Learn what to watch out for when using the word "hvordan," and learn some information about the job market in Norway
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina:Hi everyone, I’m Gina. |
| Nora:And I am Nora. |
| Gina:And welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Beginner Season 1, Lesson 23 - How Do You Use This Norwegian Software? |
| Nora:In this lesson you’ll learn more about using the word hvordan |
| Gina:Which means “how”. |
| Nora:The word “how” in English, functions differently from the Norwegian hvordan, because in many cases it might also translate as hvor. |
| Gina:We covered this in an earlier series. So what we’re focusing on in this lesson is how the sentence is structured around it. |
| Nora:In our dialogue, Kjersti is asking her boss about new software. |
| Gina:She doesn’t know how to use it, and asks her boss for instructions. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina:I wonder if Kjersti is qualified for her job? |
| Nora:Yeah, but it is quite common for office workers to have to deal with new software or workflows that they might not be familiar with. |
| Gina:That’s true. In Norway, like in many other countries, technology has advanced and workplaces demand more and more computer proficiency, especially working with documents and spreadsheets. |
| Nora:It’s quite common to leave University with at least some form of formal education in IT as well, even though your degree might be in a different subject. |
| Gina:Which means IT and IT proficiency is in growing demand and supply in Norway as well. |
| Nora:Yes. Norway has long been, and still is a country focused on the industrial sector of the market. But in the last few years, Norway has gradually shifted focus to the service sector. |
| Gina:True. Nowadays, about 60% of Norway’s GDP comes from the service sector. |
| Nora:Which is a result of advances in technology, and the shift of the job market. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Gina:Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Nora:A word we want to explain here is å vite. |
| Gina:It means “to know”. |
| Nora:It is also often interchangeable with å skjønne. |
| Gina:This makes it a bit confusing as we explained in our last lesson that å skjønne means “to understand”. |
| Nora:Well, you can think of both å vite and å skjønne as meaning “to be enlightened with”. |
| Gina:That way, it wouldn’t be that surprising that they are often interchangeable. |
| Nora:Å skjønne would be “to be enlightened at that moment”, while å vite would be “to already have been enlightened”. |
| Gina:Let’s see them in context. |
| Nora:Jeg vet at du ikke liker druer. |
| Gina:“I know that you don’t like grapes” |
| Nora:Jeg skjønner at du ikke liker druer. |
| Gina:“I understand/know that you don’t like grapes.” |
| Nora:Next we have the phrase å sette i gang. |
| Gina:This phrase is almost synonymous with å begynne “to begin”. |
| Nora:While å begynne means ‘to be beginning something’, å sette i gang is more related to the starting or reviving of a process. |
| Gina:Much like “to get to it” is used in English. |
| Nora:Whenever you use å sette i gang, it bears a certain air of it being a heavy process, or that whatever you are doing is a duty that can’t be escaped. |
| Gina:The phrase can also have more positive connotations, like “starting a fun project”. |
| Nora:La oss sette i gang med arbeidet. |
| Gina:“Let’s get to work.” |
| Nora:Jeg setter i gang båten snart. |
| Gina:“I’ll start the boat soon.” Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Nora:In this lesson, you’ll learn some uses of hvordan. |
| Gina:We’ll take a look at just how this word works. As we’ve mentioned, it means “how”. And by now you should already be familiar with the word and how to use it, at least a bit. |
| Nora:In this lesson, we’ll go over some common usages and also what to watch out for. |
| Gina:We’ll also look at how the sentences are structured around the adverb. First off however, let’s look at the sentence from our dialogue, and break it down. |
| Nora:Du kan lese om hvordan man gjør ting i brukermanualen. |
| Gina:This roughly translates as “You can read about how to do things in the manual.” Now let’s look at this word by word. |
| Nora:We start with the pronoun Du. |
| Gina:Which means “you”. |
| Nora:Then we have the modular verb kan. |
| Gina:Which translates as “can”. This is followed by the word it modulates... |
| Nora:Lese. |
| Gina:Which means “to read”, and is a verb in infinitive form. |
| Nora:This is then followed by the preposition om. |
| Gina:Or “about” in English. |
| Nora:Then we have the word we are looking at in this lesson, hvordan. |
| Gina:Which you should know by now means “how”. |
| Nora:This is followed by the pronoun man... |
| Gina:Which means “one”. |
| Nora:Next we have the present tense verb, gjør, from å gjøre. |
| Gina:Meaning “to do” in English. |
| Nora:This is followed by the noun ting |
| Gina:Meaning “things”. |
| Nora:And finally we end with the preposition and noun, i or “in”. And brukermanualen.... |
| Gina:Which translates as “the user manual”. This is a compound. |
| Nora:Now, you may be familiar with hvordan. |
| Gina:Normally, we’d want to use it in questions. Questions like... |
| Nora:Hvordan går det? |
| Gina:"How are you doing?" |
| Nora:Hvordan kan jeg hjelpe deg? |
| Gina:“How can I help you?” |
| Nora:Of course, that’s not all you can do with hvordan. Like in this sentence, we can use it to “explain how to do something”. |
| Gina:In other words use them in statements, explanations, and so on. |
| Nora:We haven’t used hvordan in this way a lot, so let’s look at how we go about making sentences like this. |
| Nora:Let’s start with the example Han forklarte hvordan han hadde tatt seg inn i huset umerket. |
| Gina:“He explained how he had entered the house unnoticed.” |
| Nora:Det er urettferdig hvordan vi blir behandlet. |
| Gina:“It’s unfair how we are being treated.” |
| Nora:You may notice how this adverb also works as a conjunction, as it has the same properties, connecting two SVO structures. |
| Gina:Let’s look at one of the sentences again. |
| Nora:Det er urettferdig hvordan vi blir behandlet. Here det is the Subject, er is the Verb, urettferdig is the object, and hvordan is the conjunction. Then we begin at the SVO again. |
| Gina:Now be careful of one thing with hvordan. And that is translating “How” with hvordan every time you see it. |
| Nora:“How” in English has a few usages that don’t translate as hvordan in Norwegian. |
| Gina:One of these is when used as a measure. |
| Nora:Hvor mye skal vi kjøpe? |
| Gina:“How much are we going to buy?” |
| Nora:Jeg vet ikke hvor langt det er igjen. |
| Gina:“I don’t know how long (or how far) is left.” |
| Nora:In these cases where “how” is phrased with a measure word, it translates as hvor + the measure word. |
| Gina:It’s important to remember this, since the mistake is very hard to grasp if you confuse the two. |
Outro |
| Gina:Ok, that’s all for this lesson. Remember you can read the lesson notes, and also leave a comment in this lesson’s comment section. |
| Nora:And keep going strong in your studies! At this rate, you’re learning Norwegian very fast! |
| Gina:Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Nora:Ha det bra! |
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