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Han ser et hus i mørket.

Han ser et hus i mørket.
He sees a house in the dark.
FromLesson 13inHardcore Norwegian
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Breakdown of Han ser et hus i mørket.

han
he
se
to see
et
a
huset
the house
i
in
mørket
the dark
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Questions & Answers about Han ser et hus i mørket.

Why is the article et used before hus?
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?
Literally i mørket means “in the dark.” It’s an idiomatic fixed expression: i + definite noun. You wouldn’t say i det mørke by itself, because that would mean “in the (something) dark,” where mørke is describing an unstated noun. If you wanted “in the dark room,” you’d say i det mørke rommet.
What tense is ser, and how do you conjugate the verb å se?

Ser is the present tense of the irregular verb å se (“to see”). Norwegian verbs don’t change for person, so the present is always ser:
jeg ser, du ser, han/vi/dere ser, etc.

How do you pronounce ser, hus, and mørket?

Approximate pronunciations in IPA:

  • ser /seːr/ (like English “sayr” but with a longer e)
  • hus /hʉːs/ (the u is like French tu)
  • mørket /ˈmœr.kə(t)/ (the ø is like German schön; final -t is often lightly pronounced)