Dagmulkten er høy.

to be

Breakdown of Dagmulkten er høy.

• høy: high
• dagmulkten: the daily penalty for delay

Questions & Answers about Dagmulkten er høy.

Why is dagmulkt written as one word?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as a single word. Here, dag + mulkt combine to form dagmulkt.

This is very normal in Norwegian. English often uses two words where Norwegian prefers one.

What does the -en in dagmulkten mean?

The -en is the definite ending, so it works like English the.

• en dagmulkt = a daily fine / penalty
• dagmulkten = the daily fine / penalty

So Norwegian often puts definiteness at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.

Why isn’t there a separate word for the in this sentence?

Because Norwegian commonly attaches the to the noun as a suffix.

So instead of saying something like the dagmulkt, Norwegian says dagmulkten.

This is one of the biggest differences from English noun grammar.

Why is it -en and not -et?

Because dagmulkt is not a neuter noun. Nouns of this type take -en in the definite singular.

A simple way to think of it:

• nouns like this: -en
• neuter nouns: often -et

So dagmulkten is the correct definite form.