Individenes

Individenes is a grammatical form found in several Scandinavian languages that marks possession by more than one individual. It roughly corresponds to the English possessive plural “the individuals’.”

Morphology and usage vary by language, but the form is generally tied to the definite plural of the noun followed by a genitive or possessive marker. In contexts such as Norwegian and Danish, a definite plural like “individene” or its equivalent is combined with a genitive suffix to produce a form akin to “individenes,” meaning belonging to the individuals. The exact spelling and usage can differ between dialects and standard varieties.

Common contexts for the form include formal writing, law, statistics, and historical or scholarly texts where rights, belongings, or attributes are attributed to a group of people. For example, a phrase translated as “the individuals’ rights” would correspond to an instance of this possessive plural form in those languages. In Swedish, a closely related construction would be “individernas.”

Notes and limitations: Individenes is not an English term and is mainly encountered in Scandinavian-language texts. When translating or interpreting, the exact possessive plural form may differ depending on the language (Norwegian, Danish, or Swedish) and the surrounding grammatical structure.

See also: list of possessive constructions in Scandinavian languages; comparison of definite plural forms across Norwegian, Danish, and Swedish.