Learn how to ask for and tell someone the time of day
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Yura : Hi there, I'm Yura. |
| Filip : Hei, I’m Filip! |
| Yura : -Welcome to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1, Lesson 11 |
| Yura :In this lesson we are going to teach you how to ask and tell someone the time of the day... |
| Filip : ..in Norwegian or på Norsk, as we say it. |
| Yura : Yes... And what time is it now? |
| Filip : About lunchtime I guess... I’m getting hungry. In Norwegian we would say, det er snart lunsj og jeg er sulten. |
| Yura : Let’s get on with the lesson |
| Filip : Alright, so to start off with, this is probably a good time to check if you remember all the numbers from 1 to 12, which you should’ve learned in our previous lesson. |
| Yura : If you don’t, just go and review the first 20 numbers and you should be fine. |
| Filip : In our conversation Mark and his colleague Espen are talking about the time. |
| Yura : Norwegians are already quite formal in their language but as we have pointed out before, there is no required formal language in Norwegian. Rather, it’s a nuance in the speech. Let's listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Mark : Espen, hvor mye er klokken? |
| Espen: Den er syv. |
| Mark : Takk. Jeg drar i møte klokken halv ni |
| Espen: Det er om en og en halv time. |
| Mark : Riktig! |
| English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Mark : Espen, hvor mye er klokken? |
| Espen: Den er syv. |
| Mark : Takk. Jeg drar i møte klokken halv ni |
| Espen: Det er om en og en halv time. |
| Mark : Riktig! |
| English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Mark : Espen, hvor mye er klokken? |
| Yura : Espen, what time is it? |
| Espen: Den er syv. |
| Yura : It’s seven. |
| Mark : Takk. Jeg drar i møte klokken halv ni |
| Yura : Thanks. I am going to a meeting at half past eight |
| Espen: Det er om en og en halv time. |
| Yura : That’s in an hour and a half. |
| Mark : Riktig! |
| Yura : Right! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Yura : You know what? |
| Filip : What? |
| Yura : I think I just thought of a great idea for some practice. |
| Filip : For this lesson, you mean? |
| Yura : Yeah. You remember how you said Norwegians try so hard to be polite to strangers? |
| Filip : Don’t exaggerate, now. Norwegians are usually polite to strangers because of their culture. |
| Yura : Yes, and the listener could totally exploit that behavior. |
| Filip : Oh, how? |
| Yura : When they have learned to ask what time it is in Norwegian, they could use it to practice Norwegian with strangers. |
| Filip : Oh you mean by asking them what time it is and seeing if they can understand the answer? |
| Yura : Exactly. So listeners, when you are in Norway, try going up to some random strangers and asking them what time it is, and see if you understand their response. |
| Filip : Well, if they are going to do that then we better teach them how, shouldn’t we? |
| Yura First, let’s take a look at the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Yura : Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| The first word we shall see is: |
| Filip : hvor [natural native speed] |
| Yura : how |
| Filip : hvor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : hvor [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : mye [natural native speed] |
| Yura : much, a lot |
| Filip : mye [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : mye [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : klokken [natural native speed] |
| Yura : time (clock) |
| Filip : klokken [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : klokken [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : den [natural native speed] |
| Yura : that |
| Filip : den [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : den [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : å dra [natural native speed] |
| Yura : to leave |
| Filip : å dra [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : å dra [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : møte [natural native speed] |
| Yura : meeting |
| Filip : møte [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : møte [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : halv [natural native speed] |
| Yura : half |
| Filip : halv [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : halv [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : om [natural native speed] |
| Yura : in |
| Filip : om [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : om [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : time [natural native speed] |
| Yura : hour |
| Filip : time [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : time [natural native speed] |
| Next: |
| Filip : riktig [natural native speed] |
| Yura : correct |
| Filip : riktig [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Filip : riktig [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Yura : Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Filip : The first word/phrase we’ll look at is “om”, which means “in” or “if” depending on the context. |
