Eksen bor i byen.

Eksen means the ex — usually the ex-partner, the ex-boyfriend, the ex-girlfriend, the ex-husband, the ex-wife, or just the ex in a general sense.

The base word is eks, which is borrowed from the same idea as English ex. In real life, the exact relationship usually has to be understood from context.

It is fairly common and natural in everyday speech.

Because -en is the definite ending here.

In Norwegian, instead of putting the in front of a noun, you usually add a definite ending to the noun itself.

So:

• en eks = an ex
• eksen = the ex

This is one of the biggest differences from English. Norwegian often builds the into the end of the word.

For the same reason: byen is the definite singular form of by.

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

So both nouns in the sentence are definite:

• eksen = the ex
• byen = the city / the town

By is usually treated as a common gender noun in Bokmål.

That means:

• indefinite singular: en by
• definite singular: byen

In Bokmål, many feminine nouns can also be treated as common gender, but by is normally just used as en by, not ei by.

Bor is the present tense of å bo, which means to live or to reside.

So:

• å bo = to live
• bor = live / lives

Examples:

• Jeg bor her. = I live here.
• Hun bor i Oslo. = She lives in Oslo.

Notice that Norwegian verbs do not change depending on the subject the way English verbs do. So you use bor with jeg, du, han, hun, vi, de, etc.

Because Norwegian usually expresses definiteness by adding it to the noun.

English says:

• the ex
• the city

Norwegian says:

• eksen
• byen

So in simple cases, the definite article is attached to the noun as an ending, instead of appearing as a separate word before it.

I means in here.

It is used for location, so bor i byen means that someone lives in the city/town.

A useful contrast is:

• i byen = in the city / in town
• til byen = to the city / to town

So:

• Hun bor i byen. = She lives in the city.
• Hun drar til byen. = She is going to the city.

It can mean either, depending on context.

The Norwegian word by can refer to a town or a city. English often makes a stronger distinction than Norwegian does.

So i byen might be understood as:

• in the city
• in town

Which one sounds best depends on the situation.

This is the normal word order for a simple statement:

subject + verb + other information

So:

• Eksen = subject
• bor = verb
• i byen = place

That makes the sentence straightforward and neutral.

Also, Norwegian main clauses follow the verb-second rule, but in a normal sentence like this, that just gives you the standard order:

Eksen bor i byen.

A simple approximation is:

EKS-en bor i BY-en

A few notes:

• eksen has stress on the first syllable: EKS-en
• byen is often pronounced roughly like BYY-en or BY-en, depending on accent
• i is pronounced like a long ee

Pronunciation varies somewhat by dialect, but this approximation is good enough for a learner at this stage.

It is understandable and very common, but it is a bit informal/everyday in tone.

If you want to be more specific, Norwegian can also say things like:

• ekskjæresten = the ex-boyfriend / ex-girlfriend
• eksmannen = the ex-husband
• ekskona / ekskonen = the ex-wife

But eksen is very common when the exact type of ex is either obvious or not important.

Normally, no.

In Norwegian, you do not capitalize ordinary nouns the way German does. So the normal sentence is:

Eksen bor i byen.

You only capitalize:

• the first word of the sentence
• proper names, like Oslo, Norge, Anna

So byen stays lowercase unless it begins the sentence.