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Questions & Answers about Veien er lang.
What does veien mean, and why isn’t it just vei?
Veien is the definite singular form of vei.
- vei = “road” (indefinite)
- veien = “the road” (definite)
In Norwegian you usually put the definite article as a suffix: masculine/feminine nouns get -en, neuter nouns get -et.
Why is the adjective lang not inflected (for example, lange or langt)?
When an adjective follows a form of å være (“to be”) as a predicative, it stays in its base form.
- Veien er lang. (“The road is long.”)
You only inflect adjectives before a noun or in certain other grammatical contexts.
Why is there no separate article like den or det before veien?
Norwegian normally uses a postfixed article on the noun itself.
- veien already contains -en, the definite article.
You could add den for emphasis or contrast: den veien (“that road”), but it’s optional.
What is the basic word order in Veien er lang?
It follows the Subject–Verb–Predicative pattern:
Subject (Veien) + Verb (er) + Predicate adjective (lang)
This mirrors English The road is long.
How would you say “this road is long” in Norwegian?
You use the demonstrative denne for feminine nouns:
Denne veien er lang.
- denne = “this” (feminine singular)
- veien = “the road”
- er lang = “is long”
What is the gender of vei, and how does it affect articles and adjectives?
Vei is feminine.
- Indefinite singular article: en vei (or dialectal ei vei)
- Definite singular: veien
Adjective before noun: - en lang vei (“a long road”)
Definite attributive adjective: - den lange veien (“the long road”)