Testamentsarvingen og livsarvingen har arverett.

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Breakdown of Testamentsarvingen og livsarvingen har arverett.

• og: and
• testamentsarvingen: the heir named in a will
• arveretten: the right of inheritance

Questions & Answers about Testamentsarvingen og livsarvingen har arverett.

Why are testamentsarvingen and livsarvingen in the definite singular when the sentence is talking about a general rule?

In Norwegian, especially in formal, legal, and academic language, the definite singular is often used to refer to a whole category or role.

So here, testamentsarvingen and livsarvingen do not necessarily mean two specific people already mentioned. They can mean the testamentary heir and the lineal heir as legal types.

This is similar to how a language might say the employee has the right to... in a law text, even though it really means employees in general.

What does the ending -en mean in these two nouns?

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun.

For example:

• en arving = an heir
• arvingen = the heir

Both testamentsarvingen and livsarvingen end in -en because the base noun is arving.

So:

• testamentsarving = testamentary heir

• testamentsarvingen = the testamentary heir

• livsarving = lineal heir / direct heir
• livsarvingen = the lineal heir

Why is there no separate word for the before the nouns?