Hengelåsen er tung.

to be

Breakdown of Hengelåsen er tung.

• tung: heavy
• hengelåsen: the padlock

Questions & Answers about Hengelåsen er tung.

Is hengelås one word, and what does it literally come from?

Yes. In Norwegian, compound nouns are usually written as one word.

Hengelås is a compound:

• henge = to hang
• lås = lock

So the literal idea is something like hanging lock, which is the Norwegian word for padlock.

Why does hengelåsen end in -en?

The -en is the definite ending, meaning the.

So:

• en hengelås = a padlock
• hengelåsen = the padlock

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

What gender is hengelås?

Hengelås is a common-gender noun in Bokmål.

That gives you:

• en hengelås = indefinite singular
• hengelåsen = definite singular

If it were a neuter noun, you would expect forms like et ... and often -et in the definite form, but that is not the case here.

Why isn’t there a separate word for the before hengelåsen?