Mønsterets

Mønsterets is the possessive form of the Scandinavian noun mønster, meaning pattern or design. It is used in Danish and Norwegian to indicate that something belongs to or is associated with a particular pattern, and it corresponds to the English construction “the pattern’s …” or “of the pattern.” The base word mønster has a definite form mønsteret; when forming the possessive, the definite form receives the enclitic -s, yielding mønsterets.

In practice, mønsterets is used before a noun to specify possession or association. Examples include mønsterets farger (the pattern’s colors), mønsterets opprinnelse (the pattern’s origin), and mønsterets betydning (the pattern’s meaning). The construction is common in formal and descriptive writing, product descriptions, and analyses of textiles, art, and design where a particular pattern is being discussed.

Although the exact possessive construction can vary with language and register, mønsterets is widely understood in both Danish and Norwegian contexts as a standard genitive form for definite nouns of the mønster class. In Norwegian, possessive expressions can also be conveyed with pronouns or alternative determiner constructions, but mønsterets remains the conventional written form for the pattern’s attribute when using the definite noun.

See also: mønster, genitive in Danish and Norwegian, Norwegian and Danish grammar, textile design terminology.