{"id":2383,"date":"2017-09-29T14:18:30","date_gmt":"2017-09-29T14:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2383"},"modified":"2017-09-29T14:20:22","modified_gmt":"2017-09-29T14:20:22","slug":"norwegian-un-words-unleashed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/norwegian-un-words-unleashed\/","title":{"rendered":"Norwegian Un-words Unleashed"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Utrolig men sant \u2013 dette er u-gress.<\/strong> (Incredible but true \u2013 this is \u201dun-grass\u201d.) (Photo courtesy of Erlend Schei at Flickr<\/a>, CC License.)<\/p><\/div>\n

U <\/b>is both one of the nicest<\/a> Norwegian sounds \u2013 and the \u201dNor-way\u201d to \u201dun-do\u201d words. Turn something vanlig<\/b> [VAANlee] (usual) into something quite u\u00b7vanlig<\/b> [ooVAANlee] (un\u00b7usual) \u2013 and watch out for False Friends from English! (Or should that be false uvenner<\/b> \u2013 “un-friends?\u201d)<\/p>\n

Det er ukult \u00e5 v\u00e6re uhipp, men noen ganger m\u00e5 du v\u00e5ge \u00e5 gj\u00f8re noe utradisjonelt. <\/b>(It\u2019s un-cool to be un-hip, but some times you must dare to do something un-traditional. \u2013 Okay, I hope that was not too useri\u00f8st<\/b>! \ud83d\ude42\u00a0 <\/span>) As U can see, most u<\/b> words work just like in English:<\/p>\n

normal<\/b> > unormal<\/b><\/p>\n

naturlig <\/b>(natural) > unaturlig<\/b><\/p>\n

redd <\/b>(afraid) > uredd <\/b>(unafraid)<\/p>\n

trygg <\/b>(safe) > utrygg <\/b>(unsafe)<\/p>\n

sikker <\/b>(certain) > usikker <\/b>(uncertain)<\/p>\n

klok<\/b> (wise) > uklok<\/b> (unwise)<\/p>\n

lik<\/b> (equal) > ulik <\/b>(unequal)<\/p>\n

t\u00f8rst<\/b> (thirsty) > ut\u00f8rst<\/b> (\u201dunthirsty\u201d, not thirsty anymore \u2013 yes, there really is a word for that in Norwegian!!)<\/p>\n

Please note that all these u <\/b>words are<\/p>\n

\u2022 adjectives<\/p>\n

\u2022 stressed on the u-<\/b><\/p>\n

(Yup, uvanlig<\/b><\/a> [ooVAANlee] is just as unusual as its meaning here! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Another odd one out is usynlig<\/b> [ooSEENlee] \u2013 in-visible\u2026)<\/p>\n

Un-like (!) English-speakers, Norwegians are un-fans of \u201dun-verbs\u201d. So, there\u2019s no direct translation of un-do<\/i>, un-tie, un-leash the dog<\/i> and so on. (You\u2019d have to re-word it as angre<\/i>, knytte opp, slippe l\u00f8s hunden<\/i>\u2026) The song \u201dUnbreak My Heart\u201d definitely would have sounded differently in Norwegian! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

U-<\/b> is a common prefix in nouns, though. This is \u201dFalse Friend\u201d territory, so tread carefully \u2013 these words usually come pre-packed with a meaning no amout of guessing will reveal:<\/p>\n

lykke <\/b>(bliss, joy) > ulykke<\/b> (accident)<\/p>\n

gress<\/b> (grass) > ugress<\/b> (weed [unwanted plants in your garden])<\/p>\n

\u00e5r <\/b>(year) > u\u00e5r<\/b> (bad year)<\/p>\n

You can sense the sinister tone, right? :-]<\/p>\n

That is also why the phrase Vi er uvenner<\/b> (\u201dWe\u2019re un-friends\u201d) has nothing to do with being real enemies (or having removed one another from Facebook). It simply means \u201dWe\u2019re not friends (any more), there\u2019s bad blood between us\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

U is both one of the nicest Norwegian sounds \u2013 and the \u201dNor-way\u201d to \u201dun-do\u201d words. Turn something vanlig [VAANlee] (usual) into something quite u\u00b7vanlig [ooVAANlee] (un\u00b7usual) \u2013 and watch out for False Friends from English! (Or should that be false uvenner \u2013 “un-friends?\u201d) Det er ukult \u00e5 v\u00e6re uhipp, men noen ganger m\u00e5 du…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":76,"featured_media":2384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3867,95157,2418,238020,7243,238451,505204],"class_list":["post-2383","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-negation","tag-opposite","tag-prefix","tag-u","tag-un","tag-un-word","tag-uvenner"],"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