Dette er den femte gangen.

to be

Breakdown of Dette er den femte gangen.

• dette: this
• den: the
• gangen: the time

Questions & Answers about Dette er den femte gangen.

Why does the sentence start with dette?

Dette means this. It is the neuter/demonstrative form used when you point to or refer to something as a whole, like this situation, this event, or this in general.

In Dette er den femte gangen, dette is the subject: This is the fifth time.

A learner often compares it with det. In many cases, both det and dette can appear in similar-looking sentences, but dette is more clearly demonstrative, with the sense of this.

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Why is it den femte gangen and not det femte gangen?

Because gang is a common-gender noun in Norwegian, not a neuter noun.

• en gang = a time, an occasion
• definite singular: gangen = the time / the occasion

When an adjective or ordinal comes before a definite noun, Norwegian normally uses:

• den for common gender
• det for neuter
• de for plural

So:

• den femte gangen = the fifth time
• not det femte gangen

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What does femte mean, and why not fem?