{"id":2612,"date":"2020-01-31T23:27:22","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T23:27:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2612"},"modified":"2020-02-01T00:54:32","modified_gmt":"2020-02-01T00:54:32","slug":"the-tomato-and-the-onion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/the-tomato-and-the-onion\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tomato and the Onion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Children\u2019s books and songs can be of great value when learning a foreign language \u2013 even if you\u2019re a grown-up. \ud83d\ude09 Because phrases in children\u2019s texts are normally short and to-the-point, you\u2019ll understand them fast enough and easily gain the confidence (and curiosity) to learn more. Below follows a small breakdown of a classic Norwegian children\u2019s poem.<\/p>\n

Tomaten og l\u00f8ken<\/strong> (The tomato and the onion) was written by poet Inger Hagerup. Since it first appeared in 19741<\/a><\/sup>in the book Lille Persille<\/a><\/span>, lots of Norwegian skolebarn <\/strong>(school children) have had to read it. You can hear it here<\/a>, read with a clear and beautiful Sogn accent (Western Norway).<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll quote sections2<\/a><\/sup>In most of the world it\u2019s legal to quote<\/a> from poetry; the problem with shorter poems is, of course, that a single quote might be the entire text; to avoid that problem I split it up into several chunks of quote.<\/span> with comments below:<\/p>\n

Tomaten henger i solen<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dThe tomato is hanging in the sun\u201d. Note that solen<\/strong> would rather be sola<\/strong> in more modern Norwegian. As you can maybe guess, henger<\/em><\/strong> simply means hangs<\/em> (the -ing<\/em> form would be hengende<\/em><\/strong>, but such forms are normally only used as a kind of adjective: de hengende hagene = <\/em><\/strong>the hanging gardens).<\/p>\n

og tenker forn\u00f8yd som s\u00e5: Stappfull av vitaminer<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dThinking contentedly like this: Brimful of vitamines\u201d<\/p>\n

Stappfull<\/em><\/strong> is stronger than just full<\/em><\/strong>! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

gleder jeg store og sm\u00e5.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dI make big and small ones happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The verb \u00e5 glede<\/em><\/strong> means \u201dto please\u201d or \u201dto make happy\u201d.<\/p>\n

Men l\u00f8ken ligger i kjelleren og grubler stumt p\u00e5 sin g\u00e5te:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dBut the onion is lying in the cellar, mutely pondering its riddle:\u201d<\/p>\n

In Norwegian, adverbs from adjectives most often get the ending -t<\/em><\/strong>, that\u2019s how stum<\/em><\/strong> (mute) becomes stumt<\/em><\/strong> (mutely).<\/p>\n

Hva kan det v\u00e6re i veien med meg som bare
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dWhat can be wrong with me who just\u201d<\/p>\n

i veien med<\/em><\/strong> literally means in the way with<\/em>, but is a fixed expression about something being wrong with something.<\/p>\n

f\u00e5r folk til \u00e5 gr\u00e5te?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201dmake people cry?\u201d<\/p>\n