Den tamme katten vi adopterte sover i buret.

The tame cat that we adopted sleeps in the carrier.

Breakdown of Den tamme katten vi adopterte sover i buret.

• vi: we
• i: in
• sove: to sleep
• katten: the cat

Questions & Answers about Den tamme katten vi adopterte sover i buret.

Why is den used before tamme katten?

Because Norwegian usually uses double definiteness when a noun is:

• definite and
• has an adjective in front of it.

So you get:

• katten = the cat
• den tamme katten = the tame cat

Here, den goes with the adjective phrase, and katten is also in the definite form. This is very normal in Bokmål.

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Why is it tamme and not tam?

The adjective changes form because it is part of a definite noun phrase.

Compare:

• en tam katt = a tame cat
• den tamme katten = the tame cat

In definite phrases with den/det/de, adjectives usually take the -e form:

• den store bilen = the big car
• det store huset = the big house
• de store bilene = the big cars

So tamme is the correct form here.

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Why is it katten and not katt?