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Grammar notes

Basic Grammar
Wordcloud Grammar
© NTNU

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:
EX: DENNE BILEN etc.
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
Demonstrative pronouns can be used in place of a noun as long as the noun being replaced can be understood from the pronoun’s context.
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

In Course 1 we learnt about the infinitive marker å:
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 (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. de tilbake. Now, they must go back.
Ben vil dra hjem. Ben vil hjem. Ben wants to go home.
© NTNU
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Norwegian for Beginners 2

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