Questions & Answers about Ridderen har en hest.
Why is there no separate word for the in Ridderen?
Because Norwegian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun as a suffix.
- ridder = knight
- ridderen = the knight
So -en here is doing the job that the does in English.
Why is it en hest and not hesten?
Because en hest means a horse, while hesten means the horse.
In this sentence, the knight has a horse in a general sense, not a specific horse already known to the listener. So the indefinite form en hest is the natural choice.
- en hest = a horse
- hesten = the horse
Why is the article attached in ridderen, but separate in en hest?
That is a basic pattern in Norwegian nouns:
- indefinite singular: separate article + noun
en hest = a horse - definite singular: noun + ending
hesten = the horse
So English uses separate words for both a and the, but Norwegian often uses:
- a separate word for a/an
- an ending for the
Why is it en and not ?