Lesson 3a - Gender (Plural)

GRAMMATIKK

Remember: 
When the information is unknown then we use ubestemt.

When the information is known then we use bestemt 

Mini dictionary:

Singular: entall 

Plural: flertall

Indefinite: ubestemt

Definite: bestemt 

GENERAL RULE: 

a)

ENTALL (In Lesson 2b = Gender, Basic Questions you have learnt about singular indefinite and definite articles) 

UBESTEMT                       BESTEMT 
en ___                                     ___en

*ei ___                                    ___ a

et ___                                      ___ et

*(you know from previous lesson that feminine can be replaced by masculine form)

Examples

[en] - Masculine

Max kjøper en blomst. Blomsten er hvit. - Max buys a flower. The flower is white.

Jeg har en venn. Vennen heter Lene. - I have a friend. The friend is called Lene.

*[ei/en] -Feminine/Masculine

Max får ei/en eske med sjokolade av Paul. Max liker eska/en med sjokolade. - Max gets a box with chocolate from Paul. Max likes the box of chocolate.

Han leter etter ei/en bok. Boka/en heter __ = He looks for a book. The book is called ___

[et] - Neuter

Hun har et barn. Barnet heter Joe. - She has a child. The child is called Joe.

Boka ligger under et brev. Brevet er til Roar. The book is (located) under a letter. The letter is to Roar. 

b)

FLERTALL 

UBESTEMT                       BESTEMT 
___er                                      ___ene

e.g.

Max kjøper blomster. Blomstene er hvite*

Jeg har venner. Vennene heter Lene og Peter.

* Adjective agrees in number and gender with the noun. This will be explained later.

SUMMARIZE

UBESTEMT 

Entall                                      Flertall

en bil                                       (mange) biler

ei flaske                                   (mange) flasker

et hus                                      (mange) hus (not ‘er’ at the end) 

*exception

Et eple                                     mange epler (NOT: mange eple!)

BESTEMT

Entall                                      Flertall

bilen                                        bilene

flaska/en                                 flaskene

huset                                       husene

eplet                                        eplene

Especially at the beginning of your learning you may get confused and find it difficult. Below you will find III methods which can be used interchangeably when learning a noun with corresponding article. The method I is commonly used in all Norwegian books, two others are created by myself (at least I have not come across those methods anywhere before).

 I method

Singular

En bil (indefinite) - We start here

Bilen - move ‘en’ to the end.

Plural

Biler - add “er” at the end
Bilene - add “ene” at the end  

II method

Singular

Bilen (definite) - We start here

En Bil - in indefinite we move ‘en’ to front.

Plural

Biler - replace “n” with “r”
Bilene - add “e” at the end of definite form.     

 *III method (personal preference)

I prefer to mix both methods i.e. use method II when learning singular nouns (useful when learning a new word, at least for me it is much easier to memorize it and recall it afterwards) and method I when learning plural nouns.  

Singular

Bilen (definite) - We start here

En Bil - in indefinite we move ‘en’ to front.

Plural

Biler - add “er” at the end of indefinite noun (i.e. bil + er)
Bilene - add “ene” at the end of indefinite noun (i.e. bil + ene)

Which method do you prefer?