Grammar notes
Welcome to another step with Grammar notes!
In this week’s step, we are going to learn more about how to use Demonstrative pronouns in Norwegian and expand on what we learnt about the infinitive of the verb.
Demonstrative pronouns
As we learnt in Week 1, a demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence. These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and they can be either singular or plural.
When used to represent a thing or things, demonstrative pronouns can be either near or far in distance or time:
- Near in time or distance:
| denne – dette – disse | this – this – these |
- Far in time or distance:
| den – det – de | that – that – those |
Denne (near) and den (remote) are used with singular masculine and feminine nouns.
Dette and det are used with singular neuter nouns.
Disse and de are used with plural nouns.
Note that the nouns following the demonstratives take the definite form:
| CLOSE | REMOTE |
| Masculine | denne koppen | this cup | den koppen | that cup |
| Feminine | denne døra | this door | den døra | that door |
| Neuter | dette glasset | this glass | det glasset | that glass |
| Plural | disse koppene | these cups | de koppene | those cups |
| Liker du den kåpen? (remote) | Do you like that coat? | Ja, jeg liker den kåpen! | Yes, I like that coat! |
| Vil du ha dette glasset? (near) | Do you want this glass? | Nei, jeg vil ha det (remote) | No, I want that one |
| Disse blomstene her (near) er fine, men de der (remote) er kjempefine! | These flowers are nice but those over there are very beautiful! |
Infinitive
| Hyggelig å hilse på deg. | Nice to meet you. |
| Dina begynner å bli trøtt. | Dina is beginning to get tired. |
In addition, some expressions with prepositions are followed by å + infinitive:
| for å | to / in order to | Dina går til disken for å bestille. | Dina goes to the counter to order. |
| (å)ha lyst til å | want/would like to | Dina har lyst til å kjøpe klær. | Dina would like to buy some clothes |
We also learnt that the infinitive marker å is not used after auxiliary verbs:
| Dina skal reise til Paris | Dina is going to Paris |
In Norwegian, however, when an auxiliary verb is followed by an expression of motion, the main verb can be left out. What you have left is the auxiliary and the expression of motion: prepositions or adverbs.
It is common to do so when the main verb is gå (walk), dra (go) or reise (travel):
| Hun skal reise til Paris | Hun skal til Paris. | She is going to Paris. |
| Nå må de gå tilbake. | Nå må de tilbake. | Now, they must go back. |
| Ben vil dra hjem. | Ben vil hjem. | Ben wants to go home. |
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