Editing Norwegian language (section)

===Nouns===
{{See also|Nynorsk#Nouns}}
Norwegian [[noun]]s are [[inflection|inflected]] for [[grammatical number|number]] (singular/plural) and for [[definiteness]] (indefinite/definite). In a few dialects, definite nouns are also inflected for the [[dative case]].

Norwegian nouns belong to three [[Grammatical gender|noun classes]] (genders): masculine, feminine and neuter. All feminine nouns can optionally be inflected using masculine noun class morphology in Bokmål due to its Danish heritage.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.sprakradet.no/Vi-og-vart/Publikasjoner/Spraaknytt/spraknytt-22017/grammatisk-kjonn-og-variasjon-i-norsk/|title=Grammatisk kjønn og variasjon i norsk|website=Språkrådet|language=no|access-date=17 June 2019|archive-date=17 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190617223757/https://www.sprakradet.no/Vi-og-vart/Publikasjoner/Spraaknytt/spraknytt-22017/grammatisk-kjonn-og-variasjon-i-norsk/|url-status=live}}</ref> In comparison, the use of all three genders (including the feminine) is mandatory in Nynorsk.<ref name="Språkrådet2">{{Cite web|url=http://elevrom.sprakradet.no/skolen/minigrammatikk/tema/hovudreglane_for_substantivboying|title=Språkrådet|website=elevrom.sprakradet.no|access-date=14 July 2018|archive-date=14 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714193145/http://elevrom.sprakradet.no/skolen/minigrammatikk/tema/hovudreglane_for_substantivboying|url-status=live}}</ref>

All Norwegian dialects have traditionally retained all the three grammatical genders from [[Old Norse]] to some extent.<ref name=":0">{{Citation|last=Skjekkeland|first=Martin|title=dialekter i Bergen|date=10 September 2018|url=http://snl.no/dialekter_i_Bergen|work=Store norske leksikon|language=no|access-date=17 June 2019|archive-date=15 May 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190515020059/https://snl.no/dialekter_i_Bergen|url-status=live}}</ref> The only exceptions are the [[Bergen dialect|dialect of Bergen]] and a few upper class sociolects at [[East End and West End of Oslo|the west end of Oslo]] that have completely lost the feminine gender.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Citation|last1=Hanssen|first1=Eskil|title=dialekter og språk i Oslo|date=13 September 2016|url=http://snl.no/dialekter_og_spr%C3%A5k_i_Oslo|work=Store norske leksikon|language=no|access-date=14 July 2018|last2=Kjærheim|first2=Harald|last3=Skjekkeland|first3=Martin|archive-date=15 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180715035836/https://snl.no/dialekter_og_spr%C3%A5k_i_Oslo|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to [[Marit Westergaard]], approximately 80% of nouns in Norwegian are masculine.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Isaksen |first1=Karoline Kvellestad |title=Do we really need grammatical gender? |url=https://partner.sciencenorway.no/cas-centre-for-advanced-study-gender-language/do-we-really-need-grammatical-gender/1576053 |access-date=25 September 2022 |work=[[Forskning.no]] |agency=The Centre for Advanced Study |date=11 October 2019 |archive-date=25 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220925145858/https://partner.sciencenorway.no/cas-centre-for-advanced-study-gender-language/do-we-really-need-grammatical-gender/1576053 |url-status=live }}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+Examples, nouns in Bokmål
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |Singular
! colspan="2" |Plural
|-
!Indefinite
!Definite
!Indefinite
!Definite
|-
! rowspan="2" |Masculine
|{{lang|nb|en båt}}
|{{lang|nb|båten}}
|{{lang|nb|båter}}
|{{lang|nb|båtene}}
|-
|a boat
|the boat
|boats
|the boats
|-
! rowspan="2" |Feminine
|{{lang|nb|ei/en vogn}}
|{{lang|nb|vogna/vognen}}
|{{lang|nb|vogner}}
|{{lang|nb|vognene}}
|-
|a wagon
|the wagon
|wagons
|the wagons
|-
! rowspan="2" |Neuter
|{{lang|nb|et hus}}
|{{lang|nb|huset}}
|{{lang|nb|hus}}
|{{lang|nb|husa/husene}}
|-
|a house
|the house
|houses
|the houses
|}
Norwegian and other Scandinavian languages use a [[suffix]] to indicate [[definiteness]] of a noun, unlike English which has a separate article, ''the'', to indicate the same.

