Kalkposen har tørr kalk.

to have

Breakdown of Kalkposen har tørr kalk.

• tørr: dry
• kalkposen: the chalk bag
• kalken: the climbing chalk

Questions & Answers about Kalkposen har tørr kalk.

Why is kalkposen written as one word?

Because Norwegian usually forms compounds as one word.

• kalk = lime / chalk
• pose = bag

So kalkpose means lime bag / chalk bag, and kalkposen means the lime bag / the chalk bag.

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often prefers a compound:

• bokhylle = bookshelf
• kaffekopp = coffee cup
• kalkpose = lime bag / chalk bag

The main noun is usually the last part, so pose tells you that the whole word is a kind of bag.

Why does kalkpose become kalkposen?

The ending -en marks the noun as definite singular, meaning the ....

So:

• en kalkpose = a lime bag / a chalk bag
• kalkposen = the lime bag / the chalk bag

In Bokmål, definite nouns are often formed by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So kalkposen literally contains the idea of the bag inside the word itself.

Why is there no separate word for the before kalkposen?