Posts under "Vocabulary"

Norwegian Compound Words

Posted by kari 1 Comment
Nov 22 2011

Small Animal Clinic

Menneskerettighetsorganisasjoner (human rights organizations) is one of the longer compound words in Norwegian.  Others include sannsynlighetsmaksimeringsestimator (maximum likelihood estimator), and En mMidsommernattsdrøm (A Midsummer Night´s Dream).

The Norwegian language has quite a few compound words in it.  In my experience as a new student of the Norwegian language, as well as as an instructor, compound words can be difficult for new learners.  Especially at the beginning, it can be difficult to separate the individual words within compound words.  You may have just learned the word menneske (person) but when you see it with rettighetsorganisasjoner, it looks completely different and you might not notice it right away.  It becomes even more difficult when the word you may know is in the middle of a compound word, i.e. natt in midsommernattsdrøm. The word natt kind of gets lost.

Although it may be difficult, learning compound words is important in understanding and speaking Norwegian.  The reason for this is because compound words are words themselves separately and you can severely mislead or misunderstand your audience if you use compound words by themselves.  An example of this is: lammekoteletter (lamb chops) broken up into lamme koteletter (lame or paralyzed chops).  Another example is røykfritt (smoke-free) or røyke fritt (smoke freely), the exact opposite of the intended meaning.  The reason these easy-to-make errors exist is because usually one word is a noun and one word a verb or an adjective so the tense of the words can change as well as involve an action.

I think compound words are a fun part of the language to learn about because you learn about several different words in one and it quickly teaches you to pay attention to detail.  It is also important to stress the right syllable in compound words (i.e. stress lamme in lammekotelleter).

And to name a few more:

smult ring (lard ring) and smultring (doughnut)

klippfisk (clipfish) and klipp fisk (cut fish)

århundre (century) and år hundre (year one hundred)

sommerfugl (butterfly) and sommer fugl (summer bird)

I like compound words.  They´re fun.

 

The Norwegian Word ´På´

Posted by kari 4 Comments
Sep 2 2011

Several days ago, I wrote a post about the many different ways to use the word ´til´in Norwegian.  At first glance, one might think it´s confusing and a bit ridiculous that a language would use one word in so many different ways.  However, the word ´to´in English has many different meanings or is used in many different ways as well.

Just when you thought you could rest easy and let ´til´sink in…I have seen several requests to see a post about the word ´på´in Norwegian and so I listen to my readers and meet the request:)  By the way, I really appreciate it when you let me know what you would like to learn about.  I do not anticipate ever completely run out of topics to write about, but it is certainly helpful to receive ideas now and then on those days that I am totally braindead and think that I cannot possibly think of something to write about that I haven´t addressed in previous posts.

Back to ´på´….First, I´d like you to copy and paste the following link into a new browser and click on the PLAY triangle to hear the word ´på´pronounced..

http://www.forvo.com/word/på/

With just one syllable, it is a very simple word to pronounce.  While it sounds very similar to Poe, as in the last name of Edgar Allen, if you listen a tad more closely and better yet, if you watch a native Norwegian speaker´s mouth when they pronounce this word, you will notice a sound absent in the English language.  If one says på quickly, it is almost impossible for the speaker to enunciate the extra sound that you will hear if the speaker pronounces it slowly.  If one says it slowly, it is almost as if one adds a lightning fast ´ø´on the end.  I´m sitting hear pronouncing the word out loud to myself while I attempt to determine how to explain the positions my mouth has to be in.

The American pronunciation of the last name Poe stresses the P.  The Norwegian pronunciation of the word på stresses the å.  You almost have to drop your chin a bit and get a bit manly if you are a girl to get the dynamics of the pronunciation down.

Listen to the link again and then start listening for the word på when you are streaming the news, watching a Norwegian movie, or if you are in the presence of a Norwegian conversation.

To conclude, let´s look at the various definitions of and ways to use the word på.  

På can translate to the following meanings in English: to, upon, at, onto, after, towards, for, in, of, by, by means of, and with.

See på used in a variety of different ways:

Jeg skal på skole i dag.  I´m going to school today.

Hva holder du på med?  What are you doing?

gang på gang-time after time

langt på natt-late at night

De er på besøk til universitetet.  They are on a visit to the university.

Min kjæreste er kapteninen på skipet.  My boyfriend is the captain on the ship.

Har du tyggis på deg?  Do you have gum on you?

Det er fem på åtte på morgenen.  It is five to eight in the morning.

Hun syklet 20 kilometer på en time.  She bicycled 20 km in one hour.

Silje kjenner det på lukten.  Silje recognizes it by its smell.

There are also many words that begin with på as a prefix and many words that contain på as a suffix.  Let´s look at these in a different post.  I think you have enough to absorb with just plain på.

 

 

 

Norwegian words that are the same as English words!

