{"id":2193,"date":"2016-04-15T15:23:18","date_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:23:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2193"},"modified":"2016-04-15T15:23:18","modified_gmt":"2016-04-15T15:23:18","slug":"norwegian-pronouns-its-personal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/norwegian-pronouns-its-personal\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian Pronouns \u2013 it\u2019s personal"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Not<\/a>

Not exactly Norwegian, but I thought it was a perfect fit for the text. \ud83d\ude42 (Photo courtesy of Dave Bleasdale at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Nothing speeds up communication like a good pronoun! \ud83d\ude42 Instead of having to repeat a personal name umpteen times, it\u2019s really great that once everybody agrees on a topic, \u201dyou\u201d can manage with a short \u201dI\u201d or \u201dshe\u201d. At first glance, Norwegian pronomen <\/b>look a lot like the English ones:<\/p>\n

Jeg<\/b> venter p\u00e5 trikken. <\/b>(I\u2019m waiting for the tram.)<\/p>\n

Unnskyld, <\/b>du<\/b> mistet noe! <\/b>(Excuse me, you lost something!)<\/p>\n

Hun<\/b> tenker mye. <\/b>(She thinks a lot.)<\/p>\n

Han<\/b> har aldri tid.<\/b> (He never has time.)<\/p>\n

Vi<\/b> bor i Molde. <\/b>(We live in Molde.)<\/p>\n

De<\/b> bes\u00f8ker ofte \u00c5lesund. <\/b>(They often visit \u00c5lesund.)<\/p>\n

Then of couse, Norwegian\u2019s got a special plural you (\u201dthou and thou\u201d):<\/p>\n

Hva synes <\/b>dere<\/b> om Norge? <\/b>(What do you guys think about Norway?)<\/p>\n

The language has also got two different ways of saying \u201dit\u201d \u2013 depending on whether the thing referred to is neuter (an \u201det<\/b>\u201d <\/b>noun) or masculine\/feminine (an \u201den<\/b>\u201d\/\u201dei<\/a><\/b>\u201d noun):<\/p>\n

Har du sett <\/b>veska<\/b> mi? <\/b>Den<\/b> er svart med s\u00f8lvstriper. <\/b>Have you seen my bag? It\u2019s black with silver stripes.<\/p>\n

Har du sett <\/b>passet<\/b> mitt? <\/b>Det<\/b> er fra USA. <\/b>(Have you seen my passport? It\u2019s from the U.S.)<\/p>\n

When \u201dit\u201d is referring to something other than a noun \u2013 like a phrase or a situation \u2013 only det <\/b>is used:<\/p>\n

Jeg hater at det er s\u00e5 mye krig i verden. <\/b>Det<\/b> gj\u00f8r meg s\u00e5 deppa! <\/b>(I hate that there\u2019s so much war in the world. It makes me so depressed!)<\/p>\n

I think the greatest difficulty for English-speakers comes with the \u201dme\u201d forms of pronouns (accusative\/dative\/reflexive, if you speak grammar!)<\/p>\n

Du ser <\/b>meg<\/b>, og jeg ser <\/b>deg<\/b>. <\/b>(You see me, and I see you.)<\/p>\n

Kjeder dere <\/b>dere<\/b>? <\/b>(Are you guys bored? \u2013 Literally: Do you guys bore yourselves?)<\/p>\n

Nei, vi kjeder <\/b>oss<\/b> aldri!<\/b> (No, we\u2019re never bored! \u2013 \u201dWe never bore ourselves.\u201d)<\/p>\n

Jeg ringer n\u00e5r jeg finner <\/b>den<\/b>\/<\/b>det<\/b>.<\/b> (I\u2019ll give you a call when I find it!)<\/p>\n

Hun ser <\/b>ham<\/b>, og han ser <\/b>henne<\/b>. <\/b>(She sees him, and he sees her.)<\/p>\n

Hun ser <\/b>seg<\/b> i speilet.<\/b> (She sees herself in the mirror.)<\/p>\n

Seg<\/b> points back to either han<\/b>, hun<\/b> or de<\/b>, and can be translated as \u201dherself\u201d, \u201dhimself\u201d, \u201dthemselves\u201d. But this is where you need to be careful! \ud83d\ude42 Because if you drop the phrase<\/p>\n

Hun ser henne i speilet<\/b><\/p>\n

it means that she sees someone else in the mirror, like her friend standing nearby! This is a Norwegian oddity which will become even more tricky in the next post, where we\u2019ll look at possessive pronouns<\/i>! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

Nothing speeds up communication like a good pronoun! \ud83d\ude42 Instead of having to repeat a personal name umpteen times, it\u2019s really great that once everybody agrees on a topic, \u201dyou\u201d can manage with a short \u201dI\u201d or \u201dshe\u201d. At first glance, Norwegian pronomen look a lot like the English ones: Jeg venter p\u00e5 trikken. (I\u2019m…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3359,238421,386256],"class_list":["post-2193","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-pronoun","tag-reflexive-pronoun","tag-seg"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t