Questions & Answers about Han har en bok.
Why does the sentence use Han instead of Hun or another pronoun?
In Norwegian, Han means he, whereas Hun means she. Because the sentence is talking about a male person who has a book, the correct pronoun is Han.
What does har mean in this sentence?
Har is the present tense of the verb å ha, which means to have. So Han har translates to He has.
Why is the indefinite article en used here?
Norwegian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The indefinite article en is used for masculine nouns (and sometimes for common gender nouns). Bok (book) is typically classified as a feminine noun, but it can also be treated as masculine in everyday usage, so en bok is perfectly acceptable.
Could the sentence also be Han har ei bok?
Yes, you might see Han har ei bok in some dialects or more traditional Bokmål usage, since ei is the feminine indefinite article. However, en bok is very common and widely used.
What does bok mean, and can it appear in another form?