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.

1. Ser du bjørnen?
2. Her er skorne dine. (her = here)
3. Han gav dei eit døme.
4. Ho fekk nye meldingar. (nye = new (pl.))