Jeg har en bok.

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Breakdown of Jeg har en bok.

• ha: to have
• en: a
• bok: the book

Questions & Answers about Jeg har en bok.

Why is the article "en" used for "bok"?

In Norwegian, "bok" is typically classified under the common (masculine/feminine) gender, which uses the article "en". You might also hear "ei bok" in some dialects, but "en bok" is standard Bokmål.

How do I properly pronounce "jeg"?

Many Norwegian speakers pronounce "jeg" like "yai", with a soft /j/ sound at the beginning and an /ai/ vowel sound. Some dialects might shorten it to sound more like "je", but standard Bokmål pronunciation is "yai".

Why is "har" used instead of another form of the verb "to have"?

In Norwegian, "har" is the present tense form of "å ha" (to have) for all subjects (I, you, he/she/it, etc.). Norwegian does not change the verb ending based on the subject, unlike English where we have "has" for third person singular.

Is there a specific word order rule at play here?

Yes. Norwegian generally follows a Subject-Verb-Object word order in simple statements. So you have "Jeg" (subject), "har" (verb), and "en bok" (object).

What about the definite form of "bok"?

The definite form of "bok" is "boka" in Bokmål (though you can also see "boken"). If you wanted to say "I have the book," it would be "Jeg har boka" (or "Jeg har boken").