not just a meeting.

What does ble mean here?

Ble is the past tense of bli.

In this sentence, bli means something like:

• became
• turned out to be

So Møtet ble kortere enn forventet literally feels like:

• The meeting became shorter than expected
• or more naturally, The meeting turned out to be shorter than expected

It is not a passive here.

Why use ble instead of var?

Using ble emphasizes the result or outcome.

• Møtet ble kortere enn forventet = the meeting turned out shorter than expected
• Møtet var kortere enn forventet = the meeting was shorter than expected

Both can be possible, but ble often sounds more natural when talking about how something ended up compared with what people expected beforehand.

How is kortere formed?

Kortere is the comparative form of kort.

The pattern is:

• kort = short
• kortere = shorter
• kortest = shortest

A lot of Norwegian adjectives form the comparative with -ere and the superlative with -est.

Also, in the comparative, the adjective does not change for gender or number here. So you use kortere regardless of whether the noun is neuter, common gender, singular, or plural.

What does enn mean?

Enn means than in comparisons.

So:

• kortere enn forventet = shorter than expected

You use enn after a comparative:

• større enn = bigger than
• bedre enn = better than
• kortere enn = shorter than

A useful contrast:

• enn = than
• som = as

For example:

• kortere enn jeg trodde = shorter than I thought
• like kort som før = as short as before

Why is it just forventet and not a full clause like enn det var forventet?

Because Norwegian often shortens this kind of expression.

Enn forventet means:

• than expected
• than was expected

Here, forventet is the past participle of forvente (to expect), and the rest of the clause is understood from context.

You could make it longer, for example:

• Møtet ble kortere enn jeg hadde forventet = The meeting was shorter than I had expected

But enn forventet is very common and natural.

Is forventet acting like a verb or an adjective here?

It comes from a verb, but here it works more like a participle/adjectival expression inside the comparison.

In enn forventet, it means something like:

• than expected
• than had been expected

So it is not functioning as the main verb of the sentence. The main verb is ble.

You can think of forventet here as a shortened way of expressing an idea that would be a full clause in English, such as than one had expected or than was expected.

Is the word order normal in this sentence?

Yes. This is normal main clause word order:

• Møtet = subject
• ble = verb
• kortere enn forventet = complement/comparison

So the structure is:

Subject + verb + rest

Because Norwegian is a V2 language, the finite verb usually comes in the second position in main clauses.

If something else comes first, the verb still stays second:

• I går ble møtet kortere enn forventet. = Yesterday, the meeting was shorter than expected.

Notice that when I går comes first, ble still stays in second position.

Could this sentence also be translated more literally as The meeting became shorter than expected?

Yes, that is the more literal translation of ble.

But in natural English, The meeting turned out to be shorter than expected or The meeting was shorter than expected usually sounds better.

So a good way to understand it is:

• literal sense: the meeting became shorter than expected
• natural meaning: the meeting turned out to be shorter than expected

That is a very common thing in Norwegian: bli often corresponds to English become, but in many real sentences it is better translated as turn out, end up, or simply be, depending on context.