Learn about the difference between den and det
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Anette here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Norwegian questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is… What's the difference between den and det? |
| Explanation |
| When you translate den or det into English, they both translate as “it” or “that.” So how do you know when to use which one? |
| A simple way to remember how to use them is that you use den for masculine and feminine nouns and det for neuter nouns. |
| Let’s go over some examples so you can learn how to use den and det correctly. |
| Let’s say you're in a store and you want to ask how much a dress costs. In this case, you’ll have to use den, since “dress,” kjole, is a masculine noun. So, Hva koster den? means, “How much is it?” |
| So, what if you want to point out that the dress is expensive? Instead of saying Kjolen er dyr meaning, “The dress is expensive,” you could use Den er dyr meaning, “It's expensive.” |
| The same goes for jacket, jakke, which is a feminine noun. Here too, you would say Hva koster den? Meaning “How much is it?” If you want to say “The jacket is cheap,” Jakken er billig, you could say Den er billig meaning “It’s cheap,” instead. |
| However, if you want to know the price of a table, bord, you have to use det because bord is a neuter noun. Then you get, Hva koster det? which also means, “How much is it?” So, what if you think the table is a little bit too low? Instead of saying Bordet er litt lavt meaning, “The table is a little bit low,” you can say Det er litt lavt meaning, “It’s a little bit low.” |
Outro |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| Hade. Vi sees snart. “Bye. See you soon!” |
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