Kilowattimen er dyr.

The kilowatt-hour is expensive.

Breakdown of Kilowattimen er dyr.

• være: to be
• dyr: expensive
• kilowattimen: the kilowatt-hour

Questions & Answers about Kilowattimen er dyr.

What does kilowattimen mean exactly?

Kilowattimen is the definite singular form of kilowattime, so it means the kilowatt-hour.

A kilowattime (kWh) is a unit of energy. In everyday Norwegian, this word is very common when talking about electricity prices.

So:

• en kilowattime = a kilowatt-hour
• kilowattimen = the kilowatt-hour

In this sentence, the subject is kilowattimen.

Why does kilowattimen end in -en?

Because Norwegian often adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

For many common-gender nouns:

• indefinite: en bil = a car
• definite: bilen = the car

The same pattern is used here:

• en kilowattime = a kilowatt-hour
• kilowattimen = the kilowatt-hour

So the -en ending is the definite article.

What gender is kilowattime?

Kilowattime is a common-gender noun in Bokmål, so it normally takes en in the indefinite singular:

• en kilowattime
• kilowattimen

For this sentence, the important thing is that it behaves like a regular en-word.