Det koster én million.

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Breakdown of Det koster én million.

• én: one
• koste: to cost
• million: million

Questions & Answers about Det koster én million.

Why does the sentence start with det?

Because Norwegian, like English, normally needs a subject in a full sentence. Here det works like English it in It costs one million.

Sometimes det refers to something already understood from context, and sometimes it is just the natural subject needed for the sentence.

What does koster mean here, and what form is it?

Koster is the present tense of å koste, which means to cost.

So:

• å koste = to cost
• koster = costs / is costing
• kostet = cost / costed

In Det koster én million, the tense is present: It costs one million.

Why is it én and not just en?

Én is the numeral one, written with an accent to make it clear that it means the number one, not the indefinite article a/an.

So:

• en million can mean a million or one million
• én million clearly means one million

In everyday writing, many people still write en million, but én is very common when the speaker wants to emphasize the number.