Psykiateren snakker med pasienten.

The psychiatrist talks to the patient.

Breakdown of Psykiateren snakker med pasienten.

• pasienten: the patient
• snakke med: to talk to
• psykiateren: the psychiatrist

Questions & Answers about Psykiateren snakker med pasienten.

Why do psykiateren and pasienten end in -en?

The ending -en is the definite article attached to the noun. In Norwegian, instead of usually putting a separate word like the in front, you often add the definite ending to the noun itself.

• en psykiater = a psychiatrist
• psykiateren = the psychiatrist
• en pasient = a patient
• pasienten = the patient

This is very common in Norwegian. For many masculine nouns, the definite singular ending is -en.

Why is there no word for the in front of the nouns?

Because in Norwegian, definiteness is often shown by a suffix on the noun rather than by a separate word.

So:

• English: the psychiatrist

• Norwegian: psykiateren

• English: the patient
• Norwegian: pasienten

A separate determiner like den can appear in some other structures, especially with adjectives, but in this simple sentence it is not needed.

Why is the verb snakker and not snakke?