Possessive constructions in Norwegian

The term 'genitive' here subsumes possessive pronouns and NPs with an -s attached at the end (without apostrophe). Possessive pronouns come in three patterns, one comprising min ('my'), din ('your'), sin (reflexive 'his', 'her'), another comprising hans ('his'), hennes ('her'), dens ('its', masc and fem.), dets ('its', neut.), dennes ('this one's', masc and fem.), dettes ('that one's', neuter), deres (your', plur., and 'their', plur.), and the third comprising vår ('our'). The words in the second group do not inflect (being essensially the personal pronoun plus -s), while the first group inflects much like adjectives, exemplifying with min:

with a masculine singular noun: min

with a feminine singular noun: mi

with a neuter singular noun: mitt

with a plural noun, any gender: mine

Vår has the pattern

with a masculine singular noun: vår

with a feminine singular noun: vår

with a neuter singular noun: vårt

with a plural noun, any gender: våre

Genitives occupy the position otherwise held by the definite article, and they may be said to induce a definiteness effect in that they require the weak form of the adjective. Contrary to the definite article, however, the ensuing noun has to be in indefinite form (parenthesis indicating that the well- or illformedness indicated for the example prevails in the presence of either of the parenthesized words):

mine (tre) (små) griser

min (lille) gris

• min (lille) grisen

• mine (tre) (små) grisene

den rike bondens (tre) (små) griser

den rike bondens (lille) gris

• den rike bondens (tre) (små) grisene

For possessive pronouns, another position of occurrence is immediately after the noun, which then has to be in definite form:

grisen min

• gris min

den lille grisen min

de tre grisene mine

• den lille gris min

• lille grisen min

• tre grisene mine

The last two examples show that also for this use of definite nouns, the requirements III and V above imposed by preceding weak adjectives and numerals hold.