In general, almost all nouns in Bokmål follow these patterns<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.ressurssidene.no/web/PageND.aspx?id=99149|title=Bøying|website=www.ressurssidene.no|language=nb-NO|access-date=14 July 2018}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> (like the words in the examples above):

{| class="wikitable"
|+Nouns in Bokmål
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |Singular
! colspan="2" |Plural
|-
!Indefinite
!Definite
!Indefinite
!Definite
|-
!Masculine
|{{lang|nb|en}}
|  {{lang|nb|-en}}
| rowspan="2" |  {{lang|nb|-er}}
| rowspan="2" |  {{lang|nb|-ene}}
|-
!Feminine
|{{lang|nb|ei/en}}
|  {{lang|nb|-a/-en}}
|-
!Neuter
|{{lang|nb|et}}
|  {{lang|nb|-et}}
|  {{lang|nb|-/-er}}
|  {{lang|nb|-a/-ene}}
|}
In contrast, almost all nouns in Nynorsk follow these patterns<ref name="Språkrådet2"/> (the noun gender system is more pronounced than in Bokmål):
{| class="wikitable"
|+Nouns in Nynorsk
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |Singular
! colspan="2" |Plural
|-
!Indefinite
!Definite
!Indefinite
!Definite
|-
!Masculine
|{{lang|nn|ein}}
|  {{lang|nn|-en}}
|  {{lang|nn|-ar}}
|  {{lang|nn|-ane}}
|-
!Feminine
|{{lang|nn|ei}}
|  {{lang|nn|-a}}
|  {{lang|nn|-er}}
|  {{lang|nn|-ene}}
|-
!Neuter
|{{lang|nn|eit}}
|  {{lang|nn|-et}}
|  –
|  {{lang|nn|-a}}
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Examples, nouns in Nynorsk
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" |Singular
! colspan="2" |Plural
|-
!Indefinite
!Definite
!Indefinite
!Definite
|-
! rowspan="2" |Masculine
|{{lang|nn|ein båt}}
|{{lang|nn|båten}}
|{{lang|nn|båtar}}
|{{lang|nn|båtane}}
|-
|a boat
|the boat
|boats
|the boats
|-
! rowspan="2" |Feminine
|{{lang|nn|ei vogn}}
|{{lang|nn|vogna}}
|{{lang|nn|vogner}}
|{{lang|nn|vognene}}
|-
|a wagon
|the wagon
|wagons
|the wagons
|-
! rowspan="2" |Neuter
|{{lang|nn|eit hus}}
|{{lang|nn|huset}}
|{{lang|nn|hus}}
|{{lang|nn|husa}}
|-
|a house
|the house
|houses
|the houses
|}

There is in general no way to infer what grammatical gender a specific noun has, but there are some patterns of nouns where the gender can be inferred. For instance, all nouns ending in -''nad'' will be masculine in both Bokmål and Nynorsk (for instance the noun {{lang|no|jobbsøknad}}, which means 'job application'). Most nouns ending in -''ing'' will be feminine, like the noun {{lang|no|forventning}} ('expectation').

There are some common irregular nouns, many of which are irregular in both Bokmål and Nynorsk, like the following:
{| class="wikitable"
|+Irregular noun, fot (foot)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=fot&ant_bokmaal=5&ant_nynorsk=5&begge=+&ordbok=begge|title=Bokmålsordboka {{!}} Nynorskordboka|website=ordbok.uib.no|access-date=14 July 2018|archive-date=14 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180714193521/https://ordbok.uib.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=fot&ant_bokmaal=5&ant_nynorsk=5&begge=+&ordbok=begge|url-status=live}}</ref>
!
! colspan="2" |Singular
! colspan="2" |Plural
|-
!
!Indefinite
!Definite
!Indefinite
!Definite
|-
!Bokmål
|{{lang|nb|en fot}}
|{{lang|nb|foten}}
|{{lang|nb|føtter}}
|{{lang|nb|føttene}}
|-
!Nynorsk
|{{lang|nn|ein fot}}
|{{lang|nn|foten}}
|{{lang|nn|føter}}
|{{lang|nn|føtene}}
|-
!English
|a foot
|the foot
|feet
|the feet
|}
In Nynorsk, even though the irregular word {{lang|nn|fot}} is masculine, it is inflected like a feminine word in the plural. Another word with the same irregular inflection is {{lang|nn|son – søner}} ('son – sons').

