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Articles and Genitive

Norwegian nouns are classified into three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The indefinite articles used are en for masculine nouns, ei for feminine, and et for neuter. These indicate gender and can be omitted in some expressions. In the definite form, nouns take suffixes like -en, -a, or -et to indicate gender, or just -n or -t if the noun already ends in -e. Plural indefinite forms add -(e)r or just -r, while plural definite forms take -(e)ne. Some nouns have irregular plural forms. Genitive is shown by adding -s or using the preposition til with the definite form.

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REBECA ALEXANDRA PATRAȘCU
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38 views

Articles and Genitive

Norwegian nouns are classified into three genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The indefinite articles used are en for masculine nouns, ei for feminine, and et for neuter. These indicate gender and can be omitted in some expressions. In the definite form, nouns take suffixes like -en, -a, or -et to indicate gender, or just -n or -t if the noun already ends in -e. Plural indefinite forms add -(e)r or just -r, while plural definite forms take -(e)ne. Some nouns have irregular plural forms. Genitive is shown by adding -s or using the preposition til with the definite form.

Uploaded by

REBECA ALEXANDRA PATRAȘCU
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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NOUNS

Genders

Norwegian nouns have three genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.

Masculine  en gutt a boy

Feminine ei jente  a girl

Neuter et fly an airplane

(Feminine nouns can have the article en instead of ei: ei/en jente)

Generally, we use the article en/ei/et when the noun is in the indefinite form,


singular.

Leaving out en/ei/et

In some expressions the indefinite article en/ei/et is left out:

Alex reiser med fly.  Alex travels by plane.

The article is not used when we define characteristics of a person (i.e. professions
and nationalities):

Jeg er student.  I am a student.

Definite form

In Chapter 2 we presented the indefinite articles en, ei and et which indicate the


gender of the noun (cf. a/an). In Norwegian, there is no article in front of the noun in
the definite form. Instead a suffix is added. Masculine words get -en, feminine words
get -a and neuter words get -et.

en stol a chair  →  stolen the chair


ei dør a door  →  døra the door
et bord  a table   →  bordet  the table

If the noun already ends with an -e, you just add the -n or the -t at the end of
masculine and neuter words. When adding -a at the end of feminine words ending in
-e, you drop the -e:

en familie  a family   →  familien  the family


ei stue a living room  →  stua the living room
et hjørne a corner  →  hjørnet the corner

Plural forms

The plural of indefinite nouns is normally formed by adding -(e)r. If the singular
indefinite form ends in -e, you only add -r:

en stol a chair  →  (to) stoler chairs


ei dør a door  →  (to) dører doors
et hjørne  a corner   →  (to) hjørner  corners

Short (one syllable) neuter words take no ending in the indefinite form plural:

et hus a  →  (to) hus houses


house 
et rom  a room   →  (to) rom  rooms

In the definite form of the plural, the ending is usually -(e)ne:

stoler chairs  →  stolene the chairs


dører doors  →  dørene the doors
hjørner  corners   →  hjørnene  the corners

Some irregular plural forms

et barn a child barnet barn barna


ei bok a book boka bøker bøkene
en bror a broren brødre  brødrene
brother
ei søster  a sister søstera søstre søstrene
en far a father faren fedre fedrene
ei mor a mother mora mødre mødrene
en mann a man mannen  menn mennene

Genitive

To indicate who or what owns something you can:

1. Add an -s to the owner: Dinas rom (without apostrophe)


or
2. use the preposition til. Rommet til Dina.
Note that what is owned is in the indefinite form in sentence 1 and in the definite
form in sentence 2.

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