Most adjective-agreement rules are learned early: an adjective before a noun copies its gender and number (et stort hus, store hus). What trips up advanced learners is agreement across the copula — the predicative adjective after er, ble, virker — and the cases where the subject is collective, coordinate, quantified, or hidden inside a det-presentative. English gives you no help here, because English predicate adjectives never inflect: "the house is big", "the houses are big" — big never changes. Norwegian, by contrast, makes the predicate adjective agree just as fully as the attributive one, and forgetting this is the most persistent advanced agreement error English speakers make.
This page is about the hard agreement cases — the ones where the right form is not obvious because the subject is complex or because a nearer noun "attracts" the verb or adjective away from the true controller. Basic adjective agreement is on adjectives/agreement; here we handle the pitfalls.
Predicate adjectives agree — the core rule English hides
After a linking verb (være "be", bli "become", virke/se ut "seem"), the adjective is predicative and still agrees with the subject. Singular common-gender takes the bare form, neuter adds -t, and plural (any gender) adds -e:
Huset er stort.
The house is big. (neuter singular → -t)
Husene er gamle.
The houses are old. (plural → -e)
Barna er snille.
The children are kind/well-behaved. (plural → snille, not snill)
De er trøtte.
They are tired. (plural → trøtte, not trøtt)
The fourth example is the killer. English "they are tired" shows no marking, so the English speaker's ear hears nothing demanding a plural, and writes de er trøtt. It must be trøtte. The same goes for de er enige "they agree", vi er klare "we're ready", jentene er flinke "the girls are clever". Whenever the subject is plural, the predicate adjective takes -e, full stop.
Vi er klare til å dra.
We're ready to go. (plural subject vi → klare)
Jentene er flinke i matte.
The girls are good at maths. (plural → flinke)
Coordinate subjects: two singulars make a plural
When two (or more) noun phrases are joined by og ("and"), the combined subject is plural, and both the verb and any predicate adjective go plural — even though each conjunct is singular. This mirrors English ("Kari and Ola are tired"), but the adjective inflection is the new part:
Kari og Ola er trøtte.
Kari and Ola are tired. (two singulars coordinated → plural trøtte)
Ola og jeg er enige om dette.
Ola and I agree about this. (coordinate subject → plural enige)
Boka og pennen er borte.
The book and the pen are gone. (→ plural borte)
A subtlety: if the two conjuncts name the same referent or form a tight unit, a singular can appear (Min venn og kollega er her "my friend and colleague is here" — one person). But two distinct referents always trigger plural agreement.
Collective subjects: grammatical vs notional number
Collective nouns — familien "the family", gruppen "the group", laget "the team", flertallet "the majority", et par "a couple", folk "people" — create a genuine choice point, because they are grammatically singular but notionally plural. Norwegian, unlike British English, strongly prefers grammatical agreement: the verb and a property adjective stay singular to match the singular noun.
Familien er stor.
The family is big. (grammatically singular noun, singular adjective stor — the family as one unit.)
Gruppen var stor og godt organisert.
The group was big and well organised. (singular agreement throughout.)
Flertallet er imot forslaget.
The majority is against the proposal. (singular verb er.)
But there is a meaningful crack. When the predicate adjective describes a property the members hold individually and reciprocally — most clearly enige "in agreement / agreed" — notional plurality often wins, because "the family agrees" really means "the family members agree with each other", which is inherently plural:
Familien er enige om å selge hytta.
The family agree(s) to sell the cabin. (enige plural — the members agree with one another; *enig* singular would be odd here.)
So Familien er stor (singular — one big thing) but Familien er enige (plural — the members mutually agree). This contrast — singular for a property of the whole, plural for a property distributed among the members — is exactly the kind of distinction English's invariant adjectives never force you to think about.
The det-presentative: the adjective freezes neuter
The expletive det-presentative — Det er … "there is/are …" — is a special trap, because the grammatical subject is the dummy det (neuter singular) while the real (notional) subject sits later in the clause. The rule splits depending on what is being agreed:
- The verb typically stays singular er/var in the modern standard even before a plural notional subject: Det er mange som … "there are many who …".
- A predicate adjective that describes the dummy det clause itself (the "it is X" of a state of affairs) is neuter singular — frozen with -t: Det er viktig "it is important", Det var vanskelig "it was hard".
Det er viktig å øve hver dag.
It is important to practise every day. (predicate adjective on dummy det → neuter; viktig shows no -t because adjectives ending in -ig never take the neuter -t — cf. et viktig møte, not 'viktigt'.)
Det er mange som vil komme.
There are many who want to come. (verb stays singular er; mange is the notional subject.)
Det var to biler parkert utenfor.
There were two cars parked outside. (er/var stays singular even with a plural notional subject 'to biler'.)
The key insight: in Det er viktig, the adjective agrees with det (neuter), not with whatever the sentence is "really" about — so it is always neuter -t. This is why Det er viktig at barna er snille has viktig (neuter, agreeing with det) but snille (plural, agreeing with barna) in the same sentence. Two different subjects, two different agreements. For the full behaviour of the presentative, see verbs/det-presentative.
The en av de som problem — attraction in relative clauses
Now the most notorious attraction trap: en av de(m) som … "one of those who …". The question is whether the verb inside the som-clause should be singular (agreeing with en "one") or plural (agreeing with de "those"). English has the identical headache ("one of those who was/were").
The prescriptive logic: the antecedent of som is de ("those") — the som-clause modifies the plural group, not the singular en. So the verb in the relative clause should be plural in form/sense:
Hun er en av dem som alltid kommer for sent.
