Breakdown of Presidenten snakker til folket.
til
to
folket
the people
snakke
to speak
presidenten
the president
Questions & Answers about Presidenten snakker til folket.
Why does president become presidenten?
Because Norwegian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like the.
- president = president
- presidenten = the president
For many masculine nouns, the definite singular ending is -en.
So Presidenten means the president.
Why is folket used for the people? It looks singular.
That is a very common thing to notice. Folk is often used as a collective noun in Norwegian, so even though English says the people, Norwegian can use folket, which is grammatically singular/neuter in form.
- folk = people / a people
- folket = the people
So folket does not mean just one person. It means the people as a group.
Why is there no separate word for the in this sentence?
In Norwegian, definiteness is usually built into the noun itself.
Instead of:
- the president
- the people
Norwegian uses:
- presidenten
- folket
This is one of the biggest differences from English. The noun gets a definite ending:
- masculine common pattern: -en
- neuter common pattern: -et
That is why you do not see a separate word like the here.