Pianostrengen ligger over klangbunnen.

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Breakdown of Pianostrengen ligger over klangbunnen.

• ligge: to lie (be located)
• pianostrengen: the piano string
• klangbunnen: the soundboard

Questions & Answers about Pianostrengen ligger over klangbunnen.

Why is pianostrengen one long word?

Because Norwegian very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

• piano = piano
• streng = string
• pianostreng = piano string
• pianostrengen = the piano string

This is very normal in Norwegian. English sometimes writes similar ideas as separate words, but Norwegian usually joins them into one word.

What does the ending -en in pianostrengen mean?

The ending -en is the definite singular ending for many masculine nouns in Bokmål.

So:

• en streng = a string
• strengen = the string

And in the compound:

• en pianostreng = a piano string
• pianostrengen = the piano string

Norwegian often puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English does.

Why is it klangbunnen and not something like a separate word for the before it?

For the same reason: Norwegian usually marks definiteness with an ending.

• en klangbunn = a soundboard / resonance board
• klangbunnen = the soundboard

So the sentence uses two definite nouns:

• pianostrengen = the piano string
• klangbunnen = the soundboard

That is completely normal in Norwegian.