Hvor mye koster den blå kjolen ved inngangen?

How much does the blue dress by the entrance cost?

Breakdown of Hvor mye koster den blå kjolen ved inngangen?

• inngangen: the entrance
• den: the
• ved: by
• blå: blue

Questions & Answers about Hvor mye koster den blå kjolen ved inngangen?

Why do we have both den and the -en on kjolen? Isn’t that “double” definiteness?

Yes—Norwegian uses “double definiteness” when a definite noun has an adjective. So:

• Indefinite: en blå kjole (a blue dress)
• Definite without adjective: kjolen (the dress)
• Definite with adjective: den blå kjolen (the blue dress)

The preposed article (den/det/de) is required in front of the adjective, and the noun still takes its definite ending (-en/-a/-et/-ene).

Why is it den and not det?

Because kjole is a masculine noun in Bokmål:

• Masculine/feminine: den
• Neuter: det
• Plural: de

So you get den blå kjolen. If the noun were neuter (e.g., hus), it would be det blå huset.

Could I say den blåe kjolen instead of den blå kjolen?

Both are accepted in Bokmål. With definite nouns and in the plural, most adjectives take -e, but some short ones like blå can appear both as blå and blåe in these forms. Today, den blå kjolen is more common; den blåe kjolen is also correct but sounds a bit more old-fashioned or dialectal to many.