Breakdown of Politiet fant fingeravtrykket.
finne
to find
politiet
the police
fingeravtrykket
the fingerprint
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Questions & Answers about Politiet fant fingeravtrykket.
Why is politiet translated as the police when it looks singular?
In Norwegian, politiet is the usual word for the police as an institution. Grammatically, it is treated as a singular neuter noun, even though in English the police takes a plural verb.
So:
- Politiet fant ... = The police found ...
- literally, it behaves more like the police force in English
That is why you get fant and not a plural verb form.
What form of the verb is fant?
Fant is the past tense (preterite) of finne, which means to find.
The main forms are:
- å finne = to find
- finner = find / finds
- fant = found
- har funnet = have/has found
So:
- Politiet fant fingeravtrykket. = The police found the fingerprint.
Why is it fingeravtrykket and not a separate word for the?
In Norwegian, the definite article is often added to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word before it.
Here:
- fingeravtrykk = fingerprint
- fingeravtrykket = the fingerprint
So the -et at the end means the.
This is very common in Norwegian:
- et hus = a house
- huset = the house