Introduction to Nynorsk/Nouns

As you might have guessed from the previous page, Nynorsk has three grammatical genders. The indefinite articles are as follows; and have no exceptions: + indefinite articles Masculine Feminine Neuter ein ei eit They are used in the same way as the English indefinite articles: ein båt ("a boat") ei liste ("a list") eit bord ("a table") Unlike English, Norwegian uses suffixes as definite articles. The singular suffixes are + singular definite suffixes Masculine Feminine Neuter -en -a -et For all the suffixes, whether indicating indefinite or definite, plural or singular, they replace any ending vowel, or are otherwise simply appended. Thus we have båten ("the boat") lista ("the list") bordet ("the table") The plural definite suffixes are not quite as unique as the singular definite suffixes, and they will therefore be introduced with the individual noun classes below. Masculine nouns There is one main class of masculine nouns, here referred to as m1. Its inflection goes as follows: + m1 indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural bjørn bjørnen bjørnar bjørnane bear the bear bears the bears Note that the definite singular form of the masculine noun hage ("garden") is hagen; since, as noted above, any ending vowel is replaced by the definite suffix. Most masculine nouns follow the pattern in the table above, but there is another sizeable class, m2: + m2 indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural stad staden stader or stadar stadene or stadane place the place places the places As you see, this class can be inflected just as the first class. Traditionally, however, it has been inflected with -er and -ene in plural. This is the pattern that was used in Old Norwegian, and is still found in many dialects. The word mann, meaning "man" (as in "male human"), has a unique inflection of its own, following a pattern similar to its English relative: + mann indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural mann mannen menn mennene man the man men the men The word son ("son") has a highly irregular inflection: + son indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural son sonen søner sønene son the son sons the sons The word sko ("shoe") also has a special inflection: + sko indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural sko skoen skor or sko skorne or skoa shoe the shoe shoes the shoes skor and skorne are the traditional forms. Feminine nouns Traditionally, there have been at least three major classes of feminine nouns; and in many dialects, there still are. With the latest standard reform (2012), however, one might say that Nynorsk only has two classes left, depending on definition. There is still a difference between the two (f1 and f2) in the singular indefinite form, however, so it does not hurt to keep treating them as two separate classes, as is done below: + three/two main classes of feminine nouns class indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural f1 vik vika viker vikene bay the bay bays the bays f2 side sida sider sidene page the page pages the pages f3 melding meldinga meldingar meldingane message the message messages the messages As you can see, the last class, f3, has the same plural suffixes as the main masculine class, m1; while f1 and f2 both have the same plural suffixes as the traditional inflection of m2. The definite singular suffixes, however, are distinct for each grammatical gender. Just like the word son, the word dotter ("daughter") has an irregular inflection: + dotter indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural dotter dottera døtrer døtrene daughter the daughter daughters the daughters Neuter nouns Most neuter nouns follow the inflection pattern below: + n1 indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural døme dømet døme døma example the example examples the examples As you can see, both indefinite forms are identical for this class. The words auga ("eye") and øyra ("ear") are inflected the following way: + irregular neuter nouns indefinite singular definite singular indefinite plural definite plural auga or auge auga or auget augo or auge augo or auga eye the eye eyes the eyes In other words, both nouns can be inflected just as a regular neuter noun. As with the previous similar cases, the traditional forms are the ones that stand out: øyra - øyra - øyro - øyro. Examples Try to figure out the meaning of the following sentences by using the tables above (and whatever you have learnt from the previous pages). The answer is accessed by hovering the mouse pointer over the sentence. Ser du bjørnen? Her er skorne dine. (her = here) Han gav dei eit døme. Ho fekk nye meldingar. (nye = new (pl.))