mang en

See also: mangen and mången

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

mang ein (Nynorsk), mangen (Riksmål)

Etymology

Compound formed by the words mang (from the Middle Norwegian noun mangr (“huge crowd”)) and the article en ("a/an"), at the same time undergoing influence from words as ingen ("nobody", "no one") and hvilken ("which", "what"), though these two words have not been formed in the same manner.

Determiner

mang en (masculine singular mang en, feminine singular mang ei, neuter singular mangt or mangt et, plural mange)

many a; One out of many, many (times) (only the singular form of both the pronoun and the noun is used)
Det har hendt mang en gang = it has happened many times

Mang en gang har jeg forsøkt å finne skatten = many times have I attempted to find the treasure

Mang ei/en jente måtte av gårde for å hjelpe til = many girls had to head out to give a hand

Han har tatt mangt et tak = he has made many efforts (literally: "he has taken many hard holds/initiatives")
(somewhat poetic) much, a lot (only the singular neuter form is used, the article is left out and no noun is utilised)
Du har mangt å lære, min venn = you have much to learn, my friend

Kjeder du deg? Det er mangt som må gjøres, vet du. = are you bored? There is much that needs to be done, you know.

Hun fortalte ham mangt og meget om gjenstandens virkemåte = she told him many ["various"] things about the function of the object.
many, several, quite a few, a good many (only the plural form is utilised)
Mange ganger skrek de, men ingen hørte dem = they screamed many times, but no one heard them.

Usage notes

Note that the plural form mange functions as an independent word (adjective), in the same way as English many.

The word carries a sense of formality when used in the singular; in colloquial speech, the word mye ("much") is therefore preferred when speaking of "much", as in "there is much to be done", while only mange is used for expressing "many", as in "there are many things for you to see".

When being applied to a feminine noun, one is free (in Bokmål, not Nynorsk) to choose between the feminine article ei and the masculine en, similar to the way one is free to inflect feminine nouns as masculine (also only in Bokmål).

Synonyms

Derived terms

mangt og meget (somewhat formal and poetic) = many things, a great many things (literally: "much and many")
mengde

References

“mang en” in The Bokmål Dictionary.