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Norwegian nouns operate within a three-gender system with unique rules for articles and definiteness that differ significantly from English. We explore how nouns transform when expressing "the" through suffixes rather than separate articles.

• Nouns are words that can have "a" or "the" placed before them in English.
• Norwegian has three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter.
• The definite article ("the") is added as a suffix to the end of Norwegian nouns.
• Masculine nouns use "en" and add "-en" for definiteness (en kopp → koppen).
• Feminine nouns use "ei" and add "-a" for definiteness (ei bok → boka).
• Neuter nouns use "et" and add "-et" for definiteness (et hus → huset).
• All feminine nouns can alternatively be treated as masculine if preferred.
• Danish influence explains why feminine forms are considered less formal.
• Plural forms typically add "-er" and "-ene" regardless of gender.
• Short neuter nouns don't change form in the indefinite plural.
• Some nouns (particularly family words) have irregular plural forms.
• The demonstrative "den" (that) is different from the definite article "the".

You can find the transcript of this episode in the description, which might be helpful when following along with the Norwegian examples.

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