2.16 Location and Motion
Adverbs of place describe where the action in a sentence occurs. In Norwegian, many of these adverbs have two separate forms, one describing the location in a place and the other indicating motion towards the place.
Example:
Location: |
Jeg sitter inne. | (I am sitting inside.) |
Motion: |
Jeg går inn. | (I am going inside.) |
The verb in the sentence is a good predictor of whether the description is about location or motion. Verbs like “være, sitte, bo (be, sit, live)” indicate location, while verbs like “komme, gå, kjøre, reise (come, go, drive, travel)” describe motion.
Location: |
Jeg er ute. Jeg bor hjemme. Jeg blir der. |
(I am outside.) (I am living at home.) (I will stay there.) |
Motion: |
Jeg kommer ut. Jeg reiser hjem. Jeg kjører dit. |
(I am coming outside.) (I am traveling home.) (I am driving there.) |
This chart shows all of the adverbs of location and motion.
Adverbs of Location |
Adverbs of Motion |
| Jeg sitter inne. (I sit inside.) | Jeg går inn. (I am going inside.) |
| Jeg er ute. (I am outside.) | Jeg går ut. (I am going outside.) |
| Jeg bor oppe. (I live upstairs.) | Jeg klatrer opp. (I am climbing up.) |
| Jeg er nede. (I am downstairs.) | Jeg kommer ned. (I’m coming down.) |
| Vi er framme. (We are here.) | Jeg kom fram. (I arrived.) |
| Bilen er borte. (The car is gone.) | Han løp bort. (He ran away.) |
| Jeg er hjemme. (I am at home.) | Jeg skal dra hjem. (I am going home.) |
| Han sitter her. (He is sitting here.) | Hun kom hit. (She came here.) |
| Huset er der. (The house is there.) | Han sykler dit. (He is biking there.) |