Møtet ble kortere enn forventet.

the meeting

Breakdown of Møtet ble kortere enn forventet.

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

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?