Er is the present tense of å være (to be).
So:
In this sentence, Kostnaden er høy, it simply means The cost is high.
Unlike English, Norwegian verbs do not change according to the subject:
It stays er in the present tense.
Because høy is agreeing with a singular common-gender noun.
Here is the basic pattern for this adjective:
Examples:
Even though kostnaden is definite (the cost), the predicate adjective still stays høy because the subject is singular common gender.
Yes, and this is a very common learner question.
In Norwegian, høy is often used with things like:
So Kostnaden er høy sounds very natural.
You can also hear dyrt in related expressions, especially when talking more generally:
A useful rule of thumb:
Yes. It is a perfectly complete sentence:
So structurally it is very similar to English The cost is high.
Because Norwegian normally uses Subject – Verb – Complement in ordinary statements.
So:
That gives:
Norwegian word order is quite strict here, much like English.
Yes. That would turn it into a question:
This is a standard pattern in Norwegian: the verb comes first in many yes/no questions.
Høy contains a sound that can be tricky for English speakers.
A rough guide:
It is usually pronounced approximately like høy /hœʏ/.
The exact sound does not exist neatly in English, but you can think of it as somewhat similar to saying a rounded vowel and gliding forward. The important part is that it is not pronounced like English hoy with a clear oi sound.
Usually kostnaden refers to the cost in a specific situation or context.
For example:
If you are speaking more generally about costs in the plural, you would use:
Example: