de

pronoun

they; the (before an adjective)

Forms

Forms	de, dem

In simple Norwegian

ordet for flere personer eller ting vi snakker om

Examples

De bor i en stor leilighet.They live in a big flat.
Jeg har ikke sett dem i dag.I haven’t seen them today.
De nye naboene er hyggelige.The new neighbours are nice.
Hvor er barna? De leker ute.Where are the children? They are playing outside.
Vi spiste middag med dem.We had dinner with them.

Useful phrases

de andre the others
de fleste most (people)
alle sammen all of them
De you (old polite form)

Good to know

De is pronounced “di”, and its object form dem is pronounced “dem”. Learners often write dem as a subject: it is De bor her, not “Dem bor her”. Before an adjective de is the plural definite article: de store husene. The polite capital De has almost vanished from everyday Norwegian.

In Bokmålsordboka

fl av han, hun, den, det det fins de som mener at ... · det var deres egen skyld
i høflig tiltale til enkeltperson kan De være så vennlig å reise Dem? · Deres Majestet

Bokmålsordboka, Universitetet i Bergen og Språkrådet, ordbøkene.no, CC-BY 4.0