{"id":2576,"date":"2019-08-31T12:32:46","date_gmt":"2019-08-31T12:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2576"},"modified":"2019-08-31T12:32:46","modified_gmt":"2019-08-31T12:32:46","slug":"4-ways-norwegian-differs-from-english","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/4-ways-norwegian-differs-from-english\/","title":{"rendered":"4 ways Norwegian differs from English"},"content":{"rendered":"
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These are no farmers\u2026 In Norwegian, word melody can sometimes alter the meaning of a word\u2026 (Free image from Pixabay<\/a>, no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

For speakers of English, learning Norwegian isn\u2019t that hard: Both languages belong to the Germanic group and have a lot in common. (You can probably guess the meaning of words such as katt, melk, hus<\/strong>.) Still, there are some eye- (or rather ear!) popping differences:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Norwegian has grammatical genders. Every noun is either masculine, neuter or feminine<\/a> (ordered according to frequency). In English, you can simply \u201dgo a(n)\u201d<\/em>: a man, an orange, a house, a child, a woman, a book. <\/em>In Norwegian, the a(n)<\/em> changes according to the noun\u2019s gender (yes, it\u2019s weird \u2013 grammatically, even a book has a gender): en mann, en appelsin, et hus, et barn, ei kvinne, ei bok.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/em>Norwegian attaches the \u201dthe\u201d<\/em> (definite article) at the noun\u2019s end. To use the previous example, you say man-the<\/em>, orange-the\u2026<\/em> Pro tip \u2013 with masculine and neuter nouns, the \u201dthe\u201d <\/em>looks identical to the \u201da\u201d <\/em>(indefinite article): <\/em>mannen<\/strong>, appelsinen<\/strong>, huset<\/strong>, barnet<\/strong> \u2013 but<\/em> kvinna, boka.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2022 The order of words changes in ways you wouldn\u2019t expect. For example, any yes\/no question is made like Are you tired? <\/em>(a swap of the simple statement You are tired<\/em>): Liker du sjokolade?<\/strong> (\u201dLike you chocolate?\u201d = Do you like chocolate?) A particular tricky thing is inversion<\/a>, which basically means that adverbs like always<\/em> come after the main verb in a main clause, but precede the verb in a subordinate clause (phew!): Det sn\u00f8r alltid.<\/strong> (It always snows). De sier det alltid sn\u00f8r.<\/strong> (They say it always snows.) The good thing is: If you don\u2019t master inversion, you\u2019ll still be understood (but sound like a typical foreigner\u2026)<\/p>\n

\u2022 <\/em>A bit like Chinese, Norwegian has tones<\/a>. This is a quite technical thing which you\u2019ll hopefully absorb subconsciously while listening and trying to talk! \ud83d\ude42 In short, any Norwegian word comes with a little \u201dspeech-pattern melody\u201d \u2013 which is probably why some foreigners think Norwegians are singing instead of talking\u2026 Don\u2019t worry, a few dialects don\u2019t have tones (so you will be understood if you don\u2019t master this subtlety!) \u2013 and the rest only have two different \u201dmelodies\u201d: descending or rising. In the Oslo dialect, the tone of the word b\u00f8nder<\/strong><\/a> (farmers) is going a bit down, while the tone of the word b\u00f8nner <\/strong><\/a>(beans) is on the rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

For speakers of English, learning Norwegian isn\u2019t that hard: Both languages belong to the Germanic group and have a lot in common. (You can probably guess the meaning of words such as katt, melk, hus.) Still, there are some eye- (or rather ear!) popping differences: \u2022 Norwegian has grammatical genders. Every noun is either masculine…<\/p>\n

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