Breakdown of Dette er et støttetak snarere enn et styretak.
være
to be
et
a
dette
this
styretaket
the steering stroke
Questions & Answers about Dette er et støttetak snarere enn et styretak.
Why does the sentence start with Dette instead of Det?
Dette means this and points to something specific that is close in context: something being shown, discussed, or just mentioned.
So:
- Dette er ... = This is ...
- Det er ... = It is ... or sometimes That is ..., depending on context
In this sentence, Dette er et støttetak ... sounds like the speaker is identifying something specific: This is a support stroke rather than a steering stroke.
Norwegian often uses dette when introducing or identifying a concrete example.
Why is it et støttetak and et styretak?
Because both støttetak and styretak are neuter nouns in Norwegian, so they take the indefinite article et.
Norwegian indefinite articles are:
- en for many masculine/feminine nouns
- ei for feminine nouns in varieties that use it
- et for neuter nouns
Here:
- et støttetak
- et styretak
A useful thing to notice is that compound nouns usually take their grammatical gender from the last part of the compound. Both words end in -tak, and the whole compound is treated as a neuter noun.
How do the compound nouns støttetak and styretak work?