| Yura : In this lesson we are using it as “in,” |
| Filip : Yes, but this is only possible when talking about time. In any other context om means "if." |
| Yura : Can you illustrate that point with some examples? |
| Filip : Alright. So when you're talking about time consider this sentence; |
| Filip : jeg er der om tjue minutter. |
| Yura : "I’ll be there in twenty minutes." |
| Filip : The easy part about learning Norwegian is that so many sentences can be directly translated to perfectly sensible English. In this case you can easily see that om means “in.” |
| Yura : Then how about in another context? |
| Filip : Alright, here we go |
| Filip :Vet du om du kan komme? |
| Yura : "Do you know if you can come?" |
| Yura : Okay, here it doesn’t translate directly, however om becomes “if” in this sentence. |
| Filip : Yes, om du kan komme, which means “if you can come.” |
| Yura : Ok, so now it's time to teach you how to ask what time it is! |
Lesson focus |
| Filip : Let’s get to the grammar! |
| Yura : To ask what time it is in Norwegian, you need a simple phrase. |
| Filip : Well actually there’s two ways of asking, but let’s start with the one featured in our dialogue. |
| Yura : Right. So the first one as you saw in the dialogue is a bit longer than its alternative, but it is better for practicing Norwegian with. Filip, show us! |
| Filip : Hvor mye er klokken? |
| Yura : Literally this means “how much is the clock?” It’s a simple phrase, but as we said, there’s also a much shorter alternative. |
| Filip : Yes. It’s a bit shorter and easier to remember. But I’d say it’s not that good for practicing Norwegian. Also, let me warn you that it’s slightly incorrect, grammar-wise. |
| Yura : Let’s hear it. |
| Filip : Hva er klokken? |
| Yura : This translates literally as “What is the clock?” Let’s hear them both again. Please repeat after Filip. |
| Filip : Hvor mye er klokken [pause] |
| Yura : And? |
| Filip : Hva er klokken? [pause] |
| Yura : Alright, so let’s look at what the possible answers could be. |
| Filip : Yes, to answer you need to know a few numbers. |
| Yura : Right, repeat for yourself the numbers between 1 and 12 and you should be fine if you can remember them. |
| Filip : The answer itself is pretty simple. Basically it’s den er plus a number being the time of the day. |
| Yura : Ok. So literally translated we’d be saying something like. “It is....” and then “5” for example. |
| Filip : Exactly. I’ll make some examples then you can guess at what time it is. |
| Filip : Den er 12 |
| Yura : "It is 12" |
| Filip : den er 3 |
| Yura : "it’s 3" |
| Filip : Alright. Den er 7 |
| Yura : hmmmm.. "It’s 7?" |
| Filip : Yes. Correct. |
| Yura : As you may have noticed in Norwegian there’s no A.M. or P.M. after the time to indicate whether it’s day or night. Why is that, Filip? |
| Filip : Well, because it's normally understood by both people already. I mean, you rarely need to know whether it’s day or night since you are usually in the same place as the person you're talking to. |
| Yura : Ahh, but what about over the phone and such? When you're in two different countries? |
| Filip : Well, it is possible that the other person could try to reaffirm whether it's during day or night with another question, but we shouldn’t worry about that now. Let’s instead try to make Norwegian simple. |
| Yura : Right. But there are some things we haven’t talked about yet. Like what if you just want to say what time it is without anybody asking you, regardless of the context. |
| Filip : Well just substitute den with klokken. After all den is a pronoun and is used to substitute klokken whenever that is the topic. |
| Yura : Hmm. Just give us an example. |
| Filip : Ok, Klokken er 4. |
| Yura : Ah I see, it's really simple then. Okay, another thing I was wondering about, what if you want to be a bit more punctual than whole hours? |
| Filip : Yes, then you would have to use a few extra words. Let’s do it like this |
| Yura : Ok, go ahead. |
| Filip : For simplicity, let’s use Klokken er ti as a base. |
| Filip : Klokken er ti |
| Yura : It’s ten o’clock. |
| Filip : Klokken er ti. |
| Filip : Ok next. Klokken er halv ti |
| Yura : "It’s half past nine." Ok, literally this means “the clock is half to ten.” Norwegians round up to the closest whole hour, rather than down from, like in English. It’s half past nine therefore becomes |
| Filip : Klokken er halv ti |
| Filip : ok next is |
| Yura : It’s a quarter to ten. |
| Filip : Klokken er kvart på ti. (pause) |
| Filip : good. Next we have Klokken er kvart over ti |
| Yura : it's a quarter past 10 |
| Filip : klokken er kvart over ti. |
| Filip : correct. I think that’s a good enough start. |
| Yura : I think so too. We covered a lot of ground! |
| Filip : Ok, so let’s stop here and congratulate the listeners on a good job, well done. |
| Yura : If you missed some of it, feel free to listen again. Repetition always helps! |
| Filip : Thanks for listening. And we hope to see you again in our next lesson. Farvell! |
| Yura : See you next time! |
Comments
HideWhat time is it now? Can you say the time in Norwegian?
