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Norwegian words and phrases I use daily Posted by on Oct 5, 2010 in Language

I started thinking about all the ord (words) and fraser (phrases) I use daglig (daily) and came up with a list that I think would be useful for those learning norsk.  Some of them are hilsener (greetings), some are uttrykker (expressions).

den e god — sounds good (literally ´that is good´).  One says this often on the phone as a way to say ha det (goodbye) after someone says something like, ´see you at 5 o´clock´or perhaps to your boss when he-she tells you what your tasks are at work tomorrow.  Den e god is used in many different circumstances.  I have to admit I don´t hear it much outside of northern Norway, so it´s possible it is used more in that area of the country.  And for that matter, a lot of these fraser are written in nord-norsk and therefore are used more up there.

ka du styre med? what are you doing?  in bokmålhva styrer du med? Notice the word order in the sentence.  In bokmål, the verb comes second in the sentence when asking a question and in nord-norsk the pronoun comes second and the verb third.  Also in nord-norsk the verb in present tense doesn’t take the ‘r’ at the end like bokmål does in question sentences.

da høres vi-loose translation would be ‘then we’ll talk later’ although høre means ‘hear’

at det går an! That this is happening/is possible!  This sentence is used when one is shocked about something.

har du hørt?  literally ‘have you heard?!’ is used when someone says something that you are taken aback by.

takk for sist-literally means ‘thanks for last’ but really translates to ‘good to see you again’

sånn e det bare-‘it’s just like that’ similar to ‘such is life’

kos deg!  enjoy yourself/have fun!

stemmer det-makes sense

så klart/klart det-true/clear/that is clear, kind of like ‘obviously’

såpass-like that

There are many other ord og fraser that I use on a daily basis, but these are some of the most used.

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About the Author: kari

I attended St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN, where I majored in Norwegian and History. During college, I spent almost a year living in Oslo, Norway, where I attended the University of Oslo and completed an internship at the United States Embassy. I have worked for Concordia Language Villages as a pre-K Norwegian teacher and have taught an adult Norwegian language class. Right now, I keep up by writing this Norwegian blog for Transparent Language. Please read and share your thoughts! I will be continuing this blog from my future residence in the Norwegian arctic!


Comments:

  1. LGB:

    Hmmm …. ” Also in nord-norsk the infinitive of the verb doesn’t take the ‘r’ at the end like bokmål does” … I don’t understand that. Infinitive does not have -r at the end, neither in bokmål (btw literally infintive is “å gå” and such, with “å” too). If there is that -r, it’s not infinitive anymore, but the finite form (ie conjugated form). Since there is no other verb in the sentence (like “kan”) in bokmål at least you use the finite form, with other verb, the infinite. But that sentence you’ve mentioned as example does not have other verb. But feel free to correct me, I am just a beginner learner 🙂 🙂

  2. kari:

    thank you LGB-I meant the present tense of the verb in question sentences-that is, if the verb is a regular verb, such as like, styre, drikke that normally take an ´r´at the end of the verb 🙂 thanks for paying attention to detail!!

  3. LGB:

    Well and I thank for your posts, it’s really nice to read about Norwegian! I especially enjoy (oh guess what ….) the grammatical parts, and the difference between dialects and things like these.

  4. Kerem:

    I am a brand new Norwegian learner and i like your blog which is quite useful. Thanks.