Breakdown of Artikkelen starter med en kort setning som fanger leseren.
en
a
med
with
kort
short
starte
to start
som
that
setningen
the sentence
artikkelen
the article
fange
to capture
leseren
the reader
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Norwegian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Artikkelen starter med en kort setning som fanger leseren.
Why is Artikkelen capitalized while starter is not?
Just like in English, Norwegian capitalizes the first word of a sentence. Here Artikkelen begins the sentence, so it gets a capital A. Every subsequent word in that sentence (unless it’s a proper noun) remains lowercase, hence starter is lowercase.
What does starter med mean, and how is it different from begynner med?
Both starter med and begynner med translate to “starts with” in English.
- starter med comes from the verb å starte (to start).
- begynner med comes from å begynne (to begin).
In most contexts they are interchangeable, though begynne is slightly more common in everyday speech, while starte can feel a bit more formal or borrowed from English.
Why do we say en kort setning and not et kort setning?
Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender. Setning (“sentence”) is a common‐gender noun, so it takes the indefinite article en, not et (which is for neuter‐gender nouns like et hus). Thus it’s en kort setning.
Why doesn’t kort have an ending like korte or korta?
Adjectives in Norwegian agree with the noun’s gender and definiteness. For an indefinite, singular, common‐gender noun you use the bare adjective form:
- en kort setning
If it were definite (e.g. the short sentence), you would say den korte setningen, adding -e and the definite noun ending -en. For neuter gender you’d add -t (e.g. et kort hus → det korte huset).
What is the role of som in som fanger leseren?
Som is the relative pronoun “which/that/who.” It introduces the relative clause som fanger leseren, meaning “that captures the reader.” In Norwegian, som is used for both subjects and objects in relative clauses.
Why is leseren in the definite form (ending in -en)?
Leseren means “the reader.” Here you’re talking about a specific, identifiable reader of the article, so you use the definite form. If you said en leser, it would mean “a reader” in general, which changes the nuance.
Why isn’t there a comma before som fanger leseren?
Norwegian normally omits commas before restrictive (defining) relative clauses introduced by som. You only insert a comma if the clause is non‐restrictive (additional, non‐essential info), which is less common in Norwegian.
Could you use other verbs instead of fanger to say “capture the reader”?
Yes. Some alternatives include:
• engasjerer – “engages” the reader
• tiltrekker – “attracts” the reader
• fascinerer – “fascinates” the reader
Each has a slightly different nuance, but they all convey the idea of grabbing or keeping the reader’s attention.