Fellesgaven ligger på bordet.

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Breakdown of Fellesgaven ligger på bordet.

• bordet: the table
• ligge: to lie (be located)
• fellesgaven: the group gift

Questions & Answers about Fellesgaven ligger på bordet.

What does fellesgaven mean exactly?

Fellesgaven is the definite singular form of fellesgave, which means the shared gift, the joint gift, or the group gift, depending on context.

It is made up of:

• felles = shared, common, joint
• gave = gift, present

So:

• en fellesgave = a shared/joint gift
• fellesgaven = the shared/joint gift

Why is fellesgaven written as one word?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as one word.

So instead of writing something like shared gift as two separate words, Norwegian normally combines the parts:

• felles
  • gave → fellesgave

Then the definite ending is added to the whole compound:

• fellesgave → fellesgaven

This is very common in Norwegian. English often uses two words where Norwegian uses one.

Why isn’t there a separate word for the?