Learn more about grammatical gender in Norwegian
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Intro |
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| Michael: Do adjectives have a gender in Norwegian? |
| Annette: And does noun gender influence adjectives? |
| Michael: At NorwegianClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Mark Lee and Kristine Karlsen are walking past a car dealership. Mark Lee says, "I want a new car." |
| Mark: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Dialogue |
| Mark: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Kristine: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Michael: "I want a new car." |
| Kristine: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Michael: "And I want a new house." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: Adjectives are words that modify nouns. Also known as "describing words," they give readers more information about a noun's description or specification. In Norwegian, adjectives work a bit differently than in English. For one, they have to always agree with the gender and number of the noun they are modifying. Let's take a look at this example: |
| Annette: En fin bil |
| Michael: "A fine car." In this case, the adjective "fine," or |
| Annette: fin |
| Michael: agrees with the noun "car," or |
| Annette: bil |
| Michael: The word "car" is masculine in Norwegian. When the noun being modified is in the masculine or feminine form, the adjective doesn't undergo any changes at all. However, when the noun is in neuter form, you have to add a "t" to the adjective. For instance, |
| Annette: Et fint eple |
| Michael: "A fine apple." The noun "apple" is considered neuter in Norwegian, which is why we added a "t" to the adjective, |
| Annette: fint |
| Michael: What if we're dealing with plural nouns? In that case, we need to add "e" to the base form of the adjective. For instance, |
| Annette: Tre fine biler |
| Michael: "Three fine cars." Let's try another example, this time with a neutral noun. |
| Annette: To fine epler |
| Michael: "Two fine apples." Here, we see that we always add -e to the base form of the adjective when the noun is in the plural form regardless of its gender. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a closer look at the dialogue, in which Mark says "I want a new car." |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Annette: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Michael: Here, the noun is masculine and is in the singular form, which is why the adjective "new," or |
| Annette: ny |
| Michael: is in its base form. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. Kristine says "And I want a new house." |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Annette: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Michael: Without checking what the gender of the word "house" is, we can already know that it's a neuter noun just by looking at the form of the adjective "new" in the sentence, which is |
| Annette: nytt |
| Michael: As we've learned, when the noun being modified by the adjective is a neuter noun, we add "t" to the base form of the adjective. |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you've learned that adjectives in Norwegian don't have genders. Instead, they simply agree with the gender of the noun they are modifying and change forms depending on the gender of the noun. |
| Now, let's look at some examples. Our first example is: |
| Annette: "han ga henne en grønn telefon" |
| Michael: "He gave her a green phone." Here, the noun "phone" is a masculine noun, which is why the adjective stays the same: |
| Annette: grønn |
| Michael: What happens when we tweak the sentence a bit? |
| Annette: Han ga henne en telefon med et grønt deksel. |
| Michael: "He gave her a phone with a green case." In this case, the noun "case," or |
| Annette: deksel |
| Michael: is a neuter noun, which is why the adjective received a "t," |
| Annette: grønt |
| Michael: Let's try another example. |
| Annette: De har en vakker datter. |
| Michael: "They have a beautiful daughter." Here, the noun is feminine, so the adjective retains its form. Changing the noun into a neuter noun will also change the form of the adjective. |
| Annette: De har et vakkert barn. |
| Michael: "They have a beautiful child." We used the same adjective for this sentence, which is "beautiful," but since "child" is a neuter noun, the adjective received a "t." That's |
| Annette: vakker |
| Michael: for a feminine noun, and |
| Annette: vakkert |
| Michael: with a "t," for a neuter noun. |
| Expansion |
| Michael: Going back to our example in the dialogue, which is, "And I want a new house," or |
| Annette: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Michael: you might be wondering why the adjective received a double "t" instead of just one. That's because there are a few Norwegian adjectives that get double "t"s for neuter nouns, and one of them is the adjective "new." There are no specific rules for this one, so you simply need to take note what these adjectives are. Perhaps you're also wondering what happened to the other "n" in one of our previous examples too. |
| Annette: Han ga henne en telefon med et grønt deksel. |
| Michael: "He gave her a phone with a green case." It seems that the "n" from |
| Annette: grønn |
| Michael: disappeared when we added the "t." Well, that's another exception to the rule, but one that's easy to learn and understand. You see, when an adjective ends in a double consonant, it loses one of those consonants when it is modifying a neuter noun, which is why |
| Annette: grønn |
| Michael: became |
| Annette: grønt |
| Michael: That's why we say |
| Annette: en tykk bok. |
| Michael: "A thick book," with "book" being a masculine noun, and |
| Annette: et tykt magasin. |
| Michael: "A thick magazine," with "magazine" being a neuter noun. See the difference? |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after Annette focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I want a new car"? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Annette as Mark Lee: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Annette as Mark Lee: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Annette as Mark Lee: Jeg vil ha en ny bil. |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "And I want a new house"? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Annette as Kristine: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Annette as Kristine: Jeg vil ha et nytt hus. |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: Earlier, we mentioned that, when an adjective is modifying a plural noun, we need to add "e" to its base form. There is another instance when we do that, and that is when the noun is in the definite form. For instance, we say |
| Annette: En kul kjole. |
| Michael: for "a cool dress," which is in the indefinite and singular form. And we say, |
| Annette: Den kule kjolen. |
| Michael: for "the cool dress," which is in the definite singular form. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Annette: Ha det! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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