tilskrives

Tilskrives is a verb used in Norwegian and Danish meaning to attribute or ascribe something to someone, i.e., to credit a claim, result, or statement to a person or source. It is a transitive verb that expresses that a thing is assigned to someone as its origin, cause, or responsibility.

In Danish and Norwegian syntax, tilskrive follows the pattern tilskrive noe til noen, where noe is the thing being attributed and noen is the beneficiary or recipient of the attribution. Examples: “Forskeren tilskrev kollegaen æren for oppdagelsen.” and “Kreditt ble tilskrevet ham.” In this construction, the thing attributed (æren, kreditt) is the direct object, and the person to whom it is attributed (kollegaen, ham) is the indirect object.

The verb also forms a present passive and a perfect form. Passive constructions include “Dette tilskrives ham” and “Denne påstanden ble tilskrevet forfatteren.” The past participle is tilskrevet, and in perfect tenses Norwegian and Danish often use a auxiliary verb like har/har blitt or blev.

Etymology traces the term to a combination of til- meaning “to” and skrive meaning “to write,” reflecting the notion of setting something down in writing or designating it to a person. A related noun is tilskrivning, meaning attribution or credit.

Tilskrives remains common in academic, journalistic, and everyday language when discussing sources, causes, or attribution of actions and opinions.