Breakdown of Den tiltalte svarer på spørsmålet.
på
to
svare
to answer
spørsmålet
the question
den tiltalte
the defendant
Questions & Answers about Den tiltalte svarer på spørsmålet.
Why does the sentence start with Den tiltalte? Does it mean the accused?
Yes. Den tiltalte means the accused or the defendant.
Here, tiltalte is being used like a noun, even though it originally comes from the past participle of å tiltale in the legal sense of to charge/prosecute. So literally it is something like the charged one, but in natural English that becomes the accused or the defendant.
Why is it den tiltalte and not just tiltalte?
Because Norwegian usually marks definiteness explicitly.
- en tiltalt = an accused person / a defendant
- den tiltalte = the accused / the defendant
In this sentence, the person is definite, so Norwegian uses den plus the definite adjective/noun form.
Why is it den and not det?
Because den is used with common-gender words, while det is used with neuter words.
The underlying noun here is en tiltalt (common gender), so the definite form is:
- den tiltalte
Compare:
- den store bilen = the big car
- det store huset = the big house
So den matches the gender of the noun implied by tiltalte.