• Det står ingenting på denne lappen – There is nothing on this ticket
• Overbevist – Satisfied
• Vellykket – Successful
• Du er nødt til å… – You really have to…
• Ta en blund – Take a nap
• Kan jeg få en sånn – May I have one of those/these? (Whilst pointing at something)
• Kjempeflaks – Really lucky
• Kollisjonsputer – Airbags
• Jeg må tidlig opp – I have to be up early
• Litt skuffa – A bit disappointed
• Vidunderlig – Wonderful
• Jeg er lei av… – I’m sick of…
• Jeg vil du skal… – I would like you to…
• Åpenbart – Obviously
• Ødelegge – Destroy
• Takk og lov! – Thank goodness!

*vis words that I like:

• Sannsynligvis – Probably
  
• Tilfeldigvis – Accidentally
• Forhåpentligvis – Hopefully
• Heldigvis – Luckily

* P.s. When I write på engelsk I am borrowing a format that I really like, used by Kari in her Norwegian blog. I urge you to subscribe to that one too!

I haven’t been too active lately with the Norwegian blog, mostly because of the usal lame excuse regarding time and too much work and all that. One thing I have been doing lately is reading, or at least trying to read the Chris Ryan book “Blodpenger”, and during this reading several words crop up that are interesting – but which I forget way too quickly.

Hopefully by sharing some of them here, it will help me to remember, and also give me a quick reference point for when I inevitably forget again!

Some words – from prologue and chapter 1

• Sylige – visible
• Stram – tight (fingrene var stram)
• Forvridd – contorted, mangled, twisted (På ringfingeren satt en forvridd gullring)
• Dugg – dew
• Grundigere – thoughtfully
• Bøye – bend (han bøyde seg = he bent over)
• Tilhøre – belong to (måtte ha tilørt en kvinne)
• Halvannen – one and a half
• en Grop ( a ditch)
• Peste – panted (den peste mens den løp)
• Ryggsøyle – spine
• Mistanke – suspicion
• Nøyaktig – precisely
• Gjørmete – muddy
• Gned – rubbed
• Slør – veil
• Blikk – look, glance (hun løftet blikket)
• Lynraskt – very quickly, blazingly, “at light speed”
• Påføre – cause, bring upon
• Som ventet – as expected (den var som ventet)
• Ifølge – according to
• Somle – faff, dawdle, time waste
• Myke halsen – stiff neck
• Klesplagg – Garment, Item of clothing (et nytt klesplagg)
• Øreflippen – the earlobe
• Slikket – licked
• Åndsfraværende – vacantly (Han slikket øreflippen hennes åndsfraværende)
• Ånd – spirit, Fraværende – absent
• Bekymret – worried, concerned (det som bekymret ham)
• Fortjener – deserve
• Halvt fordervet – half to death (han slo henne halv fordervet)
• Tillatelse – permission

And that’s not even the whole chapter…

The word Aker comes up a lot in and around Oslo, and after a brief discussion about it yesterday, it struck me that using familiar names can help us to learn less familiar vocabulary.

The word comes from old Norse for “acre” and was the name of an old farm, which helped to name a church (the old Aker church) which then went on to name the district and spawn the other things we know and love today. You can read more about that on the Wikipedia page.

Words to learn that “Aker” can help us to remember

• Hus = House – You should be familiar with Akershus (county), literally “the House of Aker” but don’t read too much into that without reading the following reference also:
• Festning = Fortress – Akershus Festning is the fortress overlooking the Oslo Fjord. It’s name fully expanded means something like “The fortified house of Aker”. The district of Akershus was named after the fortress, not the other way around!
• Elv = River (feminine so “the river” is “elva”) – Akerselva is the river that runs through Oslo, literally “the river of Aker”
• Østre = Eastern – one of the main roads running in an Easterly direction out of Oslo parallel to the E6 is Østre Aker Vei, literally “Eastern Aker road”. We may already know that “Øst” means “East” so this helps us to remember the method to convert to “Eastern”.
• Brygge = Jetty – You need to be in the marine industry to know exactly how this would translate in English (wharf, quay, mooring, dock, etc), but jetty is probably closest. Situated in the Oslo habour is the trendy district of Aker Brygge where you will find shops, restaurants, apartments and more. (You should also be aware that Brygge can be a verb – to brew).
• Sykehus = Hospital – “Aker Sykehus” and “Akershus sykehus” (Known as A-hus) are 2 of the hospitals serving Akershus.
• Gamle Kirke = Old church – Gamle Aker kirke is one of the reasons for the name, and is the oldest existing building in Oslo.
• Bakke = Hill – Akersbakken is the hill that Gamle Aker Kirke resides on, and also the name of the adjacent road

