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Archive for September, 2012

As Easy As ÆØÅ Posted by on Sep 30, 2012

Alt er større i USA. Everything is bigger in the US. That’s what we Scandinavians often think when we’re suffering from an attack of mindreverdighetskompleks (inferiority complex). The Americans have got bigger cars, houses, plains, trees and burgers than us. But wait… Is that always so? Norwegian komikere (comedians) Fridtjof Stensæth Josefsen and Jakob Schøyen Andersen, of the TV2 programme Kollektivet (The…

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Familien Posted by on Sep 24, 2012

One of the basic things in life is … familien [famEELee-uhn] (the family). Everybody has a mor (mother) and a far (father) – although lots of Norwegians would rather say they’ve got a mamma (mom) and a pappa (dad). There are many different ways of talking about ”my” mother or father: moren min, mora mi…

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Not Every A is a Girl Posted by on Sep 17, 2012

Remember when we talked about Langfjella, the mountain range that causes the clouds to drop all their rain in Western Norway, leaving Eastern Norway a lot drier? Now, what kind of name is Langfjella really … it has an -a ending, so clearly it must be the ”the” version of a feminine noun, right? Well, not…

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Sauesanking Posted by on Sep 14, 2012

In many ways, Vestlandet (Western Norway) is like Scotland or New Zealand (the South Island). You’ve got steep fjell (mountain/s – the singular and plural is the same), deep dal/er (valley/s, dale/s), fjord/er (fjord/s), lush, green vegetation in the warm months, and plenty of regn (rain)… And – you guessed it – lots of sau/er(sheep)…

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