Spillkafeen er populær.

The board-game café is popular.

Breakdown of Spillkafeen er populær.

• være: to be
• spillkafeen: the board-game café
• populær: popular

Questions & Answers about Spillkafeen er populær.

Why is spillkafeen written as one word?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as a single word.

Here, spillkafeen is made from:

• spill = game / gaming
• kafe(en) = the café

So Norwegian combines them into one compound: spillkafeen.

A useful rule: in Norwegian compounds, the last part is the main noun, and it decides the gender and endings.

What does the ending -en mean in spillkafeen?

-en is the definite article attached to the end of the noun. It means the.

So:

• en kafe / en kafé = a café
• kafeen / kaféen = the café

That means:

• spillkafe = game café
• spillkafeen = the game café

Why isn’t there a separate word for the?

Because Norwegian often puts the onto the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

So instead of saying something like the café, Norwegian usually says:

• kafeen

This is very common in Norwegian:

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car
• et hus = a house
• huset = the house