Posted by kari 3 Comments
Mar 16 2011

There are more words than you may think that are exactly the same in Norwegian as they are in English.  They are of course pronounced differently, but are indeed written the same way and have the same meaning.  Even better than cognates, right?   :)

And some of these include:

problem (pro-bleh-em)

finger (fing-err) flip the “r”

glass (gloss) with a quick “o”

ski (shee)

atom-(ah-toom)

over (oh-verr) “ver” pronounced with a soft, flipped “r”

under (unn-err)-the “d” is essentially silent

data (dah-tah)

test-same:) the word “eksamen” is also used, like “exam” in English

person (pehr-shoon) “per” pronounced with a soft, flipped “r”

burger (bur-gehr)-same as above for the “r”

pasta (past-ah)

arrangement (arr-angh-sheh-mahnt)

festival (fest-ee-vahl)

for (fohr)with a quick, flipped “r”

bank (bahnk)

Finally an easy language lesson, right?!

Culinary vocabulary in Norwegian

Posted by kari No Comments
Nov 16 2010

I just started working part-time at a restaurant and wine bar called Fermentations.  If you are in the vicinity of the metro area or southeastern MN, I highly recommend it.  It is quite a liten restaurant (small restaurant) in kind of a dumpy area outside of where I live.  It´s a gem in the midst of a couple trashy bars right by the railroad tracks.  Now I understand Fermentations has no connection to Norway, but I attended a phenomenal beer and food tasting the other night and I have to write about it.

The best part about working at Fermentations is that the super talented chefs feed us before our shift ends.  It may be a rett (dish or meal) that is on the meny (menu) or it may be a surprise concoction of some of the most velsmakende (tasty) ingredienser (ingredients) in the kitchen.

The meny changes every few weeks and consists of roughly 7 forretter (appetizers), 7 hovedretter (main courses), 4 or 5 desserter, in addition to 5 or 6 typer hjemmelaget is (types of homemade ice cream).  There is an extensive vinliste (wine list), as well as a full bar.  Here is a smakebit (taste) of what you may see on the meny:  duck confit, buffalo meatballs, lobster ravioli, elk sirloin steak, beef burgundy, cassoulet, brie purse, honey chai cake.  I could continue listing the items I have seen and tasted on the Fermentations meny, but I don´t want to get your taste buds too worked up;)

As I mentioned, the other night, I attended a Goose Island beer tasting which accompanied a delicious meal.  Besides the first forrett (smoked gouda beer cheese soup) which was paired with Goose Island IPA, the other four beers were high-end Goose Islands that tasted like nothing I had ever had before.  With the Prince Edward Island Mussels in a hvitløk (garlic), smør (butter) saus came an øl that almost tasted like cider because it had a very sterk smak av sitrus (strong taste of citrus).  It was a bit too sur (sour) and tart for me, but was interesting nonetheless.

The next forrett was a blue cheese tarte with carmelized onions, fig jam, and reduced balsamic vinegar.  It was paired with a blomstrete (flowery), aromatiske (aromatic) øl that I also didn´t care for very much, but was happy to try.  The hovedrett was elk sirloin steak with hvitløk and gressløk (chive) potetmos (mashed potatoes).  It was paired with a rik (rich) and slightly bitter, but not overly so- øl that I enjoyed very much.  It was like drinking a red zinfandel with a big old ribeye.

And finally, the dessert rett-was a chocolate stout pound cake with a rik, søt (sweet) and mildly tung (heavy) øl that had a surprise in the bottom-a scoop of hjemmelaget sjokoladeis (homemade chocolate ice cream).  I know it sounds really strange, but the is in the øl was utrolig deilig (unbelievably delicious)!

So there you have learned a number of culinary words på norsk that you can try to use in your own kjøkken, at a friend or family´s or in a restaurant:)  Try to describe the food that you make and eat-på norsk.

´hos´a Norwegian word with many meanings

Posted by kari 3 Comments
Sep 20 2010

I find the word hos quite interesting.  Until recently I didn´t know it had so many betydninger( meanings).  The other day a Norwegian was asking me if I thought Norwegian was a hard language to learn.  I explained that although French and Spanish are the only other languages of which I have some comprehension, I have found Norwegian to be quite an easy language to learn.  We discussed the simplicity of Norwegian grammar and verb conjugation (or lack thereof rather) and the size of the Norwegian vocabulary: very small.  He said that he didn´t think English was very hard to learn, but the English vocabulary is so much larger.  He said, ´I don´t understand why you need so many different words.  We have much fewer words.  Many words have multiple betydninger, but as long as you can follow the context, it´s no problem.´ He is absolutely right-we certainly don´t need so many words to express ourselves.

Back to hos, a word that has many betydninger.  It can mean at, from, of, with, by, and among.   I can´t think of a word in English that has so many betydninger .  It works so well though, because everyone understands which meaning hos has in a sentence based on what else is said.  Now that you know the different betydninger of the word hos, I´ll show you examples of the word in sentences, all of which have slightly different betydninger.

Hvordan står det til hos dem? How is it going with them?

Skal du sove hos Børge i kveld? Are you going to sleep at Børge´s tonight?

Jeg brukte masse penger hos dyrelegen i år. I spent a lot of money at the vet this year.

Boka ligger inne hos meg. The book is in my room.

Tålmodighet er et godt egenskap hos henne. Patience is a good quality of her´s.

Wibeke søker råd hos psykolog. Wibeke seeks advice from a psychologist.

Jeg skal spise middag hos Tove i kveld.  I´m going to eat dinner at Tove´s tonight.

Hos, it´s a great word!  Simple but has so many betydninger!

Back to the Top