Archive for 'Grammar'

How to get directions from a dropped letter

Posted on 10. May, 2013 by in Grammar

When you want to tell the world where you are, prepositions come handy: I’m in the garage; we’re on the mountain. (And so it is in Norwegian: Jeg er i garasjen; vi er fjellet.) However, very often some kind of adverb can do the job as well: I’m home; we’re out. Jeg er hjemme; vi er ute.

You’ll notice that a lot of these locational adverbs end in -e in Norwegian. In addition to hjemme [YEMMeh] and ute [OOteh], you’ve got:

- inne (in, inside), as in Hun sitter inne i stua (she’s sitting in the living-room)

- oppe (up), as in Vi var oppe hele natta (We stayed up all night)

- nede (down), as in De traff hverandre nede i dalen (They met/hit each other down in the valley)

- borte (away), as in Hvorfor er du alltid borte når jeg er hjemme? (Why’re you always gone when I’m at home?)

- fremme (in front), as in Det er jeg som skal sitte fremme i bilen (It is I who’s supposed to sit in the front of the car) [this word can also be spelt framme]

But what if you wanted to say you were going home rather than being home? In Norwegian there’s a really nice trick you can use to tweak the meaning of the above words into something more directional: You just remove the final -e:

- hjem! (Go home!)

- Nå må dere komme ut! (Now you must come out(side)!)

- Hun går inn i stua (She’s going into the living-room)

- Han står opp (He gets up)

- De går lenger ned i dalen (They go further down the valley)

- Han løp bort så fort han kunne (He ran away as fast as he could)

- Kom frem! (Come forth!)

 

Neat, huh? :-)

4 Easy Ways To Be

Posted on 08. Mar, 2013 by in Grammar

Er Du

It’s been a while since I last talked to you about grammatikk (grammar). For some learners, that’s just a necessary evil. I always argue that learning grammar can be just as fun as exploring the culture or learning vocabulary. Let’s talk about å være (”aw vare”, to be).

One of the first Norwegian words you’ll hear, is the present tense er (is, are, am):

Jeg er kjempeglad! (I’m very happy!)

Hvem er du? (Who’re you?)

Familien min er på ferie. (My family is on holiday.)

De er i Spania. (They’re in Spain.)

 

Easy, right? In order to make questions, you just move er up front:

Er du jenta fra USA? (Are you the girl from the US?)

Er dere ferdige? (Are you finished?)

Er han hjemme, tror du? (Do you think he’s at home?)

 

Negative phrases are made by inserting the little word ikke right behind er:

Nei, jeg er ikke fra USA. (No, I’m not from the US.)

Nei, han er ikke hjemme i dag. (No, he’s not at home today.)

 

When making questions, the word ikke stays at its place!

Er han ikke hjemme på torsdag heller? (Is he not at home on Thursday either?)

 

Stuck in the past

The past tense works in the same way. You just replace er by var (was, were)!

Hvor var du i går? (Where were you yesterday?)

Hun var ikke maler i 1997. (She wasn’t a painter in 1997.)

 

Has been, had been…

When you want to tell people where or what you have been, the words to use are har vært [har VARE-t]. In the past, that’s hadde vært (had been). It all works pretty much as in English:

Pål har vært sjømann i sju år. (Paul has been a sailor for seven years.)

De hadde aldri vært på Glittertind før. (They had never been on Mount Glittertind before.)

 

Vær forsiktig!

Be careful!

  1. There’s no direct way to say I am waiting… or Are you coming? in Norwegian. Instead, you just say Jeg venter… (I wait) and Kommer du? (Come you?)
  2. Very often when telling where something is (located), Norwegians will use the words ligger (lie[s]), sitter (sit[s]) or står (stand[s])

Sarpsborg ligger i Østfold. (Sarpsborg is in Østfold.)

Jeg sitter i stua! (I’m in the living room!)

Vinen står i skapet. (The wine is in the cupboard.)

From Play to Playful

Posted on 14. Nov, 2012 by in Grammar

Sometimes you need to change a word from one grammatical class to another. In English you do that all the time, for example when you make the verb ”to read” into a noun by adding an -ing suffix: Reading makes me happy.

When you want to swap the class of a Norwegian word, you have several suffixes or endings at your disposal. (Don’t worry, each word is usually tied to a single suffix. I mean, you wouldn’t say ”happity” or ”stupidness” in English.) Let’s look at the most common:

Changing an adjective to an abstract noun

-hetlik (equal) > likhet (equality), norsk (Norwegian) > norskhet(”Norwegianness”), kjærlig (loving) > kjærlighet (love)

-skaplat (lazy) > latskap (laziness), utro (unfaithful) > utroskap(unfaithfulness)

-domrik (rich) > rikdom (richness, wealth), fattig (poor) > fattigdom(poverty), ung (young) > ungdom (youth, young people)

Changing a verb to an abstract noun

-ingå sykle (to ride a bicycle) > sykling (bicycling), å klatre (to climb) >klatring (climbing)

-elseå føle (to feel) > følelse (feeling, sentiment), å friste (to tempt) >fristelse (temptation), å spøke (to haunt) > spøkelse (ghost)

-eri: å fiske (to fish) > fiskeri (fishing), å bake (to bake) > bakeri (bakery – okay, that’s a very concrete place!)

Changing a verb to a noun describing a person

-erå bake (to bake) > baker (baker), å kjøpe (to buy) > kjøper (buyer)

-(n)inggal (mad) > galning (madman), gammel > gamling (old man)

Changing a verb to an adjective

-ligå tenke (to think) > tenkelig (which can be thought), å kjede seg (to be bored) > kjedelig (boring)

Changing a noun to an adjective

-etehår (hair) > hårete (hairy), stein (stone) > steinete (stony)

-som: slit (toil) > slitsom (laborious, toilsome), en (one – allright, that’s not a noun!) > ensom (lonely)

Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut rules here, you just have to learn which words go with which endings. The endings -er-ing and -het are very frequent. -er and -ing can be added to just about any verb in the language. But beware! Whereas å bygge (to build) can be suffixed to produce bygging(the act of building), the result of this building is called a bygning (a physical building).