Summary

Hopefully reading some interesting facts and making some connections in your brain between vocabulary and real world situations will help to improve your (and my) Norwegian. I have certainly learned a few things from producing this blog post, and I hope you do from reading it

It has been a while since the last one, sorry about that! I have been orienteering in England and dealing with a bout of conjunctivitis but I’m back in the office now and raring to go. Today’s phrase got a bit messy because I’m still a bit tired and out of practice – so forgive me, but also be thankful there are a few points to discuss

Today’s word: Oversvømmelse

• Translation: Flood
• Pronunciation: aw-ver-shvur-merl-ser

First attempt

Det har vært så lenge
siden jeg har skrivet
noen ting, derfor trenger jeg
en oversvømmelse av inspirasjon!
Siden jeg er ikke helt sikker om
setningen opp der, skal jeg også
sier at oversvømmelse i fjor
i England var kjempedårlig og
mange folk måtte dro fra husene deres.
Det var bra vær for ender!

Errors/Observations:

• There is not really a Norwegian equivalent for “it has been so long since” so we should stick with “it is so long since”, det er så lenge siden
• å skrive, skrev, har skrevet
• derfor does not really work here, we can replace it with at jeg trenger
• Ikke placement can be tricky, in this sentence (a subordinate clause) ikke must precede the finite verb: Siden jeg ikke er helt sikker
• Om and På can also be tricky for English speakers – here we should use sikker på
• The next sentence is a bit messy, and is better written as forige setning, or sentingen over
• “Skal jeg også sier at” is better written as vil jeg også si at. Vil and Skal can also cause some difficulties, since skal generally means “will, shall” and vil generally means “would like to, want to”. Sier should also have been in the infinitive, å si.
• kjempedårlig does not really work in this context, so we can introduce a new word: forferdelig (terrible)
• dro should be dra, as in English you would say “had to leave” not “had to left”.
• Since we are talking about their own houses, we should say husene sine, otherwise we could be referring to “their” as in anybodies houses.

Final edit:

Det er så lenge
siden jeg har skrevet
noen ting at jeg trenger
en oversvømmelse av inspirasjon!
Siden jeg ikke er helt sikker på
forrige setning, vil jeg også
si at oversvømmelse i fjor
i England var forferdelig, og
mange folk måtte dra fra husene sine.
Det var bra vær for ender!

Translation:

It has been so long since
I have written anything that
I need a flood of inspiration!
Since I'm not totally sure about
the previous sentence, I will also
say that the floods last year
in England were terrible and many
people had to leave their houses.
It was nice weather for ducks!

In fact, I applied for a job for the Norwegian “Russ service” web service (russ.no) which would have been pretty cool, as then I would have been russ@russ.no

Anyway, the reason I started writing this was because of the Russ is not short for Russell blog post which I’ve just read, do take a look and think of how it is for me and my name during this time of celebration and chaos.

• English translation: Fast, rapid, quick
• Pronunciation: hewt-ti

First attempt

Om sommeren i England
noe tid i August er det et veldig stort, og veldig
fint arrangement som heter "RIAT".
Når vi bodde i England, prøvde vi alltid
å besøke det fordi det var kjempe morsomt å
se på alle de hurtigefly som kom fra
mange land :o)

Errors/Observations:

• I wasn’t sure about the first sentence as I wanted to say “during the Summer, some time in August” but that does not really work the same way in Norwegian. Adding a few commas and changing it to “en helg i August” works in this case.
• Similarly in English, adding veldig before every adjective in a sentence is a little bit “over-emphasising”, so the latter one(s) can be skipped
• kjempe morsomt – this is one of those joining up word scenarios! Quite often with kjempe followed by an adjective, the words can be joined – in this case kjempemorsomt
• One last error, and it’s a bit of a noob mistake as we were doing so well… we are talking about a definitive collection of aircraft “de hurtige…” so we must add “ene” to form de hurtigeflyene
• Når changes to Da – see comments below

