Learn about using a bit of Norwegian slang, an, that's nearly impossible to translate into English
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Gina:Hi, I am Gina. |
| Nora:Hi, and I am Nora. |
| Gina:And welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Beginner, season 1, Lesson 5 - Is Smoking Allowed in Norway? In this lesson, you’ll learn about a phrase that doesn’t have a proper English equivalent. |
| Nora:It’s “Det går”. |
| Gina:It translates roughly as “it goes”. But the way it’s used doesn’t exist in English. |
| Nora:It shouldn’t be too hard to understand though, and should be easy to add to your Norwegian vocabulary. |
| Gina:In our dialogue we are meeting Scott again. He wants to have a cigarette, but cigarette laws are strict in Norway, and he is certainly not allowed to smoke on the bus he’s on. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Gina:Smoking laws in Norway have become quite strict in recent years. |
| Nora:True. Now it’s illegal to smoke in many public spaces like inside malls, restaurants, larger squares, and other places where it is considered a nuisance to the general public. |
| Gina:So now smokers are becoming a minority in Norway. |
| Nora:Actually, so much so, that some jobs aren’t allowing for cigarette breaks, and it’s becoming unusual to smoke inside your own house. |
| Gina:The latter is also because of the problem with selling houses or apartments where there has been smoking inside. |
| Nora:Yes. And smokers have been complaining more and more recently because of the tightening of the laws, and the gradual exclusion of smokers from the general public. |
| Gina:While on the other hand, it’s a relief for the non-smoking public |
| Nora:Which is a very positive thing, I think. |
| Gina: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. The first word is... |
| Nora:“An.” |
| Gina:Again we are faced with a word that is almost impossible to translate into English. But of course, we can always explain what it’s used for. And that is, to put emphasis on sentences. |
| Nora:However, you can’t simply use it with every sentence. We’ll look at the phrase å gå an, which would translate roughly as.... |
| Gina:“To be possible”. Adding the an here puts an emphasis on “Being possible”. Again we’ll need examples to illustrate how exactly this is used. |
| Nora:Går det an å spise her? |
| Gina:“Is it possible/allowed to eat here?” |
| Nora:Det går ikke an å være så dum! |
| Gina:“It’s impossible to be that stupid!” As you can see, it denotes possibility. You could roughly translate it as “it goes”. |
| Nora:Next up we have the phrase “i så fall.” |
| Gina:This phrase most often translates as “in that case”. |
| Nora:It’s more or less used in the same scenarios you would use “in that case” in English... |
| Gina:So it shouldn’t be that hard to understand. |
| Nora:Like its English counterpart, it’s a set phrase and so it doesn’t change. |
| Gina:But let’s look at some examples. |
| Nora:“Du kan jo bli med, men i så fall må vi ta bussen” |
| Gina:“You could join, (but ) in that case we’d have to take the bus” |
| Nora:“I så fall vil ikke jeg ha den maten” |
| Gina:“If that’s the case then I don’t want that food” Quite simple right? Okay, now onto the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Gina:In this lesson, you’ll learn more about some specific vocabulary. |
| Nora:We explained how an works as part of the phrase å gå an. |
| Gina:And now we are going to explain the first part of this sentence, namely... |
| Nora:Det går |
| Gina:Which translates as “it goes”. This phrase is commonly used in referring to general possibility, so in English it would more closely resemble “it is possible”. |
| Nora:Before we start explaining the phrase in more detail, let’s go over and break down the two sentences we had in our lesson. |
| Gina:Yes, we have already explained some of the words in the vocab section, so if you are unsure of some of them please go back over that again. |
| Nora:Our first sentence is Det går vel an å røyke på bussen? |
| Gina:It translates roughly as “I am allowed to smoke on the bus right?” A closer translation of this would be “Would it be possible to smoke on the bus?” |
| Nora:The first word in our sentence is det |
| Gina:“it”. It’s followed by the present tense verb... |
| Nora:går... which means “goes”. |
| Gina:Next we have |
| Nora:Vel |
| Gina:This is an adverb that doesn’t translate well to English, but it would add something like “right” at the end of the sentence. |
| Nora:After this we have an... |
| Gina:Which is best thought of as part of the phrase... |
| Nora:...det går an or “It is possible”. |
| Gina:Then we have a verb in the infinitive, |
| Nora:å røyke or “to smoke”. |
| Gina:The reason it is in infinitive is that we have the “possible” phrase as the first part of the sentence. |
| Nora:The verb is then followed by på |
| Gina:Which is a preposition and means “on”. |
| Nora:And finally we have the definite noun bussen |
| Gina:In English “the bus”. The whole sentence can be a bit complex, but essentially it is affirming the notion that it’s possible to smoke on the bus by using the... |
| Nora:Det går an phrase. Now let’s repeat the whole phrase again, “Det går vel an å røyke på bussen?” |
| Gina:“I am allowed to smoke on the bus right?” Now for our next sentence, we have the answer to the question above. |
| Nora:Nei, det går ikke, da må du av i så fall. |
| Gina:This translates as “No, that’s not allowed, in that case you’ll have to get off (the bus)”. Again it is understood in the sentence here that when the bus driver says “get off” he means “to get off the bus”. |
| Nora:The first word in the sentence is the negative Nei |
| Gina:“No” in English. |
| Nora:It’s followed by our phrase det går |
| Gina:“it goes”, and then the second negative |
| Nora:ikke or “not”. After the comma we have da |
| Gina:Which means “then”, which is followed by |
| Nora:Må which means “to have to”. Next we have the adjective av ