Learn about the prepositions på and i
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Intro |
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| Hi everybody! Anette here. Welcome to Ask a Teacher, where I’ll answer some of your most common Norwegian questions. |
| The Question |
| The question for this lesson is…What are the main differences between på and i? |
| Explanation |
| På and i are two very common Norwegian prepositions. Although they are often used to describe places, they have other purposes, too. Let’s go over them together. |
| I can be used like “in” in English when talking about something or someone that's “inside.” På, on the other hand, can be translated as “on," “at,” “to" and also, “in.” |
| Let’s do some examples together so you can learn how to use på and i correctly. |
| Let’s start with i. The sentence Jeg er i parken means “I’m in the park.” Here, you’re inside the location. So we need to use i. Another example would be, Boka ligger i sekken. This means “The book is in the bag.” In this sentence the book is inside another object, so we use i here, as well. |
| Next, let’s go over på for each translation; “on,” “at,” “to” and “in.” The sentence Boka er på bordet means, “The book is on the table.” Simple, right? Another sentence, Jeg jobber på skolen means, “I’m working at the school.” Here we are talking about the location of the school, so we need på, “at.” For “to,” a sentence would be, Boka er på bordet. “She’s going to the cabin,” because she is moving toward that location. |
| You don’t think I forgot about “in,” do you? That’s the tricky one. Since they both translate as “in," it can be difficult to know when to use which. |
| To summarize, you use i for where you would say “in” and på for where you would say “on” or “at” in English. |
| Here's an example to show how på and i can change the meaning of a simple sentence. |
| Jeg jobber i skolen. This means “I’m working in the school system." Jeg jobber på skolen, on the other hand, means “I’m working at school.” |
Outro |
| How was this lesson? Pretty interesting right? |
| Do you have any more questions? Leave them in the comments below and I’ll try to answer them! |
| Hade. Vi sees senere! |
| Bye. See you later! |
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