In terms of language, jumping into the FaceBook era has been easy for Norwegian-speakers: ’to like’ is å like [aw LEEkeh]!
- Liker du brunost? (Do you like Norwegian brown cheese?)
- Jeg liker ikke ost i det hele tatt. (I don’t like cheese at all.)
- Men jeg liker deg. (But I like you.)
This can also be used in front of other verbs, as in ’We like playing chess’: Vi liker å spille sjakk. As there are no real ing-forms in Norwegian, only the infinitive or to-form is used (”We like to play chess”). In order to make it stronger, the words veldig godt (very good) are added:
- Jeg liker ham veldig godt. (I like him a lot.)
- Hun likte veldig godt å kjøre bil. (She liked very much driving a car)
Other ways of liking
If you’re really fond of someone, a nice construction to use is å være glad i – literally ”to be happy in”.
- Er du glad i meg, mamma? (Do you like/love me, mum?)
- De er veldig glade i hverandre. (They’re very fond of each other)
- Han var ikke så glad i kake. (He wasn’t a big fan of cakes.)
The Norwegian equivalent of English ’to love’ is å elske. Please note that this construction is much more used in (American) English than in Norwegian! In a situation where an American would use the word ”love”, a Norwegian most often talks about ”liking” instead – unless it really is passionate love in the romantic sense!
- Jeg elsker fjellturer. (I love mountain hikes.)
- Jeg elsker deg. (I love you.)
A bit of slang
Finally, there is the verb å digge. It comes straight from English to dig, and is a very slangy thing to say:
- Hun digger Bruce Springsteen. (She digs [likes] Bruce Springsteen.)
Comments:
Bernardo Ottosen:
Hei Bjørn,
I enjoy your blog with very interesting topics to learn a bit of norwegian all the time. I am a mexican with norwegian and danish roots from my grandparents and I also feel scandinavian!, Thanks for this.
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Bernardo Ottosen Hei Bernardo,
thank you for the comment! Happy to hear from another ”Scandinavian”! 🙂
Mariola:
an interesting blog! I’m studying Norwegian so for sure i’ll check your posts:) hilsener!
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Mariola Hei Mariola!
Takk! Good luck with your Norwegian studies – lykke til!
Hellen:
Tusen takk, Bjorn. Your Norge blog is an awesome remembrance of my visit to Norway. I bought a (comprehensive) Norway grammar book and a dictionary there. No time to learn it seriously yet. Reading bit by bit from your blog is very helpful. With warmest regards from Jakarta, Hellen
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Hellen Thanks for your comment, Hellen. Much appreciated! I wish you ”Lykke til!” with your Norwegian studies. (Jakarta – that sounds like the perfect place to study!)
Kristen Spangler:
I have been teaching myself Norwegian for several years. I have a friend in Norway, and while her English is near-perfect, I have enjoyed learning her language. I recently discovered this FB page and your blog. It is very helpful in helping me improve my conversational norsk. I have various texts, and while they are accurate, they are sometimes a little “stiff” annd formal. Thank-you!
I tried to click on the video link, but it did not work.
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Kristen Spangler Hei Kristen!
I’m happy to hear that we here at Transparent Language can help you improve your Norwegian skills. 🙂
Sorry about the video link. Unfortunately, online videos sometimes get removed, and there isn’t much that we can do about it. Fortunately, this song is popular, you can check it out here in another version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDq3Sv9hK2A
Best, Bjørn
Kristen Spangler:
The e-mail address is incorrect for the above comment, jeg beklager.
Barb Heiam-Bjornsen:
Hey Bjorn,
I have a question for you. I have a lot of Scandinavian friends and family over there and in Minnesota, where I grew up – and being mainly Norwegian, I want to know what the ‘slash’ through the ‘o’ is called. (I think the two dots over the ‘o’ in Swedish or German are called umlauts, right?)
Let me know, thanks 😉
Barb Heiam-Bjornsen (Facebook name, as well if you want to be friends)
Lake Tahoe, California, USA
bheiam@gmail.com
805-903-2302
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Barb Heiam-Bjornsen Hey Barb,
thank you for the question. In English, the line through the ’o’ is called a ”stroke”. So, ’ø’ is ”o with stroke”.
In Norwegian, it isn’t really called anything… The letter is just called ”ø” (almost rhymes with ”fur”).
If you want to talk about it in Norwegian, though, the word to use would be ”strek” (stroke, line).
Hope that helped!
Regards,
Bjørn
PS I’m not very active on FB, but thanks anyway. 🙂
Pauline McMahon:
I have jst discovered I have Norwegian & french in me, from a long time ago. My granda, researched our family tree. I am trying to learn norwegian, as a hobby, nothing else. I find Ur blog really interesting, thank you or should takk?
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Pauline McMahon @Pauline Thanks a lot for the comment! 🙂 Happy you’re learning Norwegian. And oh – it’s takk!
Yaroslav Ostapuk:
Hei Bjørn! Tusen takk for bloggen din! Det er alltid interessant å lese den 🙂 Hilsen fra St.Petersburg (Russland)!
Bjørn A. Bojesen:
@Yaroslav Ostapuk Hei Yaroslav
Tusen takk for tilbakemeldingen (the feedback). It’s much appreciated! 🙂 Good luck with your language learning in St. Petersburg. I’d love to visit that city one day!