Questions & Answers about Vi vil bygge et hus sammen.
Why is et used here and not en or ei?
In Norwegian, nouns have grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, or neuter.
- hus (house) is a neuter noun.
- The indefinite article for neuter nouns is et.
- The indefinite article for masculine nouns is en, and for feminine ei (in many dialects and in Nynorsk; in Bokmål, en is often used for feminine too).
So you say:
- et hus = a house (neuter)
- en bil = a car (masculine)
- ei/en bok = a book (feminine/masculine in Bokmål)
Because hus is neuter, et is the only correct choice here: et hus.
Why is it hus and not huset?
Norwegian uses a suffix to mark definiteness instead of a separate word like the:
- et hus = a house (indefinite, singular)
- huset = the house (definite, singular)
- hus (no article, plural context or mass-like) / husene = the houses (definite plural)
In Vi vil bygge et hus sammen, we are talking about a house, not a specific one that both speaker and listener already know about. So the indefinite form et hus is the natural choice.
If you said:
- Vi vil bygge huset sammen, it would mean We want to build the house together (a particular, known house).
Why is there no å before bygge?