Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Han ser et hus i mørket.

Norwegian has three indefinite articles: en for masculine/common nouns, ei for feminine nouns, and et for neuter nouns. Hus is a neuter noun, so it takes et (“a house”).

How do I know that hus is neuter?

You usually have to learn the gender along with each noun or check a dictionary, which will mark the gender (n = neuter). A handy hint: many short, monosyllabic nouns are neuter, but there are plenty of exceptions. When you see et before a noun, you know it’s neuter.

How do you make hus definite, and what would the sentence look like with “the house”?

In Norwegian, the definite form of neuter nouns is created by adding -et to the end. So hus → huset.
“He sees the house in the dark” becomes Han ser huset i mørket.

Why is mørket written with -et? Isn’t mørk an adjective?

Mørk is indeed an adjective (“dark”), but mørke functions here as the noun “darkness.” To say “the dark,” you take the noun mørke and add the neuter definite ending -t, giving mørket.

What does i mørket literally mean, and could you say i det mørke instead?