Demonstrative Pronouns | Norwegian Grammar

You already met denne / dette / disse and den / det / de as determiners — words sitting in front of a noun (denne bilen "this car"). This page is about the same words used pronominally: standing alone, with no noun behind them, doing the work English does with "this one," "that one," "these," "those" — and, crucially, with that / it pointing at a whole idea. Jeg tar denne "I'll take this one." Hva er dette? "What's this?" Det visste jeg ikke "I didn't know that." The forms are identical to the determiners; what changes is that there's nothing after them.

Standing alone: "this one / that one"

Drop the noun and the demonstrative stands on its own feet. The form still agrees with the gender and number of the thing you mean, even though it's unspoken:

Pointing at...	Pronoun	English
en/ei thing (near)	denne	this one
et thing (near)	dette	this one
plural (near)	disse	these
en/ei thing (far)	den	that one
et thing (far)	det	that one
plural (far)	de	those

Jeg liker denne best — den passer fargen på sofaen.

I like this one best — it matches the colour of the sofa.

Hvilke vil du ha? Disse eller de der?

Which ones do you want? These or those?

Ikke ta den — den er knust.

Don't take that one — it's cracked.

Notice that English needs the crutch word "one" ("this one," "that one"), but Norwegian doesn't: denne by itself is "this one." That missing "one" is a common source of clumsy translation in the other direction, but for you it means less to say — just denne, den, dette.

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No "one" needed. "I'll take this one" is simply Jeg tar denne — the demonstrative already contains the "one." Adding a word for "one" (denne en) is wrong.

The shopping reflex: den der, denne her

Exactly as with the determiners, spoken Norwegian loves to pin down a standalone demonstrative with her or der. When you're pointing at goods, den der ("that one there") and denne her ("this one here") are the natural everyday phrases:

Gi meg den der, takk.

Give me that one (there), please. (informal — pointing at the shelf)

Skal vi ta denne her eller den der borte?

Shall we take this one here or that one over there? (informal)

This is neutral, friendly register in Norwegian, not impatient pointing. Den der is probably the single most useful phrase at a market stall or a bakery counter.

det and dette: pointing at whole ideas

Here is where Norwegian goes beyond English. The neuter forms det and dette can point not just at a neuter object, but at an entire clause, statement, or situation — a fact, a piece of news, a whole proposition. Det is the great Norwegian pro-form for ideas:

Han kommer ikke i kveld. — Det visste jeg ikke.

He's not coming tonight. — I didn't know that. (det = the whole fact)

Dette er viktig: ikke glem passet.

This is important: don't forget your passport. (dette introduces a coming statement)

Hun fikk jobben! — Det er jo fantastisk!

She got the job! — That's fantastic! (det = the whole event)

Where English "that" can refer back to an idea, Norwegian det does it even more freely and far more often. It fronts statements (det er sant "that's true," det stemmer "that's right"), reacts to news (det var leit "that's a shame"), and stands in for things you're about to say (dette må du høre "you've got to hear this"). Whole conversations run on det.

Norwegian	English	What det/dette refers to
Det er sant.	That's true.	a previous statement
Det stemmer.	That's right.	what was just said
Det var leit å høre.	That's a shame to hear.	some bad news
Dette går ikke.	This isn't working.	the whole situation

Vi må snakke sammen. Det kan ikke fortsette sånn.

We need to talk. This can't go on like this. (det = the whole situation)

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det is Norwegian's all-purpose "that / it" for ideas. When you'd react to a whole sentence in English with "That's …", in Norwegian it's almost always Det er … — det er sant, det er rart, det er synd.

den vs det as standalone "it / that"

Choosing between den and det when pointing at a single thing follows the gender of that thing:

A masculine or feminine thing → den: Hvor er bilen? — Den står ute. "Where's the car? — It's outside."
A neuter thing, or an abstract idea/situation → det: Hvor er huset? — Det ligger der borte. "Where's the house? — It's over there."

Liker du genseren? — Ja, den er fin.

Do you like the jumper? — Yes, it's nice. (en genser → den)

Hva synes du om huset? — Det er litt lite.

What do you think of the house? — It's a bit small. (et hus → det)

The fuller story of den vs det as "it" (including the dummy det in det regner "it's raining") has its own page; here the key point is simply that the gender of the referent decides, and that det additionally covers all the abstract, clause-level cases.

"What's this/that?" — hva er dette / det

A high-frequency standalone use is asking what something is:

Hva er dette? Jeg har aldri sett det før.

What's this? I've never seen it before.

Hva er det som lukter så godt?

What is it that smells so good? (det + relative som — a very common frame)

That last frame — det som … "the thing that …" / "what …" — is worth memorising whole; it's how Norwegians say "what" in the sense of "the thing which."

Common Mistakes

Confusing det (that / it, often abstract) with dette (this). Dette is proximal "this"; det is "that / it." Reacting to news, you want det, not dette.

❌ Dette visste jeg ikke. (reacting to news just heard)

Odd — for 'I didn't know that' use 'Det visste jeg ikke.'

✅ Det visste jeg ikke.

I didn't know that.

Adding a word for "one." Denne already means "this one"; don't translate "one" separately.

❌ Jeg tar denne en.

Incorrect — 'denne' already means 'this one': 'Jeg tar denne.'

✅ Jeg tar denne.

I'll take this one.

Missing that det can refer to a whole clause. Don't search for a noun to attach it to.

❌ Han kommer ikke. — Jeg visste ikke det faktum.

Stilted — just say 'Det visste jeg ikke', where det = the whole fact.

✅ Han kommer ikke. — Det visste jeg ikke.

He's not coming. — I didn't know that.

Using det for a masculine/feminine thing. A countable en/ei thing is den, not det.

❌ Hvor er bilen? — Det står ute.

Incorrect — 'bil' is masculine: 'Den står ute.'

✅ Hvor er bilen? — Den står ute.

Where's the car? — It's outside.

Single consonant in dette / disse. The double letters are required even when the word stands alone.

❌ Hva er dete?

Misspelling — it's 'dette' (double t): 'Hva er dette?'

✅ Hva er dette?

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