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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Tørrdrakten er varm. - The dry suit is warm.

Hardcore Norwegian
/Taking a sea-kayaking course with friends
/Tørrdrakten er varm.

Tørrdrakten er varm.

Tørrdrakten er varm.

The dry suit is warm.

Breakdown of Tørrdrakten er varm.

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Questions & Answers about Tørrdrakten er varm.

Why does tørrdrakten end in -en?

The ending -en marks the noun as definite in Norwegian, so tørrdrakten means the drysuit.

The basic noun is en tørrdrakt = a drysuit
The definite form is tørrdrakten = the drysuit

Unlike English, Norwegian often puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

Is tørrdrakt one word because it is a compound noun?

Yes. Norwegian very often joins nouns into one word.

Here:

tørr = dry
drakt = suit

So tørrdrakt is a compound noun meaning drysuit.

This is very normal in Norwegian. English sometimes writes similar ideas as one word, two words, or with a hyphen, but Norwegian usually prefers one compound word.

Why is it er here?

Er is the present tense of å være = to be.

So:

jeg er = I am
du er = you are
han/hun er = he/she is
tørrdrakten er varm = the drysuit is warm

Norwegian does not change the verb for different persons the way English does. The form er stays the same.

Why is it varm and not varmt or varme?

Because the subject tørrdrakten is singular and common gender.

In Norwegian, predicate adjectives (adjectives after verbs like er) still agree with the noun:

En tørrdrakt er varm = A drysuit is warm
Et hus er varmt = A house is warm
Draktene er varme = The suits are warm

So:

common gender singular → varm
neuter singular → varmt
plural → varme

Since drakt is a common-gender noun, varm is correct.

What gender is drakt?

Drakt is a common gender noun in Bokmål, so you say:

en drakt = a suit
drakten = the suit

Because tørrdrakt ends with drakt, it follows the same pattern:

en tørrdrakt
tørrdrakten

Why is there no separate word for the?

Because Norwegian usually expresses definiteness with an ending on the noun.

So instead of:

the drysuit

Norwegian says:

tørrdrakten

That -en already contains the idea of the.

How do you pronounce tørrdrakten?

A rough guide is:

tørr: the ø is a rounded vowel that does not exist exactly in English. It is somewhat like the vowel in French deux or German schön.
rr: in many dialects this is a tapped or rolled r, but pronunciation varies.
drakten: roughly DRAHK-ten, with the first syllable stressed.

A very rough English-friendly approximation might be: TURR-drahk-ten, but this is only approximate, especially for ø.

How do you pronounce varm?

It is pronounced roughly like varm, with an a more like father than cat.

The r is pronounced, though exactly how depends on dialect. In many dialects it is clearer than in most English accents.

Can tørr here mean that the suit is dry?

Not in this sentence by itself. Here tørr is part of the compound noun tørrdrakt = drysuit.

So:

Tørrdrakten er varm = The drysuit is warm

If you want to say the suit is dry, that would be:

Drakten er tørr

That is an important difference:

tørrdrakt = a type of suit
tørr = dry, used as an adjective

Could I also say En tørrdrakt er varm?

Yes. That would mean A drysuit is warm.

Compare:

En tørrdrakt er varm = a drysuit is warm
Tørrdrakten er varm = the drysuit is warm

So the difference is indefinite versus definite.

Is the word order anything special here?

No, this is the basic Norwegian sentence pattern:

Subject + verb + adjective

So:

Tørrdrakten = subject
er = verb
varm = adjective/complement

It matches normal English word order quite closely:

The drysuit is warm.

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