Posts under Grammar

Sterke verber

Posted by Kari

Strong verbs.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, you cannot tell by looking at a verb if it is sterk or svak.  Additionally, there isn’t exactly an easy way to learn the past tense of sterke verber; memorization is the only answer.  Unlike svake verber, sterke verber do not follow any kind of pattern.  Isn’t it interesting to think about how all of these words came to be?  Did someone decide that there were going to be 2 different ”classes” of verbs and that one would follow a pattern and the other class wouldn’t?  The history of the evolution of the Norwegian language probably has enough content for another dozen posts, so I’ll end my curiosity there for now.  Back to sterke verber…

The following is a list of sterke verber in the infinitive and the past tenses (as with svake verber, sterke verber receive an ‘r’ after the stem in the present tense…more on this later).  Notice the forskjeller (differences) between the infinitiv and the preteritum-lots of vowel changes in the stem.

INFINITIV                          PRETERITUM

(go)                                gikk

sitte (sit)                            satt

se (see)                             

bli (become)                      ble

drikke (drink)                    drakk

(get/receive)                  fikk

skrive (write)                     skrev

står (stand)                        stod

synge (sing)                       sang

være (be)                            var

forstår (understand)           forstod

Again, there is no rhyme or rhythm to this sterk verb madness.  The only thing you might have noticed that seems like a pattern is with the words står and forstår, in which the vowels in the stems both changed to ‘o’ and there is a ‘d’ at the end in the preteritum.  If the stem is the same (in this case, står), chances are the change will be the same from infinitiv to preteritum.

 

Svake verber

Posted by Kari

Weak verbs.  Norwegian has both svake verber (endings are added to the root of the verb to form the past tense-preteritum) and sterke verber (this involves a vowel change in the root and there is often no ending at all).  There are many fewer sterke verber than there are svake verber, so I recommend familiarizing yourself with the sterke verber and then it is safe to assume the rest are svake.  Keep in mind that you cannot tell by looking at a verb whether it is sterk or svak.  Additionally, rather than memorizing each form of svake verber, it is much easier to memorize the pattern and then be able to recognize when and how to use it. 

There are 4 different endings for svake verberet, te, de, dde

The following are examples of svake verber:

VERB CLASS                              INFINITIV (infinitive)                    PRETERITUM (past tense)

-ET                                                 vaske (wash), danse (dance)            vasket, danset

the root ends in 2 consonants

-TE                                         spise (eat), drømme (dream)          spiste, drømte

the root ends in 1 consonant or

some specific 2 consonant combos (ll, mm, nn, ng, nk)

-DE                                       greie (be able, manage), prøve (try)    greide, prøvde

root ends in a v or a diphthong such as ‘ei’

-DDE                                     snu (turn), skru (screw)                  snudde, skrudde                          

root ends in a long or stressed vowel

In my next post, I will go over sterke verber and then you will be able to start getting familiar with them.  For now, you can start getting used to the patterns to use with svake verber!

 

Negation

Posted by Kari

The time is ripe to talk about negation, although many of you have probably caught on to the methods of negation på norsk-that is-how to deny that something is true.  There are several different words to use, the most common of course is ikke, which means ‘not.’   One can also use knapt (hardly) and alldri (never). 

There are a few regler (rules) that we should look at before I start just rattling off examples of how to use these negation words in sentences.  Usually, the negation word falls after the verb in the sentence (and if there are two verbs, i.e. a modal verb and an active verb, it would fall between them).  Man bør ikke reise til Minnesota (notice ikke comes after the modal verb ’should,’ bør)

If there are several adverbial phrases in the sentence, the negation word comes in the final position before the end, which in the following case, is a prepositional phrase.  For example, Du kommer nesten aldri i tide (You almost never come on time). 

The negation word can come at the beginning of the sentence as well, however, ikke and knapt must be part of a clause that modifies another phrase.  For example, Ikke en bil var der (Not one car was there) or Knapt fem år har gått forbi siden han døde (Barely five years have gone by since he died).  Aldri can stand alone at the beginning of a sentence, without being part of a clause that modifies another phrase- Aldri har jeg gjort noe så skremmende (Never have I done something so scary).

Since ikke is the most common negation word used, let’s concentrate on ikke.

If the word ‘if’ is used, for example ‘If the computer doesn’t work…’ ikke is placed before the verb, Hvis datamaksinen ikke fungerer…

One can say hvis ikke… if not…

Another common phrase is ikke sant?  which means basically ‘isn’t that right?’

