Nouns: gender and articles

What is this about?

A noun is a word for a thing, a person, an animal or an idea: car, teacher, cat, love. In Norwegian every noun has a gender, and the gender decides the little word in front: «en bil» (a car), «ei jente» (a girl), «et hus» (a house).

Norwegian nouns have two key forms. The indefinite form («ubestemt form») is for something new in the conversation, unknown, or «any one at all»: «en bil» – a car, some car. The definite form («bestemt form») is for something we can both identify: it was mentioned before, it's the only one, or the situation makes it obvious: «bilen» – the car. A tiny story: «Jeg kjøpte en bil i går. Bilen er rød.» (I bought a car yesterday. The car is red.) First the car is new to the listener, so it's «en bil». After that you both know which car, so it's «bilen».

The definite form is an ending, not a separate word: «bilen» (the car), «jenta» (the girl), «huset» (the house). It's also used for things that are unique: «Sola skinner» (the sun is shining). At home you'd say «Kjøleskapet er tomt» (the fridge is empty), because everyone knows which fridge you mean.

English works the same way with «a» and «the», so the logic is familiar. The only new thing is that Norwegian glues «the» onto the end of the noun. Learn every word with en, ei or et, and ask yourself each time: is this thing new, or do we already know which one it is?