She is one of those who are always late. (som refers to 'dem' = the group of latecomers; the clause describes them, plural sense.)
Det er et av de problemene som ikke lar seg løse.
It is one of those problems that can't be solved. (som modifies 'de problemene', plural.)
The attraction error is to let the nearby singular en/et pull the verb singular: en av dem som *kommer for sent — treating the clause as if it modified *en. Because Norwegian verbs do not inflect for number (kommer is both singular and plural), the verb form itself is safe — but the trap reappears with predicate adjectives in such clauses, which do inflect:
Hun er en av dem som er mest engasjerte.
She is one of those who are most committed. (engasjerte plural — agreeing with 'dem', the group, not with the singular 'en').
Writing en av dem som er mest engasjert (singular) is the attraction error: the adjective has been wrongly pulled toward the nearer en instead of agreeing with dem.
Measure phrases and quantified subjects
Quantity expressions raise the question of which noun controls agreement. With en av, et par, en gruppe, en mengde, en flokk + a plural, the head quantifier is grammatically singular, but notional plurality often surfaces in the predicate. General guidance:
Et par sko er ikke nok.
A pair of shoes isn't enough. (et par as a unit → singular er.)
En gruppe turister sto og ventet.
A group of tourists stood waiting. (head 'gruppe' singular → singular verb.)
Halvparten av elevene var ferdige.
Half of the pupils were finished. (the predicate adjective 'ferdige' goes plural with the notional plural 'elevene', even though 'halvparten' is singular — notional concord wins for the property of the pupils.)
The pattern: the verb tends to follow the grammatical head (singular gruppe, halvpart), while a predicate adjective describing the individuals (ferdige "finished") tends to follow the notional plural. This split between verbal and adjectival concord is exactly where careful writers and style guides disagree, so it is a legitimate gray zone — but ferdige/plural with halvparten av elevene is the more natural choice.
man and en — generic pronouns stay singular
The generic pronouns man and en ("one") are grammatically singular, and everything agreeing with them stays singular — including predicate adjectives, even though the meaning is general:
Man blir trøtt av slikt.
One gets tired of that sort of thing. (man → singular trøtt, not trøtte.)
En er ikke alltid like motivert.
One isn't always equally motivated. (en → singular motivert.)
The trap is to think "people in general → plural" and write man blir trøtte. No — man is singular, so the adjective is singular trøtt.
Common Mistakes
❌ Barna er snill.
Incorrect — the subject 'barna' is plural, so the predicate adjective must take -e: snille. English 'the children are kind' hides this.
✅ Barna er snille.
The children are kind. (plural subject → snille.)
❌ De er trøtt etter turen.
Incorrect — plural 'de' demands a plural predicate adjective; the commonest advanced error, because English 'they are tired' never inflects.
✅ De er trøtte etter turen.
They are tired after the trip. (plural → trøtte.)
❌ Kari og Ola er enig.
Incorrect — two coordinated singular subjects make a plural; the predicate adjective goes plural: enige.
✅ Kari og Ola er enige.
Kari and Ola agree. (coordinate subject → plural enige.)
❌ Hun er en av dem som er mest engasjert.
Attraction error — the adjective is pulled toward the singular 'en'. It should agree with the plural antecedent 'dem'.
✅ Hun er en av dem som er mest engasjerte.
She is one of those who are most committed. (engasjerte agrees with 'dem'.)
❌ Man blir trøtte av slikt.
Incorrect — 'man' is grammatically singular; the adjective stays singular regardless of the general meaning.
✅ Man blir trøtt av slikt.
One gets tired of that. (man → singular trøtt.)
Key takeaways
- A predicative adjective agrees with its subject in number and gender — de er trøtte, husene er gamle — the rule English's invariant adjectives hide, and the most persistent advanced error.
- Coordinate subjects (Kari og Ola) are plural → plural verb and adjective.
- Collective subjects take grammatical singular for a property of the whole (familien er stor) but notional plural for a reciprocal/distributed property (familien er enige).
- In the det-presentative, a predicate adjective on the dummy det freezes neuter (det er viktig), while a later true subject controls its own agreement (det er viktig at barna er snille).
- Beware attraction in en av de(m) som …: the som-clause modifies the plural group, so plural-marked adjectives (engasjerte) are correct.
- man and en are singular — man blir trøtt, never trøtte.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Adjective Agreement: -, -t, -eA1 — A Norwegian adjective changes shape to match its noun — bare with masculine/feminine singular (en stor bil), -t with neuter singular (et stort hus), -e with every plural (store biler) — and it agrees after 'to be' too, which English never does.
- Complex Grammar: OverviewB2 — A map of Norwegian's advanced syntax — conditionals, reported speech, the subjunctive remnants, the advanced passive, infinitive and result clauses — and the central reframing that 'complex' Norwegian is complex SYNTAX, not complex morphology.
- The Presentative det: det er / det finnesA2 — Norwegian's 'there is/are' is det — a dummy that introduces a NEW, indefinite thing which then follows the verb (det er en katt i hagen). It never agrees with number: always det, even before plurals (det er mange biler).
- Adjective Position and OrderB1 — Where adjectives go: attributive before the noun (en stor rød bil), predicative after være/bli (bilen er stor), the multi-adjective order (opinion–size–age–colour–origin), and the twist that each attributive adjective agrees independently (et lite rødt hus).
- Advanced Passive: Agents, Impersonal, få-passiveB2 — Beyond the basic passive — the av-agent phrase, the impersonal subjectless passive that even works on intransitive verbs (det danses), recipient promotion in ditransitives (hun ble tilbudt jobben), the få-passive (han fikk utbetalt lønna), and modal + passive.