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Adjectives in the Norwegian language

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We just did a little quiz on our instagram account, where we asked people to pick the correct alternative from these 3 options:



We will do our best to provide a detailed explanation of the rationale behind why alternative B is the correct choice, and help you understand the full use of adjectives in the Norwegian language. Samsvarsbøyning av adjektiv og dobbelt bestemthet in good old fashioned Norwegian ( Agreement/concord of adjectives and double definiteness)


First of all, Let`s take a look at these little words called adjectives. Adjectives name an attribute of a noun and describes it by size, form, shape, quality, feeling, age, color and more: fin, stor, rød, god ( nice, big, red, good)



ADJEKTIV





Adjectives are inflected for gender, number, and definiteness. We call this agreement or concord, because the adjective conforms to the gender/number/definiteness of the noun it modifies. As in the example above and below:


The adjective FIN changes depending on which noun it describes, and if it is singular or plural.


Singular indefinite: En fin bil ( A nice car)

Ei fin jente ( A nice girl) Et fint hus ( A nice house)


When it describes a neutral noun it gets a -T in the end in singular.


Plural indefinite:


To fine biler (Two nice cars)

To fine jenter (Two nice girls)

To fine hus (Two nice houses)





As you can see, the adjective gets an -E at the end when it describes more than one thing.


To summarize, the adjective stays the same for EN/ EI nouns, gets a -T at the end of the noun for neutral nouns and gets an -E at the end for plural.




If we take any of the adjectives in the list above, we would get these sentences as examples:

  • Det er et vakkert hus. ( It is a beautiful house)

  • Han har en varm jakke. (He has a varm jacket)

  • Hun har rødt hår. ( She has red hair)

  • Han kjører en rød bil. ( He drives a red car)



Now that we know what the adjective is, and how we inflect it, what about this double definiteness rule?


Regarding the double definiteness, it can be somewhat confusing, as the adjective seems to be appearing in the plural form even when it is describing a singular noun.( It looks the same)




If we put it into context, we can have these examples:


Den fine bilen. ( The nice car)

Den store gutten. (The big boy) Den gode boken. (The good book)

Det fine huset. ( The nice house)


As you can see Den store gutten is singular, but there is an -E at the end of the adjective. Why?


Lets have a closer look, and hopefully by the end of this article- you wont be confused any longer.




DOBBEL BESTEMTHET (Double definiteness form)


Double definiteness is very rare in the world's languages. This is one of the reasons why many find it difficult to learn. Before you continue on, these technical terms are used and explained in the text:


Definiteness ( Bestemthet): Definiteness is a grammatical category in which we inflect nouns and adjectives. For example, "boken" is the definite form of the noun "bok." In Norwegian, we show definiteness by adding a suffix to the noun.


Indefinite Article ( Ubestemt artikkel) : The indefinite articles in Norwegian are "en," "ei," and "et." When the noun is in the indefinite form, we use the indefinite article before the noun: "Jeg ser en jente" (I see a girl).


Definite Article ( Bestemt artikkel) :The definite articles in Norwegian are suffixes. For masculine nouns, the suffix is -en (boken); for feminine nouns, you can choose between -a and -en (jenta/jenten); for neuter nouns, it’s -et (huset); and for plural nouns, it’s usually -ene (bøkene).


Phrase ( Frase) :A phrase is a group of words that function together. For example, "Den lille gutten" (The little boy) is a phrase in the sentence "Den lille gutten kjøper en sjokolade" (The little boy is buying a chocolate).


Noun Phrase ( Substantivfrase): A noun phrase is a group of words with a noun as its core. This means the noun is the most important word in the phrase. "Den lille gutten" (The little boy) is an example of a noun phrase because "gutten" (boy) is the core word.


Demonstratives ( Demonstrativer) :Demonstratives are words used when we refer to a person or thing. "Den," "denne," and "de" are examples of demonstratives: "Denne pizzaen var god" (This pizza was good)."





Double definiteness


Double definiteness (dobbel bestemthet) occurs when we make the definite form of multiple words in a noun phrase. For example, consider this sentence:


Den gamle damen var veldig snill. (The old woman was very kind.)


In the noun phrase Den gamle damen, we use both the definite article den and show definiteness on the noun damen with the suffix -en. This is why we call it double definiteness.

The indefinite form of the same phrase would have been en gammel dame (an old woman).



In simple terms: Whenever you want to say: the old lady ( den gamle damen), the beautiful man ( den vakre mannen), the nice car ( de fine bilene), the big windows (de store vinduene), the big houses ( de store husene) - you`ll have to use double definiteness.



I spoke to the nice lady

= Jeg snakket med den hyggelige damen.


Makes sense? :)






When do we use double definiteness?


We use double definiteness when an adjective precedes a noun in the definite form. Look at the example below. In the first sentence, "genser" is in the indefinite form because it represents new information. In the second sentence, the noun is in the definite form because it represents known information.

Since an adjective is used with the noun in the definite form, we need to insert a definite article: den:


- Jeg har en ny genser. ( I have a new sweater)


- Hvor har du kjøpt den nye genseren? ( where did you buy the new sweater)


Now, we have created double definiteness in the second sentence. Note that it is not correct to say Hvor har du kjøpt nye genseren? In Norwegian, the definite article must always be included when an adjective is used with a noun in the definite form





DEMONSTRATIVER


We also use the definite form of the noun after the demonstratives (demonstrativer/ pekeord) den/det/de/denne/disse/dette. These are words we use to point to something:


Denne kaken var veldig god (This cake was very good)

or,

Disse studentene var skikkelig flinke (These students were really clever).


The demonstratives refer to something very specific, and therefore the noun must be in the definite form. If you want to use an adjective to describe the noun, and the noun is in definite form, the adjective must be in definite form also. The adjective gets an -E in the end.


Entall ( en)

Denne gode kaken. (This good cake)

Den fine gutten. (That nice boy)


Entall ( et) Dette fantastiske huset. ( This fantastic house)

Det fine bordet. ( That nice table)


Flertall: Disse flotte bilene. ( These great cars)

De flinke studentene. ( Those clever students)





I really hope this has been helpful. :)


Now, i would like you to try and find the two wrong ones and the one right one in these examples. Answer in the comments.



A)

  1. Jeg kjøpte boken i den fine butikken.

  2. Jeg kjøpte boken i fine butikken.

  3. Jeg kjøpte boken i den fine butikk.




B)

  1. Jeg har så lyst å kjøpe det fint hus.

  2. Jeg har så lyst å kjøpe det fine huset.

  3. Jeg har så lyst å kjøpe det fine hus.




Lykke til alle sammen,


<3







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A1, B2

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2,3

1,3

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Did you mean A- 3. And B-3? :)

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