Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Skoene mine er hullete, men hanskene gir god støtte til hendene. - My shoes are full of holes, but the gloves give good support to the hands.

hullete is an adjective meaning “holey” or “full of holes.” It’s built from the noun hull (“hole”) + the adjective suffix -ete (as in stripete, “striped”). Because it’s used predicatively (after er), it stays in its base form and isn’t inflected for number or definiteness.

How do you form the definite plural of sko and hanske?

Norwegian marks definiteness with suffixes.
• en sko (a shoe), plural sko (shoes), definite plural skoene (the shoes).
• en hanske (a glove), plural hansker, definite plural hanskene.

Why say skoene mine instead of mine sko here? Are both possible?

Both are correct:

mine sko is the indefinite plural: “my shoes” in general.
skoene mine is the definite plural: “my (those) shoes,” a specific pair.
In the sentence, the speaker refers to a particular pair of shoes, so skoene mine is more precise.

What does gir god støtte til hendene mean literally, and how does til function here?

Literally, gir god støtte til hendene means “gives good support to the hands.”

gir is present tense of gi (“to give”).
god støtte means “good support.”
til marks the recipient of that support: gi støtte til noen/noe.

Why is hendene in the definite form instead of hender?

Norwegian typically uses the definite form of body parts when talking about a specific person’s anatomy. Just like “wash your hands” is vask hendene, here the gloves support the speaker’s own hands, so you use hendene (“the hands”).

Could you use for hendene instead of til hendene after gi støtte?

No. With gi støtte, the standard collocation is gi støtte til (“give support to”). Using for would shift the meaning toward “support for something” in contexts like funding or endorsement (e.g. støtte for forskning = “support for research”).

What does men do in this sentence?

men is the conjunction “but,” used to contrast two clauses. Here it links the negative statement about the shoes (er hullete) with the positive statement about the gloves (gir god støtte).

How would you say “my holey shoes” using the adjective before the noun?

There are two common ways:

Indefinite: mine hullete sko (“my holey shoes” in general).
Definite: de hullete skoene mine (“the holey shoes of mine,” i.e. a specific pair).
Attributive adjectives in Norwegian agree in number and definiteness and typically take an -e ending when the noun is definite.