Den voksne passer på barna i hagen.

the child

Breakdown of Den voksne passer på barna i hagen.

• i: in
• hagen: the garden
• den voksne: the adult

Questions & Answers about Den voksne passer på barna i hagen.

Why is it den voksne and not den voksen?

Voksen is an adjective meaning adult / grown-up.

In Norwegian, when an adjective is used with a definite noun, the adjective normally takes the -e ending (this is called the “weak” form):

• en voksen mann – an adult man (indefinite, no -e)
• den voksne mannen – the adult man (definite, adjective gets -e)

In your sentence, the noun person or mann/kvinne is understood and left out. So den voksne literally means the adult (person), where:

• den = the (for common gender)
• voksne = weak/definite form of voksen, used because the meaning is definite

So you get den voksne and not den voksen.

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Could this also be Det voksne instead of Den voksne?