Jeg vil ikke jobbe i dag, men jeg må hvis jeg vil tjene penger, ikke sant?  I don’t want to work today, but I must if I want to earn money, right?

 

 

Følelser

Posted by Kari

Feelings.  You may have heard before that in an initial encounter, at least, Norwegians are cold, unfriendly, and sometimes seemingly emotionless people.  If you are from the midwest, you probably hear this about your neighbors (and perhaps yourselves) who descend from northern Europeans.  This is a stereotype to which I do not fully subscribe, for I have had many encounters with Norwegians who are very open and friendly.  I can say that people from the midwest are typically much quieter and more reserved than people from the east coast, for example.  Either way, the stereotype is out there and probably will be for a long time. 

I will tell you hvordan jeg føler meg i morges (how I feel this morning-and notice that the verb is reflexive)-litt deprimert (a little depressed)-it is Oct. 12 today and it is snowing in Minnesota.  We are supposed to get up to 3 inches of snø today.  Can you believe that?  To really appreciate how deprimerende this is, you must know that our vinter lasts until March.  That is a long vinter and it is way too early to be this cold and snowing!

Let’s learn how to say how you feel på norsk.  Here are the conjugations of the verb itself: 

jeg føler meg, du føler deg, han\hun føler seg, vi føler oss, dere føler dere, de føler seg. 

Now let’s learn some more feeling words.

lykkelig-happy                         trøtt-tired                            sur-mad               forferdelig-awful

trist -sad                                  forvirret-confused              sjalu-jealous        fantastisk-fantastic

stolt-proud                               dårlig-bad                           syk-sick                heldig-lucky

Jeg er stolt av broren min.  I am proud of my brother.

Hun føler seg syk i dag.  She feels sick today.

Han føler seg heldig i dag og derfor skal til casinoen (I have no idea if Norwegian even has a word for casino…there are no casinos in Norway).  He feels lucky today and therfore he is going to the casino.

Vi er trøtte.  We are tired.

De føler seg forferdelige.  They feel awful.

Hannah er litt sjalu.  Hannah is a little jealous.

As in English, one can either use the verb ‘to feel’ or ‘to be’ when one describes følelser. 

Hvordan føler du deg i dag?  How do you feel today?

 

Hver dag.

Posted by Kari

Every day.  I’m getting into this theme of things we do daglig (daily).  Of course some of the things I do in my dagligliv (daily life), you do not do and some of the things you do in your dagligliv, I do not do.  However, many of the things we do in our dagligeliv (notice I didn’t add anything after ‘liv‘ to make it plural, because ‘liv‘ is a one-syllable ‘et’ noun, so it doesn’t get any suffix in the indefinite plural-Husker du?  Do you remember?)

a few other words you might like to know when you talk about the frequency in which things occur:

vanligvis-usually                           av og til-now and then                    igjen og igjen-time and again

noen ganger-sometimes             sjelden-seldom                                alltid-always

hele tiden-all the time                aldri-never                                        ofte-often                           

Hva gjør jeg ?  What do I do every day?

Jeg drikker kaffe hver dag så snart jeg våkner.  I drink coffee every day as soon as I wake up.

Hver dag spiser jeg frokost før jeg går på jobb (notice the use of inversion).  Every day I eat breakfast before I go to work.

Jeg tar en dusj hver dag.  I take a shower every day.

Hver dag sjekker jeg eposten min.  Every day I check my email.

And on to other frequencies…

Jeg snakker med faren min ofte.  I talk to my father often.

Noen ganger liker jeg å spise pannekaker til frokost (another use of inversion).  Sometimes I like to eat pancakes for breakfast.

Jeg leser sjelden bøker.  I read books seldomly.

Av og til vasker jeg bilen min.  Now and then I wash my car.

Hun prøver alltid å være snill.  She always tries to be nice.

De reiser aldri til Europa.  They never travel to Europe.

Vanligvis løper jeg med hunden min om morgenen.  Usually I run with my dog in the morning.

Hunden min har mye energi hele tiden.  My dog has a lot of energy all the time. 

Igjen og igjen glemmer kjæresten min å slå av lysene.  Time and again my boyfriend forgets to turn the lights off.

You get the idea, right?  Just remember to invert the verb and subject when the adverb/adverbial phrase comes first.  What do you do hver dag?