Pakketeipen ligger ved bobleplasten.

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Breakdown of Pakketeipen ligger ved bobleplasten.

• ligge: to lie (be located)
• pakketeipen: the packing tape
• bobleplasten: the bubble wrap

Questions & Answers about Pakketeipen ligger ved bobleplasten.

Why are pakketeipen and bobleplasten written as one word each?

Because Norwegian usually writes compound nouns as a single word.

• pakketeip = pakke
  • teip
• bobleplast = boble
  • plast

This is very common in Norwegian. Where English often uses two words, Norwegian often joins them:

• packing tape → pakketeip
• bubble wrap → bobleplast

A useful rule: the last part is the main noun, and the earlier part describes it. So pakketeip is a kind of teip, and bobleplast is a kind of plast.

Why is there no separate word for the?

In Norwegian, the is usually added to the end of the noun as a suffix.

Here:

• pakketeip → pakketeipen
• bobleplast → bobleplasten

So the -en ending is doing the job of the.

This is one of the biggest differences from English. Instead of a separate article before the noun, Norwegian often uses a definite ending on the noun itself.

In compounds, that ending goes on the very end of the whole word:

• pakketeip → pakketeipen
• not teipen pakke

What are the basic dictionary forms of these nouns?