Taxi-sjåføren venter ved flyplassen.

The word taxi-sjåfør is a compound noun made from taxi (borrowed from English) and sjåfør (“driver”). In Norwegian:

• Compound nouns often combine elements directly, but when the first part is a foreign word, a hyphen is common to clarify the boundary: taxi-sjåfør.
• Definiteness is shown by a suffix, not a separate article. Common‐gender nouns take -en in the definite singular: • taxi-sjåfør = “(a) taxi driver”
  • taxi-sjåfører = “taxi drivers” (indefinite plural)
  • taxi-sjåføren = “the taxi driver”

Norwegian has two genders for most nouns: common (sometimes called masculine/feminine) and neuter. You can tell taxi-sjåfør is common‐gender because its definite singular ends in -en (neuter would take -et). Gender affects:

• The form of the definite suffix
• Which indefinite article you might use (en for common, et for neuter)

All three can translate as “at” or “in,” but with nuances:

• ved flyplassen = “by/near the airport” (just outside or next to it)
• på flyplassen = “at the airport” (on the premises, inside or just generally there)
• i flyplassen = “inside the airport” (within the building)

Approximate IPA: [ˈʃoːføːrɛn].

• sj = [ʃ] (like English “sh” in shoe)
• å = [oː] (like a rounded “aw,” but shorter)
• ø = [øː] (similar to the “eu” in French peu)
• -en = [ɛn]