Questions & Answers about Barnet viser legen tungen.
What do the endings in barnet, legen, and tungen mean?
They are definite singular forms:
- barn → barnet = the child
- lege → legen = the doctor
- tunge → tungen = the tongue
So Norwegian often puts the meaning of the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.
Why isn’t there a separate word for the?
Because in Norwegian, the definite article is usually attached to the noun as a suffix.
Compare:
- et barn = a child
barnet = the child
- en lege = a doctor
legen = the doctor
- en tunge = a tongue
- tungen = the tongue
So barnet viser legen tungen already contains all the the meanings inside the noun forms.
How do I know that barnet is the subject?