Norwegian Language Blog

Hvor mye norsk kan du?  How much Norwegian do you know?

A topic that is certainly vanlig (common) among people who are learning et nytt språk (a new language).  It’s nice to be able to let someone know nivået (the level) you are really at with språket.  If you are a beginner with the language, it can be easier to speak with a native if the native is aware of generally how much you can forstå (understand).

Hvilket nivå er du på?  Which level are you at?

              Jeg er nybeginner på norsk.  I am a beginner in Norwegian.

              Jeg har vært i norskkurs i to år.  I have been in Norwegian class for 2 years.

              Jeg snakker flytende norsk.  I speak fluent Norwegian.

Hva slags vokabular har du?  What kind of vocabulary do you have?

              Jeg har e liten vokabular.  I have a small vocabulary.

              Vokabularet mitt er veldig stor.  My vocabulary is very big.

Hva synes du om norsk grammatikk?  What do you think about Norwegian grammar?

              Jeg synes at norsk grammatikk er lett.  I think that Norwegian grammar is easy.

              Norsk grammatikk er veldig vanskelig, synes jeg.  Norwegian grammar is very difficult, I think.

Kan du uttale norsk?  Can you pronounce Norwegian?

              Jeg trenger hjelp med å uttale norsk.  I need help pronouncing Norwegian.

              Jeg synes det er kjempevanskelig å uttale norsk.  I think it is extremely difficult to pronounce Norwegian. 

              Uttalelsen min har blitt mye bedre i år.  My pronunciation has gotten a lot better this year.

Kan du lese norsk?  Can you read Norwegian?

              Jeg kan lese barnabøker på norsk.  I can read children’s books in Norwegian.

              Det er ikke lett å lese norske aviser.  It is not easy to read Norweigan newspapers. 

              Jeg håper at jeg kan lese en norsk bok en dag.  I hope that I can read a Norwegian book one day.

Skriver du norsk?  Do you write Norwegian?

             Jeg kan skrive litt norsk.  I can write a little Norwegian.

             Jeg skriver hele setninger nå.  I write whole sentences now.

Du kan mer norsk enn du tror.  You know more Norwegian than you think. 

At the library.  At some point in your life, you probably spent a significant amount of time på biblioteket.  Maybe på grunnskole (grade school), videregåendeskole (high school), universitetet (college), på jobb (at work), eller i fritida (or in freetime).  I always thought it was fun å dra til biblioteket (to go to the library) when I was younger.  There were always veldig snille damer (very nice ladies) that worked there.  Doesn’t it seem like 99% of bibliotekarer (librarians) are women?  I’ve always wondered why that is, especially since women seem to be more chatty and louder på arbeidsplass (in the workplace) than men, and of course, it is important to be stille (quiet) på biblioteket.  Besides the snille damer, I liked sitting in the barnerom (kid’s room) på bibiloteket.  There were lots of stuffed dyr (animals) and lyse farger (bright colors) overalt (everywhere\all over).  Sometimes en bibliotekar would lese historier til barna (read stories to the kids). 

Besides barnebøker (children’s books), there is mye annet som finnes på biblioteket (much more that is found at the library).  Two major categories of reading material are skjønnlitteratur and faglitteratur\fagbok (non-fiction).  I have preferred faglitteratur since I was quite young.  Hva med deg (How about you)? 

På biblioteket there are also aviser (newspapers), magasiner (magazines), filmer (movies), hørbar bøker\ bøker på kassettbånd (audible books\books on tape), musikk (music), datamaskiner (computers), o.s.v.  Even if biblioteket is not your favorite place to be, it’s pretty difficult to get bored with all of the information available to you.  I think when I’m older, I’ll probably spend a lot of time på biblioteket and I hope I have my own mini-bibliotek hjemme (at home).

Har dere en favoritt bok (Do you have a favorite book) or forfatter (author)?  Hva er din favoritt slags bok (What is your favorite kind of book)?  Mysterium (mystery)?  Krim (crime)?  Kjærlighetsroman (romance novel)?  Sci-fi?  Biografi?  Komedie (comedy)?  Poesi\dikt (poetry)?  Tragedie (tragedy)?  Krig (war)?

Adverbs.  I know I wrote a post in the past that described adverbs relating to frequencies of events.  I would like to go over more norske adverb.  As a reminder, an adverb can modify essentially any part of speech except a noun.  Adverbs typically modify verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, a phrase, or a clause.  They are definitely a unique form of speech.  Adverbs answer questions like when?  where?  how?  in what way?  to what extent?  There are mye (many) adverbs and I will only mention a fraction of them today.  I will include sample sentences so that you can see how agile adverbs are in sentences; they can be located in various spots in a sentence.  As a sidenote, it is easy to tell many adverbs in English because they often end in “ly.”  På norsk the equivalent is “lig,” pronounced “lee” (silent “g”).

trolig-truly, probably.  Hun er trolig lei av jobben sin (He is truly/probably sick of his job).

snart-soon.  Snart kan vi dra for å gå på kino (Soon we can leave to go to the movies).

omtrent-approximately.  Jeg kan lese omtrent 400 sider om dagen (I can read approximately 400 pages during the day).

igjen-again.  Om noen få måneder blir det vår igjen (In a few months it will be spring again).

forhåpentligvis-hopefully.  Forhåpentligvis får jeg en høyere lønn neste år (Hopefully I will get a higher salary next year).

heldigvis-luckily.  Jeg ble heldigvis ikke syk i fjor (I luckily didn’t get sick last year).

helst-preferably.  Mamma vil helst at jeg hjelper henne i kjøkkenet (Mom would prefer most that I help her in the kitchen).

kun-bare.  Matbutikken har kun en slags frokostblanding (The grocery store has only one kind of cereal).

lovlig-legal.  Det er enda lovlig å snakke på telefon mens man kjører bil i Minnesota hvis man er 18 år gammel eller eldre (It is still legal to talk on the phone while one drives a car in Minnesota if one is 18 years old or older).

That’s probably a good list for now.  Notice the various locations that adverbs can be found in a sentence.  Quite the form of speech, ikke sant?  An adverb can be in the begining of the sentence, which will then prompt inversion of the verb, right after the verb, or at the end of the sentence.  Adverbs are not always an essential part of a sentence, but they certainly provide more detail and clarification.  Adverbs are pretty great.

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