Hei Nan!
Det høres ut som du har en sen kveld! 🌙 (It sounds like you're having a late night! 🌙)
Til spørsmålet ditt: "seisten" er en dialektal variant av "seksten" (16). I standard norsk, spesielt i skriftlig form, er det best å bruke "seksten". Dialekter kan variere mye i Norge, så du vil høre "seisten" i noen områder, men "seksten" er det du bør bruke i formelle sammenhenger. 😊
Ha en god natt, og takk for spørsmålet ditt!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Takk!
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Klokken er ti over tolv om natten akkurat nå.
Jeg må legge meg snart.
Men først, har jeg et spørsmål til dere.
Er seisten ikke en slags dialekt eller skulle jeg alltid bruke seksten?
Takk
Hei Rob!
Veldig bra!
Good luck studying Norwegian and let us know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Jelena
Team NorwegianClass101
Hello h,
You can indeed ask: Hva er klokka? using the noun in feminine form.
Our Premium plus students have access to various lessons on this topic, including this one: https://www.norwegianclass101.com/lesson/norwegian-teachers-answer-your-questions-5-how-can-a-word-be-masculine-or-feminine
Could you be more precise when it comes to the absence of parts of speech in front of the noun card that you mentioned?
If you have other questions, please let us know!
Best regards,
Jelena
Team NorwegianClass101
Klokken er åtte
The text does not deliberately distinguish between feminine and masculine nouns, just like the ei klokka used here, which defaults to neutral so there is klokken. Although this is also true, as a beginner, misunderstandings are not avoided, and I hope that it can be expressed in feminine.
By the way, the absence of parts of speech in front of the noun card is too bad for memorizing words.
课文没有特意的去区分名词的阴性和阳性，就像这里使用的ei klokka，默认为中性所以有了klokken。尽管这也是正确的但作为初学者未避免误会还是希望能用阴性来表达。
顺便提一下，名词卡片前面没有带着词性对于背诵单词太不利了。希望能改经，就像（ei klokka）。
再提一个建议是针对所有课程的，尽管在几个章节后会有小测试，但还是希望可以在每一课后有正对本次讲到的知识点的练习，来巩固这节课所学习到的知识。
Hi Kenna,
"Klokken er fire" means "It is four o'clock." Well done!
Have a great day!
Cheers,
Lena
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Klokken er fire.
Hello Stacey,
Very good! Keep up the good work!😄
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Best,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Hei, klokken er halv to.
Hei Aleksander,
Har en liten korreksjon på setningen din: "Jeg skriver fra Polen, her er klokken tjue over syv (eller ti på halv åtte)".😄
Du lærer fort, fortsett det gode arbeidet!
Bare å si ifra dersom du lurer på noe.
Mvh,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Hei! Jeg skriver fra Polen, her klokken ar tjue over syv.
Hello Nicole,
Very good!😄Glad you enjoyed the lesson!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Best,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Hallo! klokken er kvart på to I dag 👍 jeg er lære tid
Hello Andy,
That's very precise!😄Good job!
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Best,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Klokken er fire på halv åtte.
Hei Kim W,
Perfekt skrevet, veldig bra!😄
Bare å si ifra dersom du lurer på noe.
Mvh,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Klokken er halv to.
Hello Zoe,
You could say that, but it is not often used. The more correct way to say it is: "Klokken er ti på halv tolv".
If you have any further questions, please let us know.😄
Cheers,
Espen
Team NorwegianClass101.com
Hei,
Klokken er tjue over elleve.
11:20
Don’t know if I have this correct?😅