De er redde for udyret.

to be

Breakdown of De er redde for udyret.

• de: they
• redd: afraid
• for: of

Questions & Answers about De er redde for udyret.

Does De mean they here, or could it mean formal you?

In modern Norwegian, de usually means they.

A capital D here does not tell you much, because the word is at the beginning of the sentence, so it would be capitalized anyway.

A few important points:

• de = they
• De can also be a very formal, old-fashioned way to say you
• In normal modern Norwegian, that formal De is rare

So unless the context clearly shows otherwise, a learner should usually read De er redde for udyret as They are afraid of the monster/beast.

Why is it de and not dem?

Because de is the subject form.

In this sentence, de is the one experiencing the state of being afraid, so it is the subject of er.

Compare:

• De er redde. = They are afraid.
• Jeg ser dem. = I see them.

So this works like English:

• they = subject
• them = object

In standard written Norwegian:

• de = subject
• dem = object

Why is it redde instead of redd?