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In learn about nouns in Norwegian part 2, we have seen that the article used to identify the female gender noun, hunkjønn is ei. You have also added a lot of hunkjønn nouns to your vocabulary in learn about Norwegian nouns and articles – IV.
I am pretty sure you are now quite comfortable with Norwegian nouns and articles (if not you can go here). So I can bring out the radioactive stuff about hunkjønn nouns. Well, for hunkjønn nouns you can either use the ei or the en article (which is usually associated with hankjønn nouns). This is completely correct as per the rules of modern Norwegian grammar. Maybe it’s to eliminate gender inequality among Norwegian nouns as well 😉
So here are some of the hunkjønn nouns with the ei article.
| Entall (Singular) | Flertall (Plural) | ||
| Ubestemt (Indefinite) | Bestemt (Definite) | Ubestemt (Indefinite) | Bestemt (Definite) |
| ei dør (a door) | døra | flere dører | dørene |
| ei bygd (a village) | bygda | flere bygder | bygdene |
| ei flaske (a bottle) | flaska | flere flasker | flaskene |
| ei sol (a sun) | sola | flere soler | solene |
| ei sky (a cloud) | skya | flere skyer | skyene |
And here are the same hunkjønn nouns with the en article.
| Entall (Singular) | Flertall (Plural) | ||
| Ubestemt (Indefinite) | Bestemt (Definite) | Ubestemt (Indefinite) | Bestemt (Definite) |
| en dør (a door) | døren | flere dører | dørene |
| en bygd (a village) | bygden | flere bygder | bygdene |
| en flaske (a bottle) | flasken | flere flasker | flaskene |
| en sol (a sun) | solen | flere soler | solene |
| en sky (a cloud) | skyen | flere skyer | skyene |
Notice any difference between the use of ei and en with hunkjønn noun? I knew my readers are very clever. As you may have noticed, if you use the en article, you end up using the hankjønn grammar rules as mentioned in learn about norwegian nouns and articles – III. So en flaske in entall, ubestemt form ends up as flasken in entall, bestemt form as seen above.
Personally, I prefer (and recommend) that you learn hunkjønn nouns the traditional way using the ei article. But again, it’s completely up to you.
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