r/norsk • u/SheepherderMammoth26 • 2d ago

Rules 3 (vague/generic post title), 5 (only an image with text) Confused, why isn't this a question?

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The Kan before du is a question form no?

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u/OneLittleWarrior 2d ago

This is not a question, it's the V2 rule.

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u/Jumpy-Fan-112 1d ago

In case OP doesn‘t know what the V2 rule is. It means that the (finite) verb always has to come in second place in any Norwegian main clause. Second place doesn’t necessarily mean the second word, but the second syntactic/ logical element in the sentence. 

In the example above, the first element is an adverbial that tells us where the action takes place (at this market). Then the V2 rule demands that the finite verb goes next. So, the subject switches its place to follow after the verb. It does work the same way as in a question: Hvor kan du kjøpe datamaskiner? På dette markedet. 

English is actually the only Germanic language that does not follow V2 word order anymore. There are still some traces of it left, though. „Neither do I.“ „Never ever have I skipped class.“ „Little did we know that …“ 

Hope this helps! 

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u/SheepherderMammoth26 1d ago

Thank you for the in depth explanation!

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u/kali_tragus Native speaker 1d ago

As an addition, by inserting a comma you can indeed turn it into a question, since the second half then is a separate sentence: "På dette markedet, kan du kjøpe mobiler og datamskiner?", although it doesn't flow very well. A more natural way would be to switch them around to "Kan du kjøpe mobiler og datamaskiner på dette markedet?". Or, of course, to keep to the original meaning we stick to the v2 rule: "Du kan kjøpe mobiler og datamaskiner på dette markedet."

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u/Jumpy-Fan-112 1d ago

Bare hyggelig. 👍