Pristilbudet er etter alt å dømme dyrt.

to be

Breakdown of Pristilbudet er etter alt å dømme dyrt.

• dyr: expensive
• pristilbudet: the price quote
• etter alt å dømme: apparently; by all indications

Questions & Answers about Pristilbudet er etter alt å dømme dyrt.

What does pristilbudet mean grammatically, and why is it written as one word?

Pristilbudet is a compound noun:

• pris = price
• tilbud = offer / quotation / proposal

In Norwegian, compound nouns are usually written as one word, much more often than in English. So where English might say price offer or more naturally price quote, Norwegian commonly makes one compound: pristilbud.

The ending -et shows that it is:

• singular
• definite
• and because tilbud is a neuter noun, the definite ending is -et

So:

• et pristilbud = a price offer / a quote
• pristilbudet = the price offer / the quote

Why is pristilbudet definite instead of indefinite?

Norwegian often uses the definite form when talking about a specific, already known thing.

So pristilbudet suggests that the speaker means:

• a particular quote that has already been mentioned, or
• the quote both speaker and listener know about

Compare:

• Et pristilbud er dyrt. = A price quote is expensive.
  This sounds general or less connected to a specific situation.
• Pristilbudet er dyrt. = The price quote is expensive.
  This refers to one specific quote.

This is very natural in Norwegian and often works much like English the.

Why is it dyrt and not dyr?