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- Topic: Norwegian (Bokmål) >
- "Ei jente"
38 Comments
Wow, I've never taken so long to get through a unit. Cool language, but tough (especially the -en ending, which I keep thinking is plural).
True. I keep on getting answers wrong because I instinctively think it's plural lol Besides that, sometimes I can't listen the "en" in the audio exercises. It's very subtle.
Ei is sometimes used for feminine nouns. Other times, en is used. Masculine nouns exclusively use en. For more information, see the tips and notes.
I have a really hard time differentiating when the speaker is saying "jente" or "jenta"... can someone just explain to me when i'm supposed to use which one so I can remember it on my own?
you can tell by whether or not the word "en" (or "ei") come before. If yes, then it's "a girl" - "en/ei jente." If no, then it's "the girl" - "jenta"
but I agree, the Norwegian way to say "e" sometimes does have a way of sounding a lot like "a"
So hard to be a Portuguese speaker from Brazil, learning English for seven months and learning Norwegian here^^ :( I need this course in Portuguese pleeeeeease!
For learning English in seven months, I applaud you! :) I took Spanish for three "years"(half year courses), and I still sound like I'm in Spanish 1.
I am a native spanish speaker, so masculine and femenine articles are also used, but is 'the' an equivalent to 'ei'?
If you read the tips and notes for this lesson, it explains the difference between a and the in Norwegian. Basically, the article for a becomes a suffix instead for the. For example, en mann (a man) becomes mannen (the man). Ei is irregular though. Ei jente (a girl) becomes jenta (the girl), if I remember correctly (just starting to learn myself!)
What you say is right. However, Ei is not exactly rregular, it's just that with female nouns ei used to be the norm, now en is just as good for most female nouns ''bokmål'' Norwegian. I am from Oslo, and I say en jente (a girl) , but I say jenta (the girl).
I don't understand what you mean here. If you say in English: ' I saw a beautiful girl ' you would say 'en/ei jente'. If you say: I saw the same beautiful girl again today' you would say " jenta" I don't know if this helped you to understand?
Thank you! had some trouble understanding definite and indefinite forms at first, now it is a bit clear.
that clears things up a bit, speaking in general terms, using the definite form would be used mainly subjects, while indefinite would be an object in a sentence, not always, but speaking generally. Takk
In my examples with the beautiful girl, the word I is the subject, and the girl is the object. Just think in English - a girl - the girl is the same as en jente - jenta. It does not depend on subject/object in the sentence.
Actually, it is not difficult. Instead of the word 'the' Norwegian put en, ei or et at the end of the noun. En gutt - gutten, en jente - jenta (or jenten), an apple - et eple, the apple - eplet.
I am on my phone so there are no tips. How do we tell the difference between masculine, feminine, and nueter nouns?
Actually, you have to learn the gender for each word. I see that you are learning French, Norwegian is like French, there is really no way to tell. In French a car is feminine 'une voiture', in Norwegian it is masculine 'en bil', an apple is 'une pomme' (feminine) in French and et eple (neuter) in Norwegian.
My husband speaks French with only one gender, maskuline. Then he might be right in 50% of the time. We live in France but we are Norwegian. French people say that he does not speak French, he has invented his own language. I'm sure you don't want to be like him.
Try to learn the gender when you learn a new word. It is important. In Norwegian you have to say 'et stort eple'. and 'en stor bil'. 'En stor eple' and 'et stort bil' is funny but not correct.
Both means the English 'a', like 'a book' . En bok (masculine) or ei bok (feminine). You can chose. I say 'en bok' and I say 'boken' (the book, masculine). I say 'en jente' and I say 'jenta' (femininie) Some say 'jenten'. I say 'en hytte' but I don't say 'hytten', I say 'hytta'. I think most people who speak bokmål and live around Oslo do like me. That means the words are feminine but you can choose what to say, and for me it is natural to say it in the masculine form boken, and the feminine form hytta, jenta. It depends on the word.
So does this mean that 'en' is the masculine form of the English,'a', 'ei' is the feminine, and 'et' is...neuter? Because i am confused about when to use ei-is it the feminine because I hadn't used it before this lesson... :/ really enjoying the norwegian course though determined to learn this language! Takk so mye!
Yes, you're right. And normally you can use 'en' for both the masculine and the feminine nouns. I normally don't use the 'ei' form when I speak.
So is Norwegian going the way of Swedish where it's common and neuter genders
In Swedish there are only two genders, the en and ett words. It seems like in Norwegian there is a distinction between en and ei but it is fading into both being en, so we will have en and et in Norwegian as well
It depends, some speak 'radikal bokmål'. They prefer to say ei jente, ei, bok, ei hytte etc. In Norway we still have three genders, masculine, feminine and neuter. However, you can choose to say and write en jente, en bok, en hytte.
I've noticed Danish is the same, with only -en and -et words... so odd to see this different in Norwegian!
No, you can say en jente. If you read the comments here, you'll understand.
Both "en" and "ei" may be used for feminine nouns.
"En" is also the indefinite article for masculine nouns.
Do all feminine nouns accept either "en" or "ei"? I've read the notes and tips for the lesson and the comments, but I still don't understand if that's a general rule for all feminine nouns or just some specific feminine nouns.
Yes, all feminine nouns may be declined as if they were masculine.
Some feminine nouns are more likely than others to remain in their feminine form, such as "ei jente" and "ei ku", but this is quite dialect dependent.
Ei & Jeg seems same to me, How to know the difference when someone speaks these words?
Is anyone else having a hard time with the course accepting ‘ei jente’?
