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Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Hun er en lærer. - She is a teacher.

Hardcore Norwegian
/Lesson 9
/Hun er en lærer.

Hun er en lærer.

Hun er en lærer.

She is a teacher.

Breakdown of Hun er en lærer.

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Questions & Answers about Hun er en lærer.

What does Hun er en lærer mean in English?

It translates directly to She is a teacher.

Hun = she
er = is (present tense of å være, “to be”)
en = a (indefinite article for common-gender nouns)
lærer = teacher

Why is the verb er used here, and does it change with person?

Er is the present-tense form of å være (“to be”). In Norwegian Bokmål, er is the same for all persons:

jeg er (I am)
du er (you are)
han/hun er (he/she is)
vi er (we are)
dere er (you pl. are)
de er (they are)

What is the role of en here? Could it ever be ei or et?

En is the indefinite article used with common-gender nouns (previously called masculine/feminine).

Common gender: en lærer, en bok (a book)
Neuter gender uses et: et hus (a house)
In modern Bokmål, most nouns of people or professions are common gender, so you use en. Ei is an alternative feminine article but is rarely used separately in Bokmål (more so in Nynorsk or regional dialects).

Why is lærer treated as common gender, and are there any female-specific forms?

Lærer is a common-gender noun covering both male and female teachers.

Historically there was lærerinne (female teacher), but it’s now considered old-fashioned or marked.
Today you simply say lærer for any gender.

I’ve heard Norwegians sometimes say Hun er lærer without en—is that correct?

Yes. When stating someone’s profession, it is more idiomatic in Norwegian to drop the indefinite article:

Hun er lærer = She is a teacher (profession).
Including en (as in Hun er en lærer) can imply “one teacher among several” rather than her occupation.

How would you make Hun er en lærer definite, i.e. “She is the teacher”?

You replace en with the definite article suffix on lærer and use den before it:

Hun er den læreren = She is the teacher (the one we’re talking about).

Is the word order in Hun er en lærer the same as in English?

Yes, both languages use Subject-Verb-Predicate Noun in this case:

Subject: Hun
Verb: er
Predicate (indefinite noun): en lærer

How would you say “She is a teacher” in Nynorsk?

In Nynorsk you use ho for “she” and lærar (nynorsk spelling), so:

Ho er lærar (you usually omit the indefinite article for professions, just as in Bokmål).

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