Double Definiteness — Norwegian Grammar

On its own, a noun shows "the" with an ending: , "the house". As soon as an adjective comes in front of it, Norwegian adds a separate word for "the" as well. "The" is then marked twice, once before the adjective and once on the noun. This is called double definiteness.

Huset er nytt.
The house is new.
Det nye huset er stort.
The new house is big.

The Pattern

The front article is , or , chosen by the gender and number of the noun. The adjective ends in -e, and the noun keeps its definite ending.

masculine and feminine: (the old car)
neuter: (the new house)
plural: (the ugly pictures)

Den gamle datamaskinen min er veldig treg.
My old computer is very slow.
Det vakre bildet henger på veggen.
The beautiful picture is hanging on the wall.
De stygge bildene er i en eske.
The ugly pictures are in a box.

The Adjective Always Ends in -e

In this construction the adjective has the same -e form for every gender and in both singular and plural.

Den unge mannen der borte er mannen min.
The young man over there is my husband.

(small) has a special form here: .

Den lille gutten sover.
The little boy is sleeping.

Superlatives

"The best", "the cheapest" and other superlatives follow the same pattern.

Dette er den beste restauranten i byen.
This is the best restaurant in town.
Det er det billigste hotellet.
It is the cheapest hotel.

this and that

After , and (this, these) the noun also keeps its definite ending, but no extra article is added. The words , and mean "that" and "those" when stressed.

Denne boken er gammel.
This book is old.
De båtene er veldig dyre.
Those boats are very expensive.

When There Is No Front Article

A possessive in front of the noun takes the place of the article, and the noun then has no ending. Some words that point in time, such as (next) and (last), and ordinal numbers like (first) are often used without the front article.

Han er min beste venn.
He is my best friend.
Forrige uke var jeg i New York.
Last week I was in New York.
Er dette første dagen din på jobben?
Is this your first day at work?

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Norwegian course

20 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 23. A few of them, with the words “Double Definiteness” is about in bold:

Du er den første som legger merke til det!
You are the first person to notice!
Lesson 337

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