en, ei or et? How to guess the gender
There's no rule that always works, but there are good clues. Here you'll see which endings almost always give en or et, what to do with compound words, and why en is the safest guess.
We teach Bokmål, the written standard most people in Norway use.
In short: no rule always works. Learn every noun together with en, ei or et. Not sure? Guess en.
What is this about?
Grammatical gender means every noun belongs to a group, and the group decides which small words go with it. It has nothing to do with real men and women: a house isn't male or female, it just belongs to a group. English lost this system centuries ago, so for English speakers it's brand new.
Norwegian has three groups: masculine (en), feminine (ei) and neuter (et). «En bil» (a car), «ei jente» (a girl), «et hus» (a house). No rule works every time, but there are good clues. Words ending in -sjon and -het take en: «en stasjon» (a station), «en mulighet» (a chance). Words ending in -um take et: «et museum». And in compounds the last part decides: «et barn» + «en hage» = «en barnehage» (kindergarten).
Because English has no gender at all, English speakers often use en for everything: «en hus», «en barn». Here's some comfort: about half of all nouns take en, and in Bokmål ei words can take en too, so en is your safest guess. The et words are the ones to learn by heart. The trick is to learn every noun with its little word: not just hus, but et hus. You'll use gender every time you buy something («et brød, takk», a loaf of bread, please) or describe something («et stort hus», a big house).
Rules
- The safest guess: about half of all nouns are masculine, and ei words can take en too. Et words are fewer, roughly one noun in five.
- Ei or en: in Bokmål ei can always be replaced by en: ei jente = en jente, ei bok = en bok. But et can never become en: et hus, never «en hus».
- Girls and women: often ei: ei jente (girl), ei kone (wife), ei mor (mother), ei søster, ei tante (aunt).
- People: almost always en: en lærer, en lege (doctor), en venn (friend), en journalist, en sjåfør (driver). Exceptions: et barn (child), et menneske (human being), et medlem (member).
- -sjon and -tet: en: en stasjon, en informasjon, en kvalitet, en aktivitet. Exception: et universitet.
- -dom and -else: en: en sykdom (illness), en ungdom (young person), en følelse (feeling), en oppholdstillatelse (residence permit). Exception: et værelse (room).
- -ing and -het: en or ei: en/ei regning (bill), en/ei forelesning (lecture), en/ei mulighet (chance), en/ei leilighet (flat). People in -ing only take en: en utlending (foreigner), en flyktning (refugee).
- -um, -eri and -ment: et: et museum, et sentrum (town centre), et visum (visa), et bakeri (bakery), et dokument.
- Nouns made from verbs: often et: å svare → et svar (answer), å kjøpe → et kjøp (purchase), å besøke → et besøk (visit), å møte → et møte (meeting). But: å danse → en dans.
- Materials and food: often et: et gull (gold), et glass, et papir (paper), et brød (bread), et kjøtt (meat), et vann (water). But: en kaffe, en te, ei/en melk.
- Short everyday words: there's no rule here: et hus, et år (year), et land, et tog (train), but en bil, en dag, en by (town), ei/en dør (door). You have to learn these by heart.
- Compound words: the last part decides: en sykkel + et hjul = et sykkelhjul (bike wheel), et barn + en hage = en barnehage (kindergarten), kjøle + et skap = et kjøleskap (fridge).
- Learn smart: learn each word in a short phrase, because the gender also shows in the adjective: et stort hus, en stor bil. Dictionaries such as ordbokene.no mark nouns as hankjønn (en), hunkjønn (ei) or intetkjønn (et).
Typical mistake: English has no gender, so English speakers use en for everything: «en hus», «en barn», «en eple». En is often right, but the et words you simply have to know.
Examples
- Vi bor i et lite hus på landet.We live in a small house in the countryside.
- Hun har ei søster og en bror.She has a sister and a brother.
- Jeg venter på en oppholdstillatelse fra UDI.I'm waiting for a residence permit from UDI.
- Museet ligger i sentrum, ved siden av et bakeri.The museum is in the town centre, next to a bakery.
- Jeg fikk et svar fra NAV i går.I got an answer from NAV yesterday.
- Har du et glass vann til meg?Could I have a glass of water?
- Barnehagen har et stort kjøleskap på kjøkkenet.The kindergarten has a big fridge in the kitchen.
- Vi har et møte med læreren på fredag.We have a meeting with the teacher on Friday.
- Sønnen min studerer ved et universitet i Trondheim.My son studies at a university in Trondheim.
- Vi fikk ei regning på 800 kroner fra tannlegen.We got a bill for 800 kroner from the dentist.