DET – MAN – EN: Impersonal Subjects
Grammar
© NTNU
In Norwegian, you always have to express the Subject of a sentence even when this Subject is impersonal.
We have three ways of doing that:
Det (it)
When there is no logical Subject, we often use det.
This occurs for instance in impersonal constructions:
| Det ringer på døra. | The doorbell is ringing. / Someone rings the doorbell. |
| Det gjør vondt. | It hurts. |
DET is also used in expressions about the weather:
| Det er fint vær. | The weather is nice. |
| Det regner. | It’s raining. |
| Det snør. | It’s snowing. |
| Det er varmt. | It’s hot. |
| Det er sol. | It’s sunny. |
Ålesund: Det kan bli flotte sommerdager i Norge!
MAN – EN (one)
Man is an indefinite pronoun.
It is used to refer to people, but not to specific individuals:
| Man spiser ribbe på julaften. | One eats ribs on Christmas Eve. |
| I Norge bruker man flagg på juletreet. | In Norway, one uses flags on the Christmas tree. |
En is also often used in the same way:
| En kan studere norsk på Internett. | One can study Norwegian on the Internet. |
Man kan studere på nett. Det er enkelt og praktisk!
© NTNU
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