Questions & Answers about De snakker om tragedien.
Why is De capitalized here? Does it mean formal you?
Not necessarily. It is capitalized simply because it is the first word of the sentence.
If the meaning shown to you is they, then the pronoun is the ordinary de = they.
A useful extra note:
- sentence-initial De could also look like formal De = polite you
- but formal De is uncommon in modern Norwegian
- so in most beginner contexts, this is just de at the start of a sentence
Why is it de and not dem?
In standard written Bokmål:
- de = subject form, like English they
- dem = object form, like English them
In De snakker om tragedien, de is the subject, so de is the correct form.
Compare:
- De snakker om tragedien. = They are talking about the tragedy.
- Jeg ser dem. = I see them.
In everyday speech, many Norwegians do not keep this distinction so clearly, but in standard writing it is still important.
How do you pronounce De here?