... on my knees.

[weerwater]

Being on your knees does not really feel like standing on them.
In many cases you are feeling respect, compassion or even worshipping when you're down on your knees.

Now there have been cases in the news of people being held down by kneeling on their heads or necks, but even those situations look more like ' sitting on' than standing.

That is why the use of ' standing' makes me wonder. Is a specific situation described in this exercise? Is it possible to be sitting on your knees in Bokmål too?

[spencer1411]

That is just a common way to express the orientation of the subject. If it is basically vertical, you can use å stå. If it is basically horizontal, you can use å ligge. And if it is positioned relative to another object, such as on it or attached to it, you might use å sitte. If none of those really apply, you can default to å være.

[SansEspoir]

That is why the use of ' standing' makes me wonder. Is a specific situation described in this exercise? Is it possible to be sitting on your knees in Bokmål too?

Yes, you can technically also use "sitte på knærne", but it's less common, due to the phrase "knestående" which is a word describing the position. Sitting on the knees seem to be more common among the kids, who adjust more and more to english.

[weerwater]

That is just a common way to express the orientation of the subject. If it is basically vertical, you can use å stå. If it is basically horizontal, you can use å ligge. And if it is positioned relative to another object, such as on it or attached to it, you might use å sitte. If none of those really apply, you can default to å være.

... So, a common form of Norwegian present continuous:

Is that what you mean?

It would unfortunately not solve my issue with the meaning of being ( forced ) on your knees:
Either you stand upright or you are down on your knees.
You cannot be standing (being proud) while being on your knees (being humble).

But it does make it a lot easier to apply

[spencer1411]

... So, a common form of Norwegian present continuous
Is that what you mean?

That is related, I think, but not what I was referring to. With respect to the duo hints, the closest thing I found was in Location:

[SansEspoir]

It would unfortunately not solve my issue with the meaning of being ( forced ) on your knees:
Either you stand upright or you are down on your knees.
You cannot be standing (being proud) while being on your knees (being humble).

But you are thninking about tis from a different language. In norwegian, you can be forced to stand on your knees.
Du vil bli tvunget ned i knestående. (You will be forced down on your knees).

As @spencer1411 says, you are still in a mostly upright position, so you use standing as the default verb.

[weerwater]

Thank you both for sharing your insights. It is very helpful.
I started a list of knee-idioms in my native language and will add the Bokmål version to it. Or rather I will make an effort to come up with a possible Bokmål version. If it is possible to find English versions of the idioms I will add those to. I will post them here for comments.

[weerwater]

...
But you are thninking about tis from a different language.
...

Da har jeg fylt opp listen.
Morsmålet mitt er utgangspunktet her, og jeg er helt sikker at man sier ikke alt på samme måte på norsk.
Det er viktig for meg å lære om disse forskjellene (og huske ...).

Kanskje noen har lyst til å gi meg noe kritikk eller tid å redigere ting? Burde jeg ha brukt 'stå på kne' noe annet sted?