{"id":894,"date":"2011-03-14T16:53:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-14T16:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/?p=894"},"modified":"2011-03-14T16:53:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-14T16:53:00","slug":"betyr-vs-mene-norwegian-verbs-to-mean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/betyr-vs-mene-norwegian-verbs-to-mean\/","title":{"rendered":"Betyr vs. Mene-Norwegian verbs “to mean”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Betyr vs. Mener<\/strong><\/p>\n

In English, we use the word \u201cmean\u201d in several different ways as a verb.\u00a0 In Norwegian, there are 2 separate verbs-\u201c\u00e5<\/strong> bety<\/strong>\u201d and \u201c\u00e5<\/strong> mene<\/strong>\u201d (in their infinitive forms).\u00a0 In English, we can say \u201cto tidy means to clean up.\u201d In Norwegian, one would say \u201c\u00e5<\/strong> rydde betyr \u00e5<\/strong> vaske opp<\/strong>,\u201d but you could not say \u201c\u00e5<\/strong> rydde mener \u00e5<\/strong> vaske opp<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 One uses \u201cbetyr<\/strong>\u201d only when clarifying factual information, the actual \u201cbetydning<\/strong>\u201d or meaning.\u00a0\u00a0 By the same token, in English one can say \u201cHe means that it is unhealthy to do that,\u201dwhile in Norwegian, one must use the word \u201cmener<\/strong>\u201d when clarifying what \u201che\u201d means-\u201cHan mener at det usunt \u00e5<\/strong> gj\u00f8re dette<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 The verb \u201c\u00e5<\/strong> mene<\/strong>\u201d signifies one\u2019s opinion, not the actual meaning of something.\u00a0 In fact, it is safe to say that you cannot use \u201cbetyr<\/strong>\u201d as a verb with a proper pronoun such as a person or a place.<\/p>\n

Here are a few more examples:<\/p>\n

-\u201cDet betyr at de er veldig gamle<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 It means that they are very old.<\/p>\n

-\u201cN\u00e5<\/strong>r sola skinner om vinteren, betyr det vanligvis at det er kaldt ute<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 When the sun shines during the winter, it usually means that it is cold outside (keep in mind that I live in MN).<\/p>\n

-\u201cJeg mener at hun er vanskelig \u00e5<\/strong> arbeide med<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 I mean that she is difficult to work with.<\/p>\n

-\u201cN\u00e5<\/strong>r han sier at han ikke er interessert i det lenger, mener han ikke egentlig det<\/strong>.\u201d\u00a0 When he says that he is no longer interested, he doesn\u2019t actually mean it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nouns that use the root of \u201cbety<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cmene<\/strong>\u201d are betydning <\/strong>(meaning) and mening <\/strong>(opinion).<\/p>\n

And the different forms of the verbs are as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
infinitive<\/td>\npresent<\/td>\npast<\/td>\npast perfect<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e5 bety<\/strong><\/td>\nbetyr<\/strong><\/td>\nbetydde<\/strong><\/td>\nhar betydd<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e5<\/strong> mene<\/strong><\/td>\nmener<\/strong><\/td>\nmente<\/strong><\/td>\nhar ment<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Not so bad, right?\u00a0 This rule of when to use \u201cbetyr<\/strong>\u201d and when to use \u201cmener<\/strong>\u201d is similar to the verbs \u201ctror<\/strong>\u201d (thinks-as in a guess, for example \u201cJeg tror at det er der borte<\/strong>\u201d-I think it\u2019s over there) and \u201csynes<\/strong> (thinks-as in one\u2019s opinion, for example \u201cJeg synes at han er snill<\/strong>\u201d-I think that he is nice).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Betyr vs. Mener In English, we use the word \u201cmean\u201d in several different ways as a verb.\u00a0 In Norwegian, there are 2 separate verbs-\u201c\u00e5 bety\u201d and \u201c\u00e5 mene\u201d (in their infinitive forms).\u00a0 In English, we can say \u201cto tidy means to clean up.\u201d In Norwegian, one would say \u201c\u00e5 rydde betyr \u00e5 vaske opp,\u201d but…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-894","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-language"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":895,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/894\/revisions\/895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/norwegian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}