Arret er gammelt.

to be

Breakdown of Arret er gammelt.

• gammel: old
• arret: the scar

Questions & Answers about Arret er gammelt.

Why is it arret and not just arr?

Because arret is the definite singular form of the noun.

• et arr = a scar
• arret = the scar

In Norwegian, the definite article is often added to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word like English the.

So:

• arr is the basic noun stem
• -et is the definite ending for many neuter nouns

That means Arret er gammelt literally looks like scar-the is old.

Why is there no separate word for the?

Because Norwegian usually expresses definiteness with a suffix on the noun.

Compare:

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car
• et hus = a house
• huset = the house
• et arr = a scar
• arret = the scar

So in this sentence, the is already built into arret.

Why is it gammelt and not gammel?