Aktoren stiller spørsmålet.

The prosecutor asks the question.

Breakdown of Aktoren stiller spørsmålet.

• stille: to ask
• spørsmålet: the question
• aktoren: the prosecutor

Questions & Answers about Aktoren stiller spørsmålet.

Why does Aktoren end in -en?

Because Norwegian usually marks the by adding an ending to the noun.

• aktor = prosecutor
• aktoren = the prosecutor

So -en here is the definite singular ending, roughly like English the.

Why does spørsmålet end in -et instead of -en?

That is because spørsmål is a neuter noun.

• et spørsmål = a question
• spørsmålet = the question

For many neuter nouns, the definite singular ending is -et. So:

• aktor → aktoren
• spørsmål → spørsmålet

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

In Norwegian, definiteness is often built into the noun itself.

So instead of saying something like:

• the prosecutor
• the question

Norwegian commonly says:

• aktoren
• spørsmålet

That is one of the big differences from English. The noun ending often does the job that the does in English.

What does stiller mean here?