Together with my students at a language course, I recently found a great way of activating det passive ordforrådet (the passive vocabulary). I wrote a simple word on tavlen (the blackboard), asking my students to find its motsetning (opposite). Then we picked another word, found its ”opposite”, and the game went on and on and on… The students were surprised how many words they knew! 🙂

Let’s play this game here on the blog. I’ll add only one translation, the other you’ll have to add in your mind!

god (good) – dårlig

sulten (hungry) – mett

tom (empty) – full

full (drunk) – edru

liten (small) – stor

dag (day) – natt

kvinne (woman) – mann

mørk (dark) – lys

hvit (white) – svart

her (here) – der

trist (sad) – glad

tung (heavy) – lett

enkel (easy) – vanskelig

ute (outside) – inne

ung (young) – gammel

tynn (thin) – tykk

å gråte (to weep) – å le

sunn (healthy) – usunn

fiende (enemy) – venn

krig (war) – fred

hat (hate) – kjærlighet

spørsmål (question) – svar

klok (knowledgeable, wise, clever) – dum

fjell (mountain) – dal

syk (ill) – frisk

farlig (dangerous) – trygg

vakker (beautiful) – stygg

varm (hot) – kald

kjedelig (boring) – gøy

å huske (to remember) – å glemme

…

Now, that isn’t too vanskelig, is it? 🙂 Many words have a ”twin” or a ”partner” that somehow is linked to it without being an actual opposite. Take for instance

hund (dog) – katt

å spise (to eat) – å drikke

å skynne seg (to hurry) – å vente

Do you agree with those? What are the opposites or ”partners” of

is (ice)

hav (sea)

ansikt (face)

fot (foot)

stillhet (silence)

kjøtt (meat)

å smile (to smile)

å prate (to talk)

furu (fir tree)

snø (snow)

?

Sometimes, words seem to come in sets of 3 or 4: pappa, mamma, barn (dad, mum, kids) – sol, måne, stjerne (sun, moon, star) – nord, sør, øst, vest (N, S, E, W) – øre, nese, øye, munn (ear, nose, eye, mouth). Maybe we could ”gamify” those sets as well…