In Nynorsk, nouns ending in -''ing'' typically have masculine plural inflections, like the word {{lang|nn|dronning}} in the following table. But they are treated as feminine nouns in every other way.<ref name="Språkrådet2"/>
{| class="wikitable"
|+Nynorsk, some irregular nouns
|-
! Gender
! colspan="4" |Nouns ending with -ing
! English
|-
! Feminine
|{{lang|nn|ei dronning}}
|{{lang|nn|dronninga}}
|{{lang|nn|dronningar}}
|{{lang|nn|dronningane}}
| queen
|-
! colspan="6" | Plurals with [[Umlaut (linguistics)|umlaut]] (these irregularities also exist in Bokmål)
|-
! rowspan="4" | Feminine
|{{lang|nn|ei bok}}
|{{lang|nn|boka}}
|{{lang|nn|b'''ø'''ker}}
|{{lang|nn|b'''ø'''kene}}
| book
|-
|{{lang|nn|ei hand}}
|{{lang|nn|handa}}
|{{lang|nn|h'''e'''nder}}
|{{lang|nn|h'''e'''ndene}}
| hand
|-
|{{lang|nn|ei stong}}
|{{lang|nn|stonga}}
|{{lang|nn|st'''e'''nger}}
|{{lang|nn|st'''e'''ngene}}
| rod
|-
|{{lang|nn|ei tå}}
|{{lang|nn|tåa}}
|{{lang|nn|t'''æ'''r}}
|{{lang|nn|t'''æ'''rne}}
| toe
|-
! colspan="6" | Plurals with no ending (these irregularities also exist in Bokmål)
|-
! Masculine
|{{lang|nn|ein ting}}
|{{lang|nn|tingen}}
|{{lang|nn|ting}}
|{{lang|nn|tinga}}
| thing
|-
|}

==== Genitive of nouns ====
In general, the [[genitive case]] has died out in modern Norwegian and there are only some remnants of it in certain expressions: {{lang|no|til fjells}} ('to the mountains'), {{lang|no|til sjøs}} ('to the sea'). To show ownership, there is an [[enclitic]] -''s'' similar to English -{{'}}''s''; {{lang|no|Sondres flotte bil}} ('Sondre's nice car', ''Sondre'' being a personal name). There are also reflexive possessive pronouns, {{lang|no|sin}}, {{lang|no|si}}, {{lang|no|sitt}}, {{lang|no|sine}}; {{lang|no|Det er Sondre sitt}} ('It is Sondre's'). In both Bokmål and modern Nynorsk, there is often a mix of both of these to mark possession, though it is more common in Nynorsk to use the reflexive pronouns; in Nynorsk use of the reflexive possessive pronouns is generally encouraged to avoid mixing the enclitic -''s'' with the historical grammatical case remnants of the language. The reflexive pronouns agree in gender and number with the noun.

The enclitic -''s'' in Norwegian evolved as a shorthand expression for the possessive pronouns {{lang|no|sin}}, {{lang|no|si}}, {{lang|no|sitt}} and {{lang|no|sine}}.{{Citation needed|date=September 2022}}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Examples
|-
!Norwegian (with pronoun)
!Norwegian (with enclitic 's)
!English
|-
|{{lang|no|Jenta sin bil}}
|{{lang|no|Jentas bil}}
|The girl's car
|-
|{{lang|no|Mannen si kone}}
|{{lang|no|Mannens kone}}
|The man's wife
|-
|{{lang|no|Gutten sitt leketøy}}
|{{lang|no|Guttens leketøy}}
|The boy's toy
|-
|{{lang|no|Kona sine barn}}
|{{lang|no|Konas barn}}
|The wife's children
|-
|{{lang|no|Det er statsministeren sitt}}
|{{lang|no|Det er statsministerens}}
|It is the prime minister's
|}