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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Historien er tragisk. - The story is tragic.

Hardcore Norwegian
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/Historien er tragisk.

Historien er tragisk.

Historien er tragisk.

The story is tragic.

Breakdown of Historien er tragisk.

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Questions & Answers about Historien er tragisk.

Why is it historien and not just historie?

Historien is the definite singular form of historie, so it means the story or the history.

en historie = a story
historien = the story

In Norwegian, the definite article is often added to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word like the in English.

Why does historien end in -en?

The ending -en is a very common definite ending for masculine nouns in Bokmål.

Here, the base word is historie and the definite form is historien.

A useful pattern is:

en bil → bilen = the car
en film → filmen = the film
en historie → historien = the story

Even though historie ends in -e, it can still take -n in the definite form.

Is historie masculine or feminine?

It can be treated as feminine or masculine in Bokmål, depending on style and preference.

So you may see:

en historie / historien
ei historie / historia

Both are possible in many contexts.
The sentence Historien er tragisk uses the masculine/common-gender-style form, which is very common in Bokmål.

Why is the word order Historien er tragisk?

This is the normal word order for a simple statement in Norwegian:

subject + verb + complement

So:

Historien = subject
er = verb
tragisk = adjective/complement

This is very similar to English:

The story is tragic

What does er mean?

Er means is / am / are. It is the present tense of å være = to be.

Examples:

Jeg er trøtt = I am tired
Du er snill = You are kind
Historien er tragisk = The story is tragic

Why is it tragisk and not tragiskt or something else?

The basic adjective form here is tragisk.

After er, Norwegian often uses the adjective in its dictionary/basic form when describing a singular noun of common gender:

Filmen er god = The film is good
Historien er tragisk = The story is tragic

You may see different adjective endings in other situations, especially with et-words, plurals, or when the adjective comes before the noun.

For example:

et tragisk liv = a tragic life
tragiske historier = tragic stories

But in this sentence, tragisk is the correct form.

Could historien mean the history as well as the story?

Yes, potentially. Historie can mean both history and story, depending on context.

So Historien er tragisk could mean:

The story is tragic
The history is tragic

In real usage, context usually makes the intended meaning clear.

Why is Historien capitalized?

Because it is the first word in the sentence.

In Norwegian, common nouns are not capitalized just because they are nouns. That is different from German.

So:

Historien er tragisk.
Jeg leser en historie.

Only proper names and the first word of a sentence are normally capitalized.

Can I also say Den historien er tragisk?

Yes. Den historien er tragisk means That story is tragic or That history is tragic, depending on context.

Compare:

Historien er tragisk = The story is tragic
Den historien er tragisk = That story is tragic

Adding den makes it more specific or contrastive.

How would I make this sentence indefinite instead?

You would use en historie instead of historien:

En historie er tragisk = A story is tragic

That is grammatically fine, but in natural English and Norwegian it may sound a little unusual unless there is more context. Often people would say something like:

Dette er en tragisk historie = This is a tragic story

How is historien pronounced?

A rough guide is his-TO-ri-en, with four syllables.

A few helpful points:

the h is pronounced
the r is Norwegian, which may sound different from English depending on dialect
the ending -ien is pronounced as separate vowel sounds, not like English -ian

Pronunciation varies somewhat by dialect, but learners will usually be understood if they say something close to his-TO-ri-en.

How would I turn this into a question?

In Norwegian yes/no questions, the verb usually comes before the subject:

Er historien tragisk? = Is the story tragic?

This verb-first pattern is very common:

Er filmen god? = Is the film good?
Er huset stort? = Is the house big?

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