Kartbiten og puslespillbrikken passer sammen.

The piece of the map and the puzzle piece fit together.

Breakdown of Kartbiten og puslespillbrikken passer sammen.

• og: and
• sammen: together
• passe: to fit
• kartbiten: the piece of the map

Questions & Answers about Kartbiten og puslespillbrikken passer sammen.

Why are kartbiten and puslespillbrikken each written as one word?

Because Norwegian normally writes compound nouns as a single word.

• kartbit = kart
  • bit
• puslespillbrikke = puslespill
  • brikke

English often uses spaces where Norwegian does not. So where English might say map piece or puzzle piece, Norwegian usually makes one compound noun.

What do the endings -en in kartbiten and puslespillbrikken mean?

They mark the nouns as definite singular. In other words, they correspond to English the.

So:

• kartbit = a map piece
• kartbiten = the map piece

And:

• puslespillbrikke = a puzzle piece
• puslespillbrikken = the puzzle piece

In Norwegian, definiteness is often shown by adding an ending to the noun instead of using a separate word.

Why is there no separate word for the in this sentence?

Because Norwegian usually puts definiteness on the noun itself. Instead of a separate article like English the, you often get a suffix such as -en, -a, or -et.

So kartbiten already means the map piece, and puslespillbrikken already means the puzzle piece. No extra word is needed.