"It is a book."
Translation:Det er en bok.
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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
"Det er en bok og den er god." (not "godt" as the adjective "god/godt" must correspond in gender to the gender of the noun which it modifies, in this event "bok" which is masculine).
'bok' is a masculine noun, not a neuter noun. Keep in mind that grammatical genders have no relation to the gender of a person.
There is no way to tell from the noun itself. You just have to memorize the genders (as in many other languages). Eventually you know them based on what "sounds" right and wrong.
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
But the answer to this question says the opposite.. It is saying 'det er en bok' and translating that as 'it(that thing there) is a book'?..
Sorry, bad explanation! Let's try again... "Den er en bok" is a very unusual statement in Norwegian. You'd have to create a situation where someone asks something like "Is it this thing or that thing that is a book?" and then you can reply "Den er en bok (ikke den)" meaning "this one is a book (not that one)". Any other situation would require you to use "det" as an empty subject, as described above.
What trudeam writes, I agree with. To add my bit: There would be no sense in saying "Den er en bok" as the fact that it is a book is already known, implied in the choice of "den" instead of "det". But you can say, referring to the book, "Den er tung", as a description of the book. But if somebody comes in and sees a package on the table and asks what's in the package, the answer by the person who knows can be "Det er en bok" for the sake of the one who doesn't know and is asking.
How are noun genders determined? Do they need to be learned individually? Eg, en bok, et eple, etc.
Please read the explanations above... Basically, "it" functions as an "empty" subject of the sentence. It's referring to an unknown item, not an already known item, and therefore will have to be "det" regardless of the gender of the following noun.
i got a question that used "den er en bok" for it is a book and then when i tried to use den for it on this example it said it was incorrect? how do i use "den" vs "det"?