Starttaket og fottaket er lave.

to be

Breakdown of Starttaket og fottaket er lave.

• og: and
• lav: low
• fottaket: the foothold

Questions & Answers about Starttaket og fottaket er lave.

Why are starttaket and fottaket written as one word each?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as a single word.

So:

• starttaket = start
  • taket
• fottaket = fot
  • taket

English often uses separate words, but Norwegian prefers compounds much more often.

What does the ending -et mean on starttaket and fottaket?

Here, -et is the definite ending for a singular neuter noun.

That means:

• et starttak = a starting hold
• starttaket = the starting hold
• et fottak = a foothold
• fottaket = the foothold

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

How do I know these nouns are neuter?

You can tell from the forms et starttak and et fottak. In Norwegian, nouns can be common gender or neuter, and these take the neuter article et.

Their definite singular forms therefore end in -et:

• et starttak → starttaket
• et fottak → fottaket

If they were common gender nouns, you would usually see en and the definite ending -en instead.