Comments on: The V2 Rule: Word Order in Norwegian

By: John Potier

John Potier — Sat, 20 Dec 2025 16:19:37 +0000

No wonder my Norwegian wife of 60 years avoided teaching me Norwegian!

By: Gerda

Gerda — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 13:46:19 +0000

In reply to Dominique Heyler. You forgot to leave out the comma in your first example. Gerda

By: Dominique Heyler

Dominique Heyler — Wed, 31 Jul 2024 04:54:30 +0000

Thanks for a very good article!
Just a small detail related to one of the examples:
The clause “I går, var du trøtt!” should have no comma.
There is no pause between the time adverbial (I går) and the verbal (var) in a clause like this, in the same way as for an SVO structure. So the correct thing is:
“I går, var du trøtt!” / “Du var trøtt i går!”

By: Daniel Albert

Daniel Albert — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 18:11:36 +0000

In reply to Kay.

Hi there 🙂 The online translator is correct. I don’t have a grammar degree so my terminology might be a bit inaccurate when answering, but in your sentence, “der jeg bor” is the object of the sentence. It’s not a separate clause. Just like “where I live” is not a separate clause in the original English version.

If you split your sentence in two however: “Det snør ikke mye. Der bor jeg.”, then V2 applies. This of course alters the meaning. It would translate in English as “It doesn’t snow much. That’s where I live.” (The two are unrelated, as if you’re driving around commenting the weather and then pointing out the place where you live).

About your second question, off the top of my head I would say that you are correct. “Hvor” is for questions and “der” for statements. Of course I only need to say this for someome to come up with a counterexample so let’s wait 🙂 But we can safely say that your interpretation is correct in most cases.

By: Kay

Kay — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 17:31:27 +0000

Hi Daniel

Thank you for your useful article. I’m still struggling with when to use the V2 rule. I used an online translator to translate, “It doesn’t snow much where I live” and it has given me, “Det snør ikke mye der jeg bor”. I would have expected it be “der bor jeg” following the V2 rule. Did the online translator get it wrong, or is there a reason why the V2 rule hasn’t been followed?

Also, is it always “der” instead of “hvor” when it’s a statement of where something is instead of a question.

Tusen takk

By: Erik

Erik — Fri, 28 Jul 2023 20:15:18 +0000

Hallo,
I’ve been learning Norsk with DuoLingo for about a week now and I’m really enjoying it. It started out really easy with simple phrases like “Kaffe og melk, takk.” But I hit my first really frustrating hurdle when I got to “how are you?,” “are you alright?,” “how’s it going?,” etc. I was definitely making the mistake of trying to apply English logic to a Germanic language. I realize that there are instances in every language where you just have to remember the word order whether it makes sense or not; but it’s frustrating.

By: Iulia

Iulia — Thu, 03 Nov 2022 02:48:56 +0000

I’ve been studying Norwegian off and on for several years now and recently began using a native language exchange app to talk with natives and learn from them directly. In doing so, I encountered the sentence “Så kul genser du har” and was informed that “Så kul genser har du” would be incorrect here. Similarly, the sentence “Du spiser så krydret måltid” could validly be restructured as “Så krydret måltid du spiser”, but not “Så krydret måltid spiser du”. What is the reason for this apparent V2 rule violation? Does this work with every sentence that includes direct object?

Takk,
Iulia

By: Daniel Albert

Daniel Albert — Wed, 07 Sep 2022 05:01:36 +0000

In reply to Aleks. The V2 rule applies in both of your examples. The second half of each sentence is a subordinate clause (a kind of subsentence that can't stand on its own). The words "så" and "fordi" act as conjunctions, so they don't really "count", so to speak. But look at what happens if we start with the subordinate clause: Fordi det var så kaldt tok jeg en buss til jobb. The subordinate clause "fordi det var så kaldt" takes the first spot, so we have to start the main clause with the verb to respect V2.

By: Aleks

Aleks — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 22:15:17 +0000

That is easy enough. But why is the V2 rule not working in so many cases?
I gor var det kald, så jeg tok en buss til jobb (or “tok jeg???)
Jeg tok en buss til jobb, fordi det var kaldt (or “var det kaldt”)?

By: Daniel Albert

Daniel Albert — Sun, 22 May 2022 19:18:39 +0000

In reply to Maddie. That would be "On Christmas Eve eat we turkey" :-) Kudos on getting interested in a foreign language at such a young age. Good luck!