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Questions & Answers about Musikken behager gjestene.
Why is there no separate word for the in this sentence?
Because Norwegian usually shows definiteness by adding an ending to the noun instead of putting a separate article in front of it.
So here:
- musikken = the music
- gjestene = the guests
This is very different from English, where the is a separate word.
Why do the two nouns have different endings: -en in musikken but -ene in gjestene?
They are different because one noun is singular and the other is plural.
- musikken is definite singular = the music
- gjestene is definite plural = the guests
A useful comparison:
- gjest = guest
- gjester = guests
- gjestene = the guests
With musikk, the noun is usually uncountable, but it can still appear in the definite form when you mean specific music:
- musikk = music
- musikken = the music
What does behager mean here? Is it the same as likes?