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Bilen er svart.

Bilen er svart.
The car is black.
FromLesson 17inHardcore Norwegian
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Breakdown of Bilen er svart.

være
to be
bilen
the car
svart
black
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Questions & Answers about Bilen er svart.

What does bilen mean, and why is -en added at the end?
bilen is the definite form of bil (“car”). In Bokmål Norwegian you normally show “the” by tacking a suffix onto the noun. For common-gender nouns like bil, you add -en, so bilen literally means the car.
What is the indefinite form of bilen, and how do you say “a car”?
The basic (indefinite) form of the noun is bil. To say a car, you use the indefinite article en (common gender) before it: en bil means a car.
Why doesn’t svart change form after er, but it might change in other positions?
Here svart is used predicatively (after the verb er). Predicative adjectives in Norwegian stay uninflected, so you always say er svart. If the adjective is attributive (directly before a noun), it does inflect to agree in gender, number, and definiteness.
How do you say “a black car” in Norwegian?

You put svart before bil with the indefinite article:
en svart bil
Here svart is attributive and remains unchanged because bil is common gender singular. (If it were neuter, you’d add -t, e.g. et svart hus.)

How do you say “the black car” in Norwegian (as one noun phrase)?

You use the demonstrative article den, add -e to the adjective for definiteness, and keep the noun’s definite suffix:
den svarte bilen
– den = “the” (common gender)
– svarte = definite-form adjective
– bilen = “the car”

How would you express “the cars are black” in Norwegian?

First form the plural of bil, which is biler, then make it definite: bilene. In the definite plural, adjectives take -e in predicative use:
bilene er svarte
= “the cars are black.”

How do you turn Bilen er svart into the question “Is the car black?”

Invert the subject and the verb (standard yes/no question word order):
Er bilen svart?

How do you make the sentence negative, as in “The car is not black”?

Place ikke immediately after the verb:
Bilen er ikke svart.