Final edit:

Om sommeren i England,
en helg i August, er det et veldig stort, fint arrangement 
som heter "RIAT".
Da vi bodde i England, prøvde vi alltid
å besøke det fordi det var kjempemorsomt å
se på alle de hurtige flyene som kom fra
mange land :o)

Translation:

During the Summer in England, one weekend in August,
there is a very big, fine show/arrangement called "RIAT".
When we lived in England, we always tried to visit it because
it was really fun to see all the fast planes that came
from many countries :o)

Link: RIAT – The Royal International Air Tattoo

• English Translation: superfluous, redundant
• Pronunciation: aw-verr-flur-di

Hver dag jeg prøver å lære
litt mer norsk, men jeg synes
det er veldig viktig å lære
nødvendig ord først!
Dagens ord er "overflødig"...
Kan du se hva jeg gjurde der? :o)

Errors/observations:

• Sentence order failure, jeg prøver should be prøver jeg. The verb should come “second” in the sentence, but this doesn’t mean that the first thing has to be a single word – it could also be a word group or sentence fragment.
• An interesting point – when written, using men in this sentence may be seen as too negative in relation to the first part of the sentence, and maybe it should be og. This provoked some discussion, and I’d appreciate comments on that! I believe that when spoken it’s no problem because the emphasis on the word men is what defines the tone of the sentence. When written, maybe the sentence could be reworded.
• Since we are generally talking about some specific necessary words, we should say de nødvendige ordene
• Nødvendig (necessary) is perhaps not the best word to use here, I would rather have said something else but couldn’t think of another word! Nyttig (useful) was offered up as an alternative.

Corrected text:

Hver dag prøver jeg å lære
litt mer norsk, men jeg synes
det er veldig viktig å lære de
nyttige ordene først!
Dagens ord er "overflødig"...
Kan du se hva jeg gjurde der? :o)

Translation:

Every day I try to learn a bit
more Norwegian, but I think it's
very important to learn the more useful
words first! Todays word is "superfluous"...
Can you see what I did there? :o)

• English translation: Movement, motion
• Pronunciation: beh-vay-gerl-ser

My attempt

I dag var jeg spurt å skrive om "bevegelse". 
Kan jeg stoppe nå? Nei... Jeg trodde det ikke!
Kanskje jeg kan fortelle dere om de
bevegelse i magen, eller alle bevegelse
i går på volleyball trening? Hmm... Hva om
den nye politisk bevegelsen som
skal ta over verden?! Ja, først Norge,
så verden.... hahaha!

Errors/observations:

• var should be ble. This is a tough one to get used to, and I need to do some more research on that really
• spurt å skrive should be spurt om å skrive
• Kan jeg stoppe nå is a bit strange and needs context, since it implies stopping motion, so kan jeg stoppe å skrive nå works better
• trodde det ikke should be trodde ikke det – position of ikke in a sentence can sometimes be tricky and will be discussed in a later blog post
• i magen – left like this it could be any stomach, but I want to talk about my own stomach so should say magen min. This can be a bit confusing sometimes, since often you can leave that part out if it is obvious.
• de bevegelse – since I’m talking about the specific movements in my stomach, I should use bevegelsene here
• volleyball trenning – in Norwegian if words sound like they can “roll” together, they can probably be written together! volleyballtrening
• Also, since I’m talking about the specific volleyball training yesterday, it should be volleyballtreningen
• In Norwegian, when you are asking about something, you use hva med not hva om. It sounds strange to translate into English (what with) but it’s just one of those things!
• A common mistake that I make when I’m sloppy, since I am talking about a defnite political movement (THE new political movement) the adjective should take the definitive form by adding an “e” to the end, in this case politiske

Corrected text:

I dag ble jeg spurt om å skrive om "bevegelse". 
Kan jeg stoppe å skrive nå? Nei... Jeg trodde ikke det!
Kanskje jeg kan fortelle dere om
bevegelsene i magen min, eller alle bevegelsene
i går på volleyballtreningen? Hmm... Hva med
den nye politiske bevegelsen som
skal ta over verden?! Ja, først Norge,
så verden.... hahaha!

