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- Topic: Norwegian (Bokmål) >
- "Barnet er sultent."
28 Comments
Did I skip over or miss a lesson on adjective agreement???? Sulten, sultent......... Anything else??
Tak for response, but I am on tablet with Duolingo, Nexus, and there are no tips, no notes on this page or on the duolingo home page ...... on my tablet, that is.
Most adjectives describing plural nouns add an "e" and those describing neuter, singular nouns add a "t" in the indefinite form.
If adjectives describing neuter singular nouns add a"t", why do the tips show, as translation for "the big table", "det storE bordet"?
So adjectives referring to neuter definites end with "e"? If so, why "barnet er sultenT", and not "barnet er sultenE". This surely is definite form too
Adjectives in the definite form are always in plural form, no matter if the noun is neuter or masculine/ feminine. In the indefinite form, it always agrees with the nouns gender
This question was a year ago, but if anyone is having the same problem (as I was until I stumbled on them) then: If you can open a browser, go to the Duolingo home page, sign in, then select home from the dropdown menu. You will see your current language tree. Click on the circle for the subject (here it's "Adjectives".) Not every subject will have Tips and Notes.
Is there a difference in the way "barnet" and "barna" are pronounced? To my foreign ears, they sound the same.
1568
Yes, there is, I opened the comments just to complain that here barnet it sounds just like barna here. In natural speech the difference is subtle but definitely one that you pick up if speak even a little Norwegian
The reason it is not sultene is because the adjective is not attached to the noun. This is saying that the child IS HUNGRY, it is not describing that the child is "a hungry child". That would be "Det sultene barnet".
I wonder why in this sentece the 's' is not pronounced as a retroflex, although in other sentences it does. I am aware that the sound change doesn't happen across words in lots of dialects, but in the Oslo one (which is afaik the one Duolingo uses) it does. Is there a reason for this?
- 1568
Most likely just because of the way it was recorded and then made into sentences. I think that's the reason. And because as you said there's lots of dialects of equal importance it is not a mistake by any means. I'm not native not even fluent so take what i say with a pinch of salt but I think that's all there's to it.
- 410
I am having a REALLY hard time distinguishing between the "a" and the "et" sound in barna and barnet! It sounds exactly the same to me! I usually pick the wrong one!! Any helpful hints besides listen closer?
but barnet is singular neuter definite, thus it would require "sultene", as far as I understood
I am far from the pro, so maybe just get someone else to confirm this but I think it works the following way:
a child is hungry - et barn er sultent
the child is hungry - barnet er sultent
children are hungry - barn er sultne
the children are hungry - barna er sultne
the mouse is hungry - musENE er sultne
and then you go into the, so called, double deffinites:
the hungry child - Det sultne barnet
the hungry mouse - Det sultne muset
the hungry children - De sultne barna
the hungry mice - De sultne musENE
a child is a bit tricky to conjugate, because in plural deffinite it doesn't get the typical "-ene" ending.
hope, this helps :)
- 1568
"the mouse is hungry - musene er sultne" is completely wrong!!
"the mouse is hungry" - "musen er sulten"
"Musene er sultne" - "the mice are hungry"
Adding a -t to an adjective does one of two things: it inflects it to agree with neuter nouns (f.eks. det sultent dyret - the hungry animal), or it makes it an adverb (f.eks. Bjørnen smiler sultent. - The bear smiles hungrily).
