De trodde gudene levde.

they

Breakdown of De trodde gudene levde.

• tro: to believe
• leve: to live
• gudene: the gods

Questions & Answers about De trodde gudene levde.

Does De mean they here, or the formal you?

Here it means they.

The capital D is only there because it is the first word of the sentence. In Norwegian, de can mean they. There is also an old-fashioned/formal De meaning you, but that is rare in modern Norwegian.

So in this sentence, De trodde ... = They believed/thought ...

Why is it de and not dem?

Because de is the subject form, while dem is the object form in standard written Bokmål.

• De trodde gudene levde. = They believed the gods were alive.
• Gudene så dem. = The gods saw them.

So here, de is the one doing the believing, which makes it the subject.

Why is it gudene and not guder?

Because gudene is the definite plural form: the gods.

• en gud = a god
• guder = gods
• gudene = the gods

So the ending -ene already includes the idea of the.

Where is the word for the in gudene?