Archive for 'Uncategorized'
Mind your inversion Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jun 29, 2014
Norwegian grammar has a tiny detail that always gives away foreigners: Inversion. That basically means that in some situations you have to change the word order, and if you forget to do that in those situations, well, then you sound like a foreigner… 🙂 There’s inversion in English too. To make a phrase like “you…
Norwegian Waffles Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 31, 2014
En vennegjeng (a group of friends) and I once paid a visit to a friend’s familie in the Haugesund area (Southwestern Norway by the coast). All of a sudden moren (the mother) in the house entered the wood-panelled living-room balancing a plate full of steaming hot vafler. I found it a very Norwegian experience! 🙂…
Girls Smiling in Early Spring Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 31, 2014
Endelig! (Finally!) Following a skikkelig dårlig vintervær (really bad winter weather) – where even the inland parts of Østlandet (Eastern Norway) had less snø (snow) than usual – many Norwegians have been able to enjoy a bit of vår (spring). According to NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting), this Saturday was one of the hottest mars (March) days…
Everyday Norwegian Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Mar 30, 2014
How do I get to Preikestolen? How much is the entrance to Kon-Tiki Museet? Language courses are often geared towards tourists and travelling. However, if you really want to speak like a native, you also need words for all the little things you do every day: Du står opp tidlig eller sent. (You get up…
The little words you always need Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Feb 27, 2014
Are you listening? No matter how much grammar you studied, no matter how perfect your pronunciation is… If you don’t know how to say uh-huh in the right way, you’re lost. Why should the one who’s entertaining you keep on talking, if you don’t provide any feedback? Here are some words to help make your conversations…
Lazy phrases Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Dec 22, 2013
Kan du snakke norsk? (”Can you speak Norwegian?”) Norwegian and English are related languages. As your study of Norwegian progresses, you’ll see that there are a lot of things that you already ”kind of know” when it comes to grammar and vocabulary. Nevertheless, the language does have at least one grammatical feature that does not…
4 Easy Ways to Become Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Nov 29, 2013
You’ve already learnt how to say that you are something. Unlike English verbs (I am, you are, she is), the Norwegian ”action words” don’t care who’s doing the action (or who’s being!) So, it could hardly be any easier: jeg (I) er/var/har vært/hadde vært – or whoever or whatever is/was/has been/had been. However, just being…