"Barnet er ei jente."
Translation:The child is a girl.
43 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Because in different dialects the feminine articles and declensions are used in varying degrees.
In some dialects feminine inflection and articles are (or are almost) completely abandoned in favor of common gender (feminine nouns are treated as if they were masculine). In other dialects the feminine forms are used more.
In written language you can also choose whether you want to use the feminine forms or not.
Have a look at this part of the wikibook on norwegian: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Norwegian/Lesson_2#Gender_of_Nouns
But some languages drop them over time. E.g. Old English had 3 genders, and modern English has none (or one, I guess, in that they are all the same one). Swedish has a few words where both can be used, and it ALSO used to have 3, but now has 2, which means at some point, people were 'misusing' nouns. To me, it's more amazing that genders survive at all. In English, people make WAY more basic errors than that.
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For a feminine noun, you can choose whether to use the masculine or the feminine article "en or ei". "Jente" is a feminine Norwegian noun, it’s correct to say both "ei jente" and "en jente". This only applies to feminine nouns.
Jenta is pronounced /jɛntɑ/
while jente is pronounced /jɛntə/
.
Also, pay attention to the presence of the indefinite article. If there isn't any, you're dealing with definite singular of that particular noun ( jenta ).
Click here for the IPA guide. Follow these links for Forvo pronunciations ( en jente, jenta ).
P.S. Let's hope this makes you remarkably efficient in differentiating these two. We are here to fight despair with hope!
Along with these translations:
- entall - singular
- flertall - plural
- ubestemt - indefinite
- bestemt - definite
I promise I am not following you and telling you what you should hear but TTS is not at fault here either. Look at the graph below to see how close ɑ (open back unrounded vowel) is to ə (mid central vowel).
Although the current match result is 0:2, I'm sure that you'll end up striking those goals as you become more and more surrounded by the language itself and exposed to its sounds. Give your ears time and it will click in your mind. Also, we are always here when people need help.
The word jente is of feminine gender but can take the masculine indefinite article en as well.
Please refer to @En-tyskr-i-Norge's reply on this page for more info.
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Twice as I have done this practice session I have chosen "jenta" instead of "jente". Both time it has been marked correct, when I believe that Jenta is not correct here. (it is marked correct without alternate correct translation.) Also, Jente/Jenta doesn't follow the pattern of other nouns like Boy/The boy, etc where the article is added to the end: Gutt/Gutten (is that correct?) Is Jente/Jenta irregular, or did I miss something?? Thanks for your help.
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Jente is feminine, and feminine nouns add an a En gutt / Gutten Et barn / Barnet Ei jente / Jenta So, if I'm not mistaken, since bok is also feminine, in theory if instead of using en bok / boken, using ei bok / boka should be correct. If not, jente is irregular, but i dont think so
I continue to have my answers marked as correct went why are not. For example I entered this:
Barne er ei jente.
and it said it was correct but it is not the correct answer listed here. I do report it with the flag. It is time consuming to have to check here every time I get a correct answer to see if it is actually correct. Does anyone one know why there are so many of this kind incorrect responses from Duolingo?
In a listening exercise, you have to input what you've heard and not what you usually associate with that particular word (Barnet er ei jente vs. Barnet er en jente) and everything will work smoothly.
In all other cases, en jente and ei jente are equally correct which means the application should accept both variants.
"Jente" is the indefinite singular. Any unspecific girl is "en / ei jente" = "a girl".
"Jenta" is the definite singular. Any specific girl is "jenta" = "the girl".
- "A girl is reading a book" = "Ei jente leser ei bok"
- "The girl is reading a book" = "Jenta leser ei bok"
Female nouns are usually "ei": "Ei jente", "ei bok", "ei flaske". But they can also use the male form "en": "En jente", "en bok", "en flaske". Some Norwegian regions / dialects insist on using the female forms, others don't.