Bilen er svensk.

to be

Breakdown of Bilen er svensk.

• bilen: the car
• svensk: Swedish

Questions & Answers about Bilen er svensk.

Why is it bilen and not den bil for the car?

In Norwegian, the definite article is usually added to the end of the noun as a suffix.

• bil = car
• bilen = the car

So bilen literally works like car-the.

Using den bil is not the normal basic way to say the car in modern Norwegian. You usually use den only in special structures, such as when an adjective comes before the noun:

• bilen = the car
• den svenske bilen = the Swedish car

What does the ending -en in bilen mean?

The ending -en is the definite ending for many masculine nouns in Norwegian Bokmål.

• en bil = a car
• bilen = the car

So here:

• bil = car
• -en = the definite marker, meaning the

This is one of the biggest differences from English: Norwegian often puts the at the end of the noun instead of as a separate word in front.

Why is there no word for a or an in this sentence?

Because the noun is definite, not indefinite.

• En bil er svensk. = A car is Swedish.
• Bilen er svensk. = The car is Swedish.

In your sentence, bilen already means the car, so no separate article like a or an is needed.