Hjelpemiddelsentralen hjelper.

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Breakdown of Hjelpemiddelsentralen hjelper.

• hjelpemiddelsentralen: the assistive-technology centre

Questions & Answers about Hjelpemiddelsentralen hjelper.

Why is Hjelpemiddelsentralen written as one long word?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word.

This word can be broken down like this:

• hjelpemiddel = aid, assistive device
• -s- = a linking sound/letter that often appears in compounds
• sentral = center
• -en = the definite ending, meaning the

So Norwegian builds the whole idea into one compound word instead of separating it into several words the way English often does.

Why is there no separate word for the?

In Norwegian, the is very often added to the end of the noun instead of written as a separate word.

Here:

• en hjelpemiddelsentral = an assistive-technology center
• hjelpemiddelsentralen = the assistive-technology center

The ending -en is the singular definite ending for a noun in the en class.

So Hjelpemiddelsentralen already includes the idea of the.

What gender is hjelpemiddelsentral, and how can I tell?

It is an en-word in Bokmål, often called common gender.

You can tell from forms like:

• en hjelpemiddelsentral = an assistive-technology center
• hjelpemiddelsentralen = the assistive-technology center

In Norwegian compounds, the last part usually decides the gender and grammar of the whole word. Here the last main part is sentral, so the full compound behaves like that noun.