Questions & Answers about Jeg har fire bøker.
Why is there no article before the words in bold (fire bøker)?
Norwegian drops the indefinite article after numbers. So you say en/ei bok for one book, but with a numeral you use the indefinite plural: to/tre/fire bøker. No article is used before the noun when a number is present.
Why is the plural bøker and not something like boker?
Bok has an irregular plural with vowel change (o → ø) plus the ending -er. The main forms:
- Indefinite singular: en/ei bok
- Definite singular: boka (feminine) / boken (common gender)
- Indefinite plural: bøker
- Definite plural: bøkene
What’s the difference between bøker and bøkene?
- bøker = books (indefinite): Jeg har fire bøker (I have four books).
- bøkene = the books (definite): Jeg har de fire bøkene (I have the four books). If you mean “four of the books (that we’ve been talking about),” say Jeg har fire av bøkene.
How do you pronounce the sentence?