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En gate er bred.

En gate er bred.
A street is wide.
FromLesson 10inHardcore Norwegian
…

Breakdown of En gate er bred.

være
to be
en
a
gaten
the street
bred
wide
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Questions & Answers about En gate er bred.

Why is the indefinite article en used with gate, and can I use ei instead?
Gate is a feminine noun, but in Bokmål you have the option to treat feminine nouns as common‐gender. That means you can say ei gate (feminine) or en gate (common) interchangeably. Both are correct, though many speakers default to en gate in everyday speech and writing.
Why is the adjective bred not inflected with an ending here?

Because bred is used predicatively (after the verb er). Predicative adjectives in Norwegian agree only in gender and number:

  • Common‐gender singular → no ending (bred)
  • Neuter‐gender singular → -t ending (e.g. stort)
  • All plurals → -e ending (e.g. store)
    Since en gate is common‐gender singular, the bare form bred is correct.
How would I say “a wide street” when the adjective comes before the noun?

In attributive position (adjective + noun), you still inflect for gender and number. For a common‐gender noun you get:

  • en bred gate (or ei bred gate)
    If it were a neuter noun, you’d add -t, for example et bredt hus (“a wide house”).
How do I say “the street is wide” (definite form)?

Change en gate to its definite singular gaten, and keep the adjective in its predicative, bare form for common‐gender:

  • Gaten er bred
    (Note: predicative adjectives don’t take an extra -e just because the noun is definite.)
How do I form the comparative and superlative of bred?

Add -ere for the comparative and -est for the superlative:

  • bredere (“wider”)
  • bredest (“widest”)
    Example: En gate er bredere enn en sti (“A street is wider than a path.”)
How do I negate the sentence En gate er bred?

Insert ikke after the verb er:

  • En gate er ikke bred (“A street is not wide.”)
How do I turn this into a yes-no question?

Apply the V2 rule: invert the finite verb and the subject:

  • Er en gate bred? (“Is a street wide?”)