Understanding Gender of Nouns in Norwegian: A Guide for English Speakers

What Are Grammatical Genders in Norwegian?

In Norwegian, like many other languages, nouns are assigned a gender. The two genders in Norwegian are masculine and feminine, though sometimes a third gender, neuter, is considered, combining masculine and feminine into the common gender. Grammatical gender affects articles and adjectives that accompany the noun.

Identifying Noun Genders

Words that often end with the suffix -e can typically signal feminine nouns. Most other nouns are masculine. For neuter nouns, recognition comes with practice as they do not follow a specific rule in terms of ending.

Examples of Gendered Nouns

Use of Articles with Nouns

In Norwegian, the gender of the noun dictates the definite article used in front of it. For masculine nouns, it's en, for feminine, it's ei, and for neuter, it's et. The article always comes before the adjective, if there is one.

Forming Plurals

When moving to plural forms, Norwegian simplifies things by using the same suffix for all grammatical genders. Typically, adding -er forms the plural in indefinite forms. In the definite plural, the suffix is -ene.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

A common mistake that English speakers make is assuming that noun gender aligns with natural gender, resulting in incorrect use of articles. Remember that in Norwegian, grammatical gender often does not correlate with the noun's meaning.