{"id":2833,"date":"2022-01-31T23:45:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T23:45:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=2833"},"modified":"2022-02-01T00:39:30","modified_gmt":"2022-02-01T00:39:30","slug":"commas-in-chief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/commas-in-chief\/","title":{"rendered":"Commas-in-chief"},"content":{"rendered":"
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(Illustrative photo courtesy of Michael Hiemstra at Flickr<\/a>, CC<\/a> License, no copyright.)<\/p><\/div>\n

Komma er rare. <\/strong>(Commas are strange.) Du skriver dem, men du h\u00f8rer dem ikke.<\/strong> (You write them, but you can\u2019t hear them.) Well, sometimes you do hear them, as little pause\/r<\/strong> (breaks) when people talk. In written Norwegian, a comma might be a matter of life and death, so let\u2019s take a crash course!1<\/a><\/sup>Please note that I might get my commas wrong in English. \ud83d\ude09<\/span> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

As in English, you use commas in order to avoid having multiple \u201dands\u201d in lists. Instead of \u201dsaft og vafler og sm\u00f8r og sukker og syltet\u00f8y\u201d <\/strong>(juice and waffles<\/a> and butter and sugar and jam) you replace every og,<\/em><\/strong> except for the last one, with a comma:<\/p>\n

saft, vafler, sm\u00f8r, sukker og syltet\u00f8y<\/strong><\/p>\n

Please note that it\u2019s one separator or the other \u2013 \u201dOslo, Bergen, og Trondheim\u201d <\/em><\/strong>is wrong in Norwegian.2<\/a><\/sup>Unlike English, the language has got no \u201dOxford comma\u201d.<\/span> It should be: Oslo, Bergen og Trondheim.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A less whispery alternative to brackets, commas are also used to insert extra explanations or comments in phrases:<\/p>\n

Beate kommer ogs\u00e5. <\/strong>(Beate will also come.) > Beate, naboen min, kommer ogs\u00e5.<\/strong> (Beate, my neighbour, will also come.)<\/p>\n

Familien liker \u00e5 reise. <\/strong>(The family likes to travel.) > Familien liker \u00e5 reise, spesielt til Syden.<\/strong> (The family likes to travel, especially to Southern Europe.)<\/p>\n

You can also use a comma, combined with one of the four words og, eller, men, for<\/strong> (and, or, but, for)3<\/a><\/sup>So-called conjunctions<\/span>, to join two sentences that would otherwise be separated by a full stop:<\/p>\n

Kari leser. Ola ser p\u00e5 TV. > Kari leser, og Ola ser p\u00e5 TV. <\/strong>(Kari reads, and Ola watches TV).<\/p>\n

Vi m\u00e5 vaske kl\u00e6r. Vi liker det ikke. > Vi m\u00e5 vaske kl\u00e6r, men vi liker det ikke.<\/strong> (We have to wash our clothes, but we don\u2019t like it.)<\/p>\n

Some sentences can\u2019t stand on their own \u2013 they\u2019re dependent on another sentence in order to make sense. If you stay<\/em> is a full sentence (with a subject and a noun), but it calls for the help of another sentence (such as we\u2019ll be very happy<\/em>). Another example of a leddsetning <\/strong>(subordinate clause<\/a>): \u2026that it\u2019s bad for your health.<\/em><\/p>\n

Once you get what a leddsetning\u00a0<\/strong>is, the comma rules are easy in Norwegian:<\/p>\n

\u2022 If the leddsetning<\/strong> comes before the main clause, it\u2019s followed by a comma: N\u00e5r det sn\u00f8r, synker temperaturen. <\/strong>(When it snows, the temperature falls.)<\/p>\n

\u2022 If the main clause comes firsts, there\u2019s no comma: Temperaturen synker n\u00e5r det sn\u00f8r.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The life-and-death matter to which I war referring above:<\/p>\n

Heng ham ikke vent til jeg kommer.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Depending on where you put the comma, the phrase either becomes:<\/p>\n

Heng ham ikke, vent til jeg kommer.<\/strong> (Don\u2019t hang him, wait until I come.)<\/p>\n

Or:<\/p>\n

Heng ham, ikke vent til jeg kommer.<\/strong> (Hang him, don\u2019t wait until I come.)<\/p>\n