Tag Archives: politeness
Just do it! Giving orders in norsk Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on May 31, 2017
Bring my bag! Do it now, will you? Sometimes, there’s little time to be polite, and we need to give somebody a direct order. In English, we simply use the dictionary form of the verb (move! call! wait!) In Norwegian, it’s almost just as easy to make the imperativ (imperative) or ”order form” (well, no…
Being Polite in Norwegian Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Apr 26, 2015
Last summer an avis (newspaper) article about Norwegians being uhøflig (impolite) shocked me into writing … this blog post one year later! 🙂 I’ve thrown away the paper, but it still bugs me that anyone could come up with such tull (nonsense, bullsh*t). Most Norwegians I’ve met are very kind and høflig (polite)! True, Norwegian…
Norwegian Oops! moments Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Jul 31, 2013
When I was a kid, I once went with my mother into a public library in Norway to look for cartoons and children’s books. The old lady at the counter seemed really friendly, so I said out aloud, so everyone in the library could hear it: “She looks rar!” In my native language, Danish, that’s…