"Det er jenta mi."
Translation:That's my girl.
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Ugh... I don't know how I will ever be able to understand spoken Norsk. It seems so jumbled together to me. =/
Does this sentence mean "my girl" in the sense of "my girlfriend" or in the sense of "my daughter?"
It could mean either, but in real life you'll have context to help you out.
Can it also be "Det er jente mi"? Why does it have to be "The girl" instead of "Girl"
When the noun comes before the possessive it needs to be in its definite form.
So you get "jenta mi" and "jenten min" when the noun precedes the possessive, but "mi/min jente" when the noun is positioned after the possessive .
When you're using the feminine form of the noun, any possessives that are supposed to agree with it need to be in their feminine form as well.
feminine version: "jenta mi"
masculine version: "jenten min"
Wasn't "det" a neuter "it/that"? Shouldn't it be "den", seing they're talking about a girl? I might be confusing things though..
Since the girl has yet to be mentioned at the point "det" is used in the sentence, "det" cannot be a pronoun pointing back to the girl. Rather, it's a formal/empty subject; a placeholder of sorts.
When introducing something new, you default to the neuter form. When whatever it is has been mentioned, and you're using the pronoun to refer back to it, it needs to agree with the gender of the noun.
"Det er en bil. Den er fin."
"It is a car. It (=the car) is nice."
You can't replace the first "it" with "the car", because then you'd be saying "The car is a car". Makes sense?
If i understand. I could say : Ser du jenta? Den er jenta min. Is it correct ?
Thanks :) I forgot to read the tips and notes before and in these cases we have to use the definite form.
I do not understand how the girl (jenta) can be in a masculine version and why do Norwegians have mi and min despite the fact that we have such thing in Russian also
The gender of the word doesn't necessarily match the "biological" gender. The book behaves the same way as the girl:
boka mi / boken min = my book
jenta mi / jenten min = my girl
Because "jenta + possessive" is one of the ways someone might refer to their daughter.
Can there also be a figurative meaning, like "that's my girl" in English?
Jenta mi, jenta mi ligger ikke til meg...
I bet this was wrong, but I don't know yet how to translate "don't lie to me". :D
Both dette and denne mean this, whereas, det/den typically mean that/it:
Dette er jenta mi. - This is my girl.
Det er jenta mi. - That is my girl.
Denne jenta heter Astrid. - This girl is called Astrid.
Den jenta heter Astrid. - That girl is called Astrid.
In both Norwegian and English, if you're pointing at something, this (dette/denne) is closer to you; that (det/den) is farther away.
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I don't believe so. "La mia ragazza" translates to "My sister/girl/girlfriend"(depending on the context). "Det er jenta mi" translates to "That is my girl". The two sentences convey different things.
