Byen er fredelig.

to be

Breakdown of Byen er fredelig.

• byen: the town
• fredelig: peaceful

Questions & Answers about Byen er fredelig.

Why is it byen and not by?

By means city or town in an indefinite sense, while byen means the city/the town.

• by = a city / a town
• byen = the city / the town

Norwegian usually adds the definite article to the end of the noun instead of putting a separate word in front, so -en here works like English the.

What does the ending -en mean?

The ending -en is the definite ending for many singular common-gender nouns in Bokmål.

So:

• en by = a city / a town
• byen = the city / the town

This is one of the first big differences from English: Norwegian often expresses the as a suffix attached to the noun.

Why is the verb er used here?

Er is the present tense of å være (to be).

So:

• jeg er = I am
• du er = you are
• byen er = the city is

In this sentence, er links the subject (byen) to the description (fredelig), just like is in English.

Why doesn’t Norwegian use a word for is peaceful differently? Why is it just er fredelig?