Byggetillatelsen er klar.

to be

Breakdown of Byggetillatelsen er klar.

• klar: ready
• byggetillatelsen: the building permit

Questions & Answers about Byggetillatelsen er klar.

Why is byggetillatelsen one long word?

Because Norwegian very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

Here, byggetillatelsen is built from:

• bygge = build / building
• tillatelse = permission, permit
• -n / -en = the definite ending

So:

• byggetillatelse = building permit
• byggetillatelsen = the building permit

This is much more natural in Norwegian than writing it as separate words.

Why does byggetillatelsen end in -en?

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

So instead of saying the building permit with a separate word like English does, Norwegian says:

• en byggetillatelse = a building permit
• byggetillatelsen = the building permit

The ending -en shows that the noun is definite singular.

Why is it en byggetillatelse and not et byggetillatelse?

Because tillatelse is a common gender noun in Norwegian.

Its basic pattern is:

• en tillatelse = a permit
• tillatelsen = the permit

Since byggetillatelse ends with tillatelse and follows the gender of the main noun, it also takes en:

• en byggetillatelse
• byggetillatelsen