Hageslangen er lang.

to be

Breakdown of Hageslangen er lang.

• lang: long
• hageslangen: the garden hose

Questions & Answers about Hageslangen er lang.

Why is hageslangen one word?

Because Norwegian very often makes compound nouns by writing them as a single word.

• hage = garden
• slange = hose / snake, depending on context

So:

• hageslange = garden hose

This is extremely common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often uses one compound word.

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What does the -en at the end of hageslangen do?

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun. It corresponds to English the.

So:

• en hageslange = a garden hose
• hageslangen = the garden hose

This is a very important feature of Norwegian: instead of putting the in front, Norwegian often puts definiteness on the end of the noun.

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Why is there no separate word for the before hageslangen?

Because Norwegian usually marks definiteness with a suffix, not a separate article.

So English says:

• the garden hose

But Norwegian says:

• hageslangen

The -en already means the, so you do not need another word before it in this sentence.

A separate word like den is used in other situations, for example:

• den lange hageslangen = the long garden hose

There, den appears because there is an adjective directly before the noun.

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