Questions & Answers about Den gravide kvinnen venter.
Why does the sentence start with den?
Den is the definite article used with common-gender nouns when there is an adjective before the noun.
Here, kvinne is a common-gender noun, so the pattern is:
den + adjective + noun in definite form
That gives:
den gravide kvinnen = the pregnant woman
This is different from English, where you usually just say the pregnant woman without changing the noun itself.
Why is it kvinnen and not just kvinne?
Because the noun is definite.
- kvinne = woman / a woman
- kvinnen = the woman
In Norwegian, when you have an adjective with a definite noun, you usually get double definiteness:
- den
- adjective + kvinnen
So both den and -en help mark the noun phrase as definite.
Compare:
- en gravid kvinne = a pregnant woman
- den gravide kvinnen = the pregnant woman
Why is it gravide and not gravid?