{"id":2668,"date":"2020-12-17T17:15:55","date_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:15:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2668"},"modified":"2020-12-17T17:15:55","modified_gmt":"2020-12-17T17:15:55","slug":"two-ways-of-giving","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/two-ways-of-giving\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Ways of Giving"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Free image from Pixabay; no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Jula er ei tid for gaver og kos.<\/strong> (Christmas is a time for gifts and cosiness<\/a>!) Have you bought all your presents yet? While many of us are still pondering to whom<\/em> to give what<\/em>, let\u2019s look at the Norwegian grammar of giving.<\/p>\n

The Norwegian verb \u00e5 gi<\/strong> [aw yee] is historically related to the English to give<\/em>. Fortunately, it works in similar ways.<\/p>\n

Jeg vet ikke hvem jeg skal gi presangen til.<\/strong> (I don\u2019t know to whom to give the present.)<\/p>\n

Hva skal du gi til pappa?<\/strong> (What are you going to give Dad?)<\/p>\n

Dere gir meg ikke noe valg!<\/strong> (You guys give me no choice!)<\/p>\n

\u201dTo give\u201d is a great verb, because as all you grammar geeks know \u2013 it takes two complements! Look:<\/p>\n

Hun tenker. <\/strong>(She\u2019s thinking.) \u2013 Zero complements. (What<\/em>\u2019s she thinking? We don\u2019t know.)<\/p>\n

De savner julenissen<\/em>.<\/strong> (They\u2019re missing Santa Claus.<\/em>) One complement. (Whom<\/em> are they missing? Santa.)<\/p>\n

Barna gir mamma en klem.<\/strong> (The kids are giving Mum a hug.) Two complements! (What<\/em> are they giving? A hug. To whom<\/em> are they giving it? To Mum.)<\/p>\n

The \u201dwhom\/what\u201d complement1<\/a><\/sup>known as the direct object<\/span> usually appears after the verb: Jeg elsker kake<\/em>!<\/strong> (I love cake<\/em>!) In the Viking age, both Norwegian and English had a special case for this, called the accusative. You can still see it in some pronouns, which is why you are sometimes free to shuffle sentences with pronouns: Myggene liker meg. <\/strong>(The mosquitoes like me.) > Meg liker myggene.<\/strong> (Me the mosquitoes like.) Now imagine if all words had cases and shuffle you could around everything. \ud83d\ude42<\/em><\/p>\n

This leaves one big question: What about the to whom<\/em> complement2<\/a><\/sup>known as the indirect object<\/span>? Unfortunately, we\u2019ve left the Viking age long ago and the pronouns don\u2019t help, as the so-called dative pronouns of 2020 are identical to the accusative pronouns discussed above:<\/p>\n

De savner henne<\/em>. <\/strong>(They miss her<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

De sender henne<\/em> et julebrev.<\/strong> (They send her<\/em> a Christmas letter.)<\/p>\n

I hope you see the pattern. As in English, the to whom<\/em> complement can either appear squeezed in between the verb and the \u201dwhom\/what\u201d complement \u2013 OR it can appear after the word til <\/strong>(to), usually at the end of the sentence.<\/p>\n

Phew, here\u2019s the first type: Jula gir oss<\/em><\/strong> h\u00e5p.<\/strong> (Christmas gives us<\/em> hope.)<\/p>\n

And the second: Alle ga gaver til barna. <\/strong>(Everybody gave presents to the children.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

When to use which? There are no good rules here, but it seems to me that the first kind of structure (I-give-you-hugs) is more common with pronouns like \u201dyou\u201d and \u201dme\u201d. The second type (I-give-hugs-to-my-good-friend) is more common when the recipient is represented by a noun or several words. But follow your gut feeling, as you\u2019do in English. When it comes to giving, grammar can only give us clues (clues to us?)<\/p>\n

Takk for laget s\u00e5 langt!<\/strong> (Thanks for the company so far!)<\/p>\n

God jul og godt nytt\u00e5r! \ud83d\ude42<\/strong><\/p>\n