{"id":2131,"date":"2015-10-16T21:59:05","date_gmt":"2015-10-16T21:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2015-10-17T07:44:36","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T07:44:36","slug":"norwegian-plurals-are-your-friends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/norwegian-plurals-are-your-friends\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian Plurals are your friends"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"1<\/a>

1 fjell, 2 fjell\u2026 (Photo courtesy of Stian R\u00f8dven Eide at Flickr<\/a>, CC License. Shot from the ferry between Halsa and Kanestraum.)<\/p><\/div>\n

In Norwegian, as in English, some ord<\/b> [ore] (words) have surprise plurals\u2026<\/p>\n

liten \u2013 sm\u00e5 <\/b>(little [something] \u2013 little [somethings])
\nmann \u2013 menn<\/b> (man \u2013 men)
\ng\u00e5s \u2013 gjess<\/b> (goose \u2013 geese)
\nfot \u2013 f\u00f8tter<\/b> (foot \u2013 feet)
\nbok \u2013 b\u00f8ker<\/b> (book \u2013 books)
\nnatt \u2013 netter <\/b>(night \u2013 nights)
\nstrand \u2013 strender<\/b> (beach \u2013 beaches)<\/p>\n

As you can see, except liten<\/b>, all of these words are nouns. (Unlike English or German verbs, Norwegian verbs are not inflected \u2013 lucky you!) To pluralize an adjective, you normally just add an -e<\/b>:
\nglad fot \u2013 glade f\u00f8tter<\/b> (happy foot \u2013 happy feets)<\/p>\n

An exception to this rule is the word bl\u00e5<\/b> (blue), which you may use without the -e<\/b>: bl\u00e5(e) b\u00f8ker<\/b> (blue books)<\/p>\n

That leaves us with nouns, and you\u2019ve got flaks <\/b>(luck) again! \ud83d\ude42
\nMost nouns \u2013 and here we are talking Bokm\u00e5l Norwegian \u2013 simply add the ending -er<\/b>:<\/p>\n

katt \u2013 katter <\/b>(cat\/s)
\nhund \u2013 hunder <\/b>(dog\/s)
\nproblem \u2013 problemer<\/b> (problem\/s)
\nfjord \u2013 fjorder<\/b> (fiord\/s)
\nby \u2013 byer<\/b> (town\/s)<\/p>\n

Of course, when a noun already ends in -e<\/b>, the two endings are merged. (Menneskeer<\/b> would sound kind of awkward, wouldn\u2019t it?)
\nmenneske \u2013 mennesker <\/b>(human\/s)
\ntante \u2013 tanter <\/b>(aunt\/s)<\/p>\n

For sonic reasons, some words are shortened a bit when the -er<\/b> is added (\u201dsyncope\u201d is the expert term for this):
\nonkel \u2013 <\/b>onkeler<\/del><\/b> onkler <\/b>(uncle\/s)
\nsykkel \u2013 <\/b>sykkeler<\/del><\/b> sykler <\/b>(bike\/s)<\/p>\n

What if a noun already ends in –er<\/b>? Well, take a look what happens! \ud83d\ude42
\njapaner \u2013 <\/b>japanerer<\/del><\/b> japanere <\/b>(Japanese [one\/several])
\ntysker \u2013 <\/b>tyskerer<\/del><\/b> tyskere <\/b>(German\/s)
\nfisker \u2013 <\/b>fiskerer<\/del><\/b> fiskere<\/b> (fisher\/s)<\/p>\n

Wait \u2013 shoudn\u2019t the plural of ord<\/b> (word), then, as I mentioned atop, be \u201dord-er\u201d<\/b>? Absolutely not! \ud83d\ude42
\nDue to an Old Norse quirk, lots of neuter nouns (those that are dating the article et<\/b> rather than en <\/b>or ei<\/b>), don\u2019t change at all in the plural! It\u2019s exactly like a sheep \u2013 twelve million sheep<\/i> in English \u2013 except there are more of them in Norwegian!
\nfjell \u2013 fjell<\/b> (mountain\/s)
\nhus \u2013 hus <\/b>(house\/s)
\nbarn \u2013 barn <\/b>(child\/ren)<\/p>\n

The definite plural (the \u201dthe\u201d form) of Norwegian nouns is super easy \u2013 the ending to add is –ene<\/b>:
\nbyene<\/b> (the towns), tantene<\/b> (the aunts), syklene<\/b> (the bikes)<\/p>\n

However, once again the nouns already ending in -er<\/b> (in the singular) are making trouble:
\njapanerene<\/del><\/b> japanerne<\/b> (the Japanese), fiskerene<\/del><\/b> fiskerne<\/b> (the fishermen)<\/p>\n

And the real problem child is the word \u2026 barn<\/b>. Due to influence from the dialects<\/a> (and from Nynorsk<\/a> Norwegian), only few Norwegians write or say barnene<\/b> for \u2019the children\u2019 (although it\u2019s perfectly accepted Norwegian). If you want to fit in, say barna<\/b>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

In Norwegian, as in English, some ord [ore] (words) have surprise plurals\u2026 liten \u2013 sm\u00e5 (little [something] \u2013 little [somethings]) mann \u2013 menn (man \u2013 men) g\u00e5s \u2013 gjess (goose \u2013 geese) fot \u2013 f\u00f8tter (foot \u2013 feet) bok \u2013 b\u00f8ker (book \u2013 books) natt \u2013 netter (night \u2013 nights) strand \u2013 strender (beach \u2013…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8214,10178,3007,8215,9928,3349,386180],"class_list":["post-2131","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bokmal","tag-dialects","tag-noun","tag-nynorsk","tag-old-norse","tag-plural","tag-syncope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/76"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2131"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2135,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2131\/revisions\/2135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}