Learn how to use the Norwegian word for "if"
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina:Hi, I am Gina. |
| Nora:And I am Nora. |
| Gina:And welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Beginner season 1, Lesson 11 - If Only You Could Find a Norwegian Movie Theater, You Could Watch a Movie! |
| Nora:In this lesson you’ll learn about the conjunction “hvis” which means “if”. |
| Gina:While you might think it’s exactly the same as the English “if”.... |
| Nora:….We’re here to tell you that it’s still worth learning again as Norwegian has a few alternative words to the English “if”. And “hvis” is one of them. |
| Gina:Yes, it’s a synonym and in our dialogue we come back to Scott, who is in Ålesund and trying to find the cinema. |
| Nora:Since he isn’t familiar with the city yet, he decides to ask the hotel concierge. |
| Gina:Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Nora:So some people have the idea that Norway is only populated with tall white people. |
| Gina:But this couldn’t be further from the truth! |
| Nora:While the majority are ethnic Norwegians, immigrants count for quite a large portion of the population as well. |
| Gina:So being a foreigner in Norway might not feel as... foreign as you might think! |
| Nora:Exactly. The mix of different nationalities in Norway is likely to have you meet several people from your own country when you’re there. |
| Gina:Which is great, because that means you almost always have someone from your own culture or country there, if you ever feel a little homesick. |
| Nora:Yes, always a good idea when you’re staying abroad for longer periods. |
| Gina:Missing your own culture is easy to do, and having someone else from your own culture around can make a big difference between a pleasant and horrible stay. Okay, now let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina:Let’s take a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Nora:You might have noticed the word “så” repeated several times in the dialogue. |
| Gina:It means “so” in English. But in our dialogue, it also has another usage. |
| Nora:Yes, it was coupled with hvis |
| Gina:Which means “if” by the way. |
| Nora:And “Så” changed to “then”. |
| Gina:Let’s look at a few more examples of that. |
| Nora:Hvis du kommer hit så kan jeg hjelpe deg |
| Gina:“If you come here then I can help you” And... |
| Nora:Hvis jeg dør så lov meg å ikke gråt |
| Gina:“If I die then promise me not to cry” That last one was a bit sad. But you get the picture right? |
| Nora:Next we have “andre”. |
| Gina:Which means “others” or “other”. Which one it means totally depends on the context. |
| Nora:Exactly. There is no rule it follows, but it’s usually easy to understand from the context. |
| Gina:Let’s take a look at some examples. |
| Nora:“Hvor er han andre fyren?” |
| Gina:“Where’s the other guy?” |
| Nora:Hvem andre kommer?” |
| Gina:“Who else is coming?” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina:In this lesson, you’ll learn more about the word hvis which means “if”. This will be quite a simple lesson, and we’ll go into more detail in the next. |
| Nora:Firstly, we need to make you comfortable with the word hvis. |
| Gina:Wait! First we need to break down the sentence we had in the dialogue. |
| Nora:Oh yes, it was Hvor går jeg hvis jeg skal til kinoen? |
| Gina:This translates roughly as “Where do I go if I want to go to the cinema?” Word for word, though, it is a bit different. |
| Nora:The first word is the adverb hvor |
| Gina:Which means “where”. |
| Nora:It is followed by the present tense version går of the verb å gå |
| Gina:Or “to go” in English. |
| Nora:Then we have the pronoun jeg |
| Gina:Which means “I”. |
| Nora:It is followed by the conjunction hvis |
| Gina:Which means “If”. This is the word we’ll be covering later. |
| Nora:Next we have the pronoun jeg |
| Gina:“I” again. |
| Nora:This is followed by the verb skal which is the present tense of å skulle |
| Gina:Meaning “going to” in English. |
| Nora:Then we have the preposition til |
| Gina:Or “to” in English. |
| Nora:And finally the definitive noun kinoen |
| Gina:Which means “the cinema”. This sentence might be a little complex, however that is to better illustrate how hvis works. |
| Nora:Hvis is in essence quite, if not entirely, similar to the English “if”. In all circumstances where you see hvis in Norwegian, you’ll translate it as “if”. |
| Gina:The other way around, however, becomes a bit more complicated, and we’ll see that in the next lesson. |
| Nora:For now, think of “if” as hvis. |
| Gina:Like “if”, hvis can start a sentence. Like this... |
| Nora:Hvis du har tid kan vi finne på noe? |
| Gina:"If you have time let’s hang out?" It is a conditional like “if”, meaning that the outcome of an action depends on certain conditions. |
| Nora:This might also be illustrated by putting hvis in the middle of the sentence. |
| Nora:Vi taper hvis du ikke tar deg sammen |
| Gina:“We’ll lose if you don’t pull yourself together.” We can also use it to ask for comprehension. |
| Nora:Jeg er litt nervøs hvis du skjønner |
| Gina:“I am a bit nervous, if you understand” |
| Nora:That wasn’t too hard, was it? Don’t worry though! It’ll get a bit harder in the next lesson! |
Outro |
| Gina:All right, that’s it for this lesson. |
| Nora:Make sure to listen to it again until you are comfortable with hvis and how it is used. And to prepare for the next lesson. |
| Gina:Also make sure you check the lesson notes, and leave us a comment if you are unsure about anything. |
| Nora:And we’ll see you next time! |
| Gina:Thanks for listening, bye! |
| Nora:Ha det |
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