"Maneten og sjøstjernen kan leve sammen i fred."

Translation: The jellyfish and the starfish can live together in peace.

[amaratea]

not really

[JegHeterKordian]

That moment when you were 100% sure that the word "maneten" will mean the manatee.

[heimaey]

TIL starfish is one word in English.

[MTCarey]

is this a proverb or just a DUO creation?

[denfyrenderborte]

Duo

[crispeeblathers]

Nope. Jellyfishing jellyfishing

[Bambleweeny57]

Finally, a useful phrase!
Thanks
Mr. S. Squarepants

[Heithr]

I am struggling with when the "the" forms can be translated as a representative whole and when the "the" is needed. As in, I am unsure why this sentence cannot be translated "Jellyfish and starfish can live together in peace", with both "maneten" and "stjøstjern" being representative of each species, not needing "the" in English. We have had other sentences where this was the case with certain nouns.

[denfyrenderborte]

They are talking about two spesific starfish/jellyfish. Maneten and sjøstjernen is written in definite form. In English you write the definite article by adding a "the" in fornt of the noun, while in Norwegian you would add it as a suffix:

• Starfish = sjøstjerne / the starfish = sjøstjernen / starfish (pl.) = sjøstjerner / the starfish (pl.) = sjøstjernene
• House = hus / the house = huset / houses = hus / the houses = husene