Translation:

Today I was asked to write about "motion".
Can I stop writing now? No I didn't think so!
Maybe I can tell you about the motions in my stomach,
or all the motion yesterday at volleyball training? Hmm...
What about the new political movement that shall take
over the world?! Yes, first Norway, then the world.... Hahaha!

• English: Adjust
• Pronunciation: ʸewss-tay-rer

First attempt

Vanligvis når jeg søk etter 
bukser i butikkene, er det
umulig å finner noen som har den
riktig størrelse! Jeg har lenge
beiner, så kanskje noen kan justere 
lengden av buksen etter jeg har kjøpt den?
Jeg liker ikke å spør fordi jeg vil heller
ha et lett liv :)

Errors/observations:

• Using søk etter in this context is incorrect, similarily in English it would not be normal to “search” for something like this, rather “look for”, which translates as “ser etter” or “leter etter”
• Silly mistake, å finner should be å finne
• som har den riktig størrelse – since I am talking about a difinitive article (the right size) we must make the adjective and noun definite – som har den riktige størrelsen. A simpler alternative sentence could be “med riktig størrelse”
• lenge is a period of time whereas lange refers to physical length
• beiner should be bein – this word does not take the -er ending in the plural form
• lengden av – should be lengden på – just one of those things!
• Another silly mistake with infinitive verbs, å spør should be å spørre
• The final sentence generated some discussion, with a female colleague saying it doesn’t make sense (because why wouldn’t you ask for extra services that customers are entitled to?) and a male colleague agreeing that from a “can’t be bothered” (and perhaps male) perspective, all we want is to find the right thing and buy it… or leave. Anyway, the sentence could maybe be better as “Det gidder jeg ikke å spørre om, fordi…” implying that I can’t be bothered to ask, rather than just saying that I don’t like to ask

Corrected version (one variation):

Vanligvis når jeg leter etter 
bukser i butikkene, er det
umulig å finne noen som har den
riktige størrelsen! Jeg har lange
bein, så kanskje noen kan justere 
lengden på buksen etter jeg har kjøpt den?
Det gidder jeg ikke å spørre om fordi jeg vil heller
ha et lett liv :)

Translation:

Normally when I look for
trousers in the shops, it's
impossible to find some with the
right size! I have long
legs, so maybe someone can adjust
the length of the trousers after I have bought them?
I can't be bothered to ask about it because I would rather
have an easy life :)

It’s easy for English speakers to get caught out when talking about when things happen in Norwegian, the most apparent example is in English using “We will take a trip in a week” could be mistakenly translated to “vi skal ta en tur i en uke”. What you’ve actually said is “we will take a trip for a week” as i in this sense means “during”. The correct sentence would have been “vi skal ta en tur om en uke”

Note: Google translate often gets this wrong!

Examples:

• om sommeren – during/in the summer (any summer)
• i sommer – this summer (past or future depending on context)
• forriger sommer / i fjor sommer – last summer / summer last year
• i år – this year
• neste år – next year
• hele år – all year
• hvert år – every year
• for fire år siden – four years ago
• i forrige uke – last week
• fem dager seinere – five days later
• to minutter tidligere – two minutes earlier
• ved/i fem-tiden – around five o’clock (-tiden is like -ish when used here)
• om tre uker – in 3 weeks
• i tre uker – for/during 3 weeks
• i dag / i morges / i kveld – today, this morning, this evening
• i fjor – last year
• ikke på tre uker – not for 3 weeks

Some sentences using the expressions noted:

• Skal vi treffes om to timer? – Can we meet in 2 hours?
• Vi var på besøk hos han Daniel i tre timer – We were visiting Daniel for 3 hours
• Vi besøkte Daniel i tre timer – We visited Daniel for 3 hours
• Rambo har ikke blitt sett på fem år – Rambo has not been seen for five years
• Hun kan skrive hele boka på fem måneder – She can write the whole book in five months