Entallsord

Entallsord is a term used in Norwegian grammar to refer to nouns that appear in the singular number. They denote a single entity, unit, or item, as opposed to flertallsord, which denote more than one. The distinction between singular and plural is fundamental to noun morphology and affects articles, adjectives, and pronouns that accompany the noun.

In practice, entallsord are inflected for number. Nouns typically have separate singular and plural forms, and modifiers agree in number with the noun. For example, en bil (a car) becomes to biler (two cars); en stor bil becomes to store biler. In definite or determiner-rich contexts, singular nouns may take a definite form or be accompanied by determiners that mark definiteness; plural forms likewise undergo corresponding changes.

Not all nouns follow regular patterns. Some have irregular plurals, some maintain the same form in singular and plural, and many mass or uncountable nouns function mainly in the singular and are counted with measure expressions (a liter of milk, not two milks). The classification into entallsord is often taught together with flertallsord and other number-related categories.

Cross-linguistically, the concept of singular nouns exists in many languages and is usually described with equivalent terms. In English they are called singular nouns; in Norwegian the term is entallsord.

See also: flertallsord; countable noun; mass noun.