"It is a book."
Translation:Det er en bok.
19 Comments
When pointing to things and explaining what they are with no earlier reference to the noun you'd use "Det". "Den" would need some earlier reference to the noun. In which case, there wouldn't be any reason to explain what it is.
Could you explain the difference in scenario between "It is a book" and "It hears something"? The answer for "It hears something" is "Den hører noe" but it seems like in that scenario we're still pointing the "something" out. Is it because the thing that's occurring in that sentence is the "thing" is hearing something, as opposed to, in this sentence that "thing" is a book?
Does all that make sense?
I think its because if one were to say It hears something the it has probably been mentioned before whereas it is a book the book is just being mentioned & identified in the sentence. It might also have to do w/ It IS something vs It hears SOMETHING & although english is my first language Im not good w/ its rules & whatnot. But I suppose if youre writing something and saying it hears something and the it hasnt been talked of before den might work
'bok' is a masculine noun, not a neuter noun. Keep in mind that grammatical genders have no relation to the gender of a person.
Why does it say 'ei bok' when bok was a masculine (en) word before? why has it changed?? I don't get it it now says 'ei bok' is the correct solution...why has it cchanged genders?
Both "en bok" and "ei bok" are correct solutions.
It's one of many nouns that have both a masculine and a feminine declination.
When we introduce a new noun using a pronoun, we default to the neuter form.
This is because the noun is still considered an "unknown" at that point, so the pronoun has nothing to base its gender on; it's more of a placeholder, present to provide the sentence with a subject.
I said "den", and after reading all these comments, I still don't understand den vs. det. Need more examples.
I'll give it a try... In this sentence "det" functions as an "empty" subject - because sentences in Norwegian (and English) must have a subject/"person" doing the "action" described by the verb - as in "It is raining" the "it" is really nothing, but needs to be there to make a grammatical sentence. In Norwegian, this "it" is always "det". To use "den" you need to know that there is a "something" you're referring to that is a masculine or feminine noun.
Thus: "Det regner" = It is raining, But: "Den regner" = It is calculating... (Sorry, couldn't help using a word with a double meaning;)
Det er en bok = There is a book Den er en bok = That thing we're talking about is a book
In some languages yes (for instance in German "das Buch"), in some other languages no (for instance in Norwegian "ei bok").
But don't get confused about the idea that "an object" has to be genderless. An object can be male, female or neuter. For instance "the machine" = "die Maschine" (female) in German = "maskinen" (male) in Norwegian. Or "the drill" = "der Bohrer" (male) in German = "boret" (neuter) in Norwegian, etc.
There is no rule of thumb what gender a noun is. You need to learn and memorize it.
How are noun genders determined? Do they need to be learned individually? Eg, en bok, et eple, etc.
