Word Genders

I nearly developed an aneurism the day we learned about the gender of words in my Norwegian class. The gender matters greatly because it determines which “a” or “the” is used. For a masculine word, the Norsk article “en” is used, so “a car” would be “en bil” or “the car” is “bilen.” The same article is just attached to the end of the word instead of putting it before the noun to distinguish between just any car or one specific car.



If the word is neutral, the Norsk article “et” is used, so “a table” is “et bord” or “the table” is “bordet.” And if the gender of a word is feminine, well, that’s a whole other story. Is it a coincidence that the feminine version of a word has all the exceptions to this otherwise easy rule?


After tremendous effort identifying masculine/feminine/neutral nouns, The Good Teacher Inga then told us that the entire city of Bergen has decided to give up the feminine gender of nouns and they just use either neutral or masculine articles. But, she said, since we lived in Ålesund, we had to follow the proper rules of grammar and know all three versions. (I feared we might lose half the class to Bergen after that bit of news, as the toughest part of this section of grammar were the exceptions that go along with the feminine gender of words.) The worst part is there is no way on earth to know what gender words are – she basically suggested we memorize the entire dictionary so we will know for sure. I wanted to cry.


Inga also spent a great deal of time explaining the many different ways one can say “it,” depending on the gender of the word. I’m sure Bill Clinton must be part Norwegian, as after that lesson, it would be easy to understand his confusion over the meaning of the word “it.” “It” can be written “den” or “det,” but those same words are also used for “this” or “that.”


It would have been so nice if all I had to know was how to say “Hello” and “Good-bye” because all the other information about how to carry on a decent conversation nearly became the death of me. Maybe that’s why Norwegians, as a whole, are so tight lipped? It might just be easier for them to keep quiet about things than to try and remember all the rules of grammar and risk sounding like an idiot when they carry on a conversation.