Nouns are usually biologically determined, as a cat is a living thing it’s a masculine noun. A child is neutral because it’s basically a type of person, and person is a masculine noun.
En katt
En hund
En person
Et fjell
Et hus
Et sted
Ei/en jente
Ei/en dukke
Ei/en veske
Well, in Norwegian we divide nouns into three genders (masculin, feminin and neutral). We use different articles for different gendered nouns.
While in English you would use a or an depending on the first sound of the noun, in Norwegian you have to just learn the article with the noun. This is just natural for a native speaker.
Masculin = en, Neutral = et and Feminin = ei
A cat is masculin and therefore it is en katt and not et katt
Ei katte has entered the chat.
[deleted]
I recently bought *Norwegian: An Essential Grammar* by Åse-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen, a grammar book in Routledge’s Essential Grammar series. I highly recommend it as a supplement to Duolingo (or any other method). It’s a great, short but thorough summary of the Norwegian grammar with many, *many* examples. It also covers gender classes and lists some guidelines that can help you recognize the gender of a noun. But in general, it’s a great resource!
Most of all, don’t try to understand *why* a noun has a specific gender, just accept that this is how it is – and then memorise them.
Every Norwegian will understand by context if you use the wrong gender
A cat is an animal, not a thing, therefore you can not say “et katt” but “en katt”. “Katt” is male gender but as mentioned there are dialects where one would say “ei katte” with female gender and usually then referring to a female cat.
En katt, ei katte, et kattedyr.
Someone in my class says “Et linjal” and everyone tells her she is wrong but she just doesn’t care.
Well I don’t understand why you don’t understand so uhhhhh, good luck learning tho 😛
you have to learn about; “hankjønn”, “hunkjønn” and “intetkjønn”. Fair warning – norwegian grammar is not the easiest to learn
We don’t know why. Some rando decided this is how it’s going to be.. so we just roll with it.
I’m Norwegian and has lately discovered that this makes no sense at all!
That is just how it’s! Accept and move on
Velkommen til sådan er det bare.
I’m Norwegian learning German, and they have the same system with “the”. Der, das and die are gendered, and follow no rules at all. It just is that way. Same with Norwegian en, ei and et. Takes lots of practice
I love when a Norwegian says use it in a sentence and you’ll know what gender it is so I get it wrong and they can’t work out why. There’s no understanding you just have to learn. På and i are another one where it sometimes doesn’t make sense.
gutten, barnet, katten
That migth be the hardezt part of norwegian. Personally, i wouldnt care to much about it yet
Would recommend checking out the Norwegian show Lilyhammer
isnt it ei katt? Stupid easterners making up silly nonsense
23 comments
Because the noun *katt* is of male grammatical gender, same as *gutt*.
Except in the parts of Norway where *katt* is grammatically female; *ei katt, katta*.
In some cases the gender of nouns are obvious, but in most cases you just have to learn what gender each noun is.
I recommend checking out r/norsk too.
/ Edit: do NOT trust google translate by the way – they often gets things wrong.
There are three genders in the Norwegian language: masculine (hankjønn), feminine (hunkjønn) and neuter (intetkjønn).
Katt is masculine so it’s en katt
This page explains in more detail. https://www.learnnorwegiannaturally.com/norwegian-grammar/how-to-inflect-norwegian-nouns/
Nouns are usually biologically determined, as a cat is a living thing it’s a masculine noun. A child is neutral because it’s basically a type of person, and person is a masculine noun.
En katt
En hund
En person
Et fjell
Et hus
Et sted
Ei/en jente
Ei/en dukke
Ei/en veske
Well, in Norwegian we divide nouns into three genders (masculin, feminin and neutral). We use different articles for different gendered nouns.
While in English you would use a or an depending on the first sound of the noun, in Norwegian you have to just learn the article with the noun. This is just natural for a native speaker.
Masculin = en, Neutral = et and Feminin = ei
A cat is masculin and therefore it is en katt and not et katt
Ei katte has entered the chat.
[deleted]
I recently bought *Norwegian: An Essential Grammar* by Åse-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen, a grammar book in Routledge’s Essential Grammar series. I highly recommend it as a supplement to Duolingo (or any other method). It’s a great, short but thorough summary of the Norwegian grammar with many, *many* examples. It also covers gender classes and lists some guidelines that can help you recognize the gender of a noun. But in general, it’s a great resource!
Most of all, don’t try to understand *why* a noun has a specific gender, just accept that this is how it is – and then memorise them.
Every Norwegian will understand by context if you use the wrong gender
A cat is an animal, not a thing, therefore you can not say “et katt” but “en katt”. “Katt” is male gender but as mentioned there are dialects where one would say “ei katte” with female gender and usually then referring to a female cat.
En katt, ei katte, et kattedyr.
Someone in my class says “Et linjal” and everyone tells her she is wrong but she just doesn’t care.
Well I don’t understand why you don’t understand so uhhhhh, good luck learning tho 😛
you have to learn about; “hankjønn”, “hunkjønn” and “intetkjønn”. Fair warning – norwegian grammar is not the easiest to learn
We don’t know why. Some rando decided this is how it’s going to be.. so we just roll with it.
I’m Norwegian and has lately discovered that this makes no sense at all!
That is just how it’s! Accept and move on
Velkommen til sådan er det bare.
I’m Norwegian learning German, and they have the same system with “the”. Der, das and die are gendered, and follow no rules at all. It just is that way. Same with Norwegian en, ei and et. Takes lots of practice
I love when a Norwegian says use it in a sentence and you’ll know what gender it is so I get it wrong and they can’t work out why. There’s no understanding you just have to learn. På and i are another one where it sometimes doesn’t make sense.
gutten, barnet, katten
That migth be the hardezt part of norwegian. Personally, i wouldnt care to much about it yet
Would recommend checking out the Norwegian show Lilyhammer
isnt it ei katt? Stupid easterners making up silly nonsense