Questions & Answers about Den venstre døren er stengt.
Why does Norwegian use both den and -en in den venstre døren?
This is because of double definiteness, which is a normal feature of Norwegian.
- døren = the door
- When you add an adjective before a definite noun, Norwegian usually also adds den / det / de
- So den venstre døren literally looks like the left the-door
This is the standard pattern in Bokmål:
- døren = the door
- den store døren = the big door
- den venstre døren = the left door
English only uses one definite marker, but Norwegian often uses two in this kind of phrase.
Why is it den and not det?
Because dør is a common-gender noun in Norwegian.
Its basic form is:
- en dør = a door
Common-gender nouns use den in phrases like this:
- den venstre døren
If it were a neuter noun, you would use det instead:
- et hus = a house
- det store huset = the big house
So the choice of den comes from the gender of dør.