Basic Norwegian grammar stuff 2 - Home

Basic Norwegian grammar stuff 2
NOUNS
Nouns are special in Norwegian in that they are gender based, i.e. all nouns have one of three genders; masculine,
feminine, neuter – and then they have a plural form, irrespective of gender. However, most feminine nouns can
also be treated as a masculine noun (There are regional variations).
en stol (a chair) masculine
et hus (a house) neuter
ei seng (a bed) feminine
This means that the nouns must be graded in their respective ways. Norwegian nouns are graded into four
(usually) distinctive forms, as opposed to only two in English, by incorporating the “the” (the definite article) into
the noun. e.g.
MASCULINE NOUNS
en stol stolen stoler stolene
a chair the chair chairs the chairs
single indefinite single definite plural indefinite plural definite
So we can see the pattern of a masculine noun clearer, here it is again:
en Q Qen Qer Qene
House, a neuter noun:
NEUTER NOUNS
et hus huset hus husene
a house the house houses the houses
single indefinite single definite plural indefinite plural definite
et w wet w wene
Note that in the plural indefinite (the third word above) there is nothing added, this is what one-syllable neuter
nouns look like. [We can call this Neuter 1] Thus, three houses” will be: tre hus

Neuter nouns with two or more syllables behave like the example below [which we can call neuter 2]:
et maleri maleriet malerier maleriene
a painting the painting paintings the paintings
single indefinite single definite plural indefinite plural definite
et et er ene
As you can see, it behaves just like the masculine nouns in the plural.
FEMININE NOUNS
ei seng senga senger sengene
a bed the bed beds the beds
ei L La Ler Lene
Many feminine nouns that end In -e lose the -e and get an -a in the definite, e.g. ei lampe - lampa.
Feminine nouns are exactly the same in plural as the masculine ones. Rather confusingly for the foreign learner,
Norwegian nouns can have different genders according to where you live (or what social class you belong to). For
example, some people would say “sengen” [treating ‘bed’ as a masculine noun] instead of “senga”, [a feminine
noun] and some consider the former to be more conservative, but it is also the case that in Bergen there are only
two genders of nouns (!), masculine and neuter, so any noun that might be feminine elsewhere is used as a
masculine in Bergen. (This works fine if you’re Norwegian, but when you are trying to learn these nouns as a
beginner...!)
En gutt (a boy)
What would the 4 different versions of the following nouns be:
Remember that there are two kinds of neuter nouns
En radio (a radio)
En datamaskin (a computer)
En penn (a pen)
There are a number of irregular nouns too:
Et kapittel (a chapter)
Et modem (a modem)
Et fall (a fall)
Et fly (an aeroplane)
En bok boken bøker bøkene
En bror broren brødre brødrene
En far faren fedre fedrene
En mor moren mødre mødrene
…
Ei dame (a lady)
Ei sti (a path)
Ei dør (a door)