3.10 More Demonstratives
Demonstratives can stand alone as pronouns, without the noun. Thus if it is clear from the context (usually an object has just been mentioned in a text or conversation), one does not need to repeat that noun. The English equivalent often uses the word ‘one.’
Example:
Har du sett dette bildet? (Have you seen this picture?)
Har du sett dette? (Have you seen this (one)?)
In addition, the neuter demonstratives can be ‘place-holders’ not necessarily referring to specific objects.
Examples:
Jeg forstår ikke dette. (I don’t understand this.)
Hvordan er dette mulig? (How is this possible?)
Han understreker at dette ikke har noe med gen-teknologien å gjøre. (He stresses that this has nothing to do with genetic technology.)
Note that the demonstratives for distant objects (den, det, de) look exactly the same as the stand-alone pronouns meaning “it, it, they”. Context (and if a noun follows the word) will tell you whether the word means “that, those” or “it, they.” In addition, these forms are identical to the ‘extra’ definite article used with definite noun-adjective clauses: Den røde bilen “the red car”, det store universitetet “the large university”, de unge elevene “the young pupils.” In spoken Norwegian, when den, det, and de are used as demonstratives, they are stressed more than when they are used as pronouns or definite articles.
It is also common to use the demonstrative when a phrase beginning with “som” follows the noun.
Example:
Der sitter den gutten som jeg snakket om. (There sits the boy I was talking about.)