Husens

Husen, as a linguistic term, refers to a set of related word forms in North Germanic languages that derive from the noun for “house.” It is most commonly discussed in the context of Swedish, where the forms show a distinction between indefiniteness, definiteness, and possession.

In Swedish, the base noun is hus, meaning house. The indefinite plural form is hus (houses). The definite plural form is husen (the houses). The genitive or possessive plural form is husens (the houses’ or of the houses). These forms are used without any apostrophe, in contrast to English conventions for possessives.

Similar patterns occur in related languages. In Danish and Norwegian Bokmål, the equivalents are husene for “the houses” and husenes for “the houses’.” The parallels reflect shared North Germanic grammatical traditions and reflect how definiteness and possession are encoded on the noun.

Usage notes:

- Husen is used to refer to a specific, known group of houses. Example: “Husen står langs elven” (The houses stand along the river).

- Husens denotes possession or the attributive relationship of something to the houses: “husens färger” (the colors of the houses).

- There is no apostrophe in these possessive forms in Swedish; apostrophes are typically reserved for loaned or special stylistic uses in other languages.

Etymology: hus stems from Old Norse hús and is cognate with English house.

See also: hus (house), Swedish grammar on definite and indefinite forms, Nordic language noun inflections. Note that capitalized forms such as Husen can occur as proper nouns, including surnames or place names, independent of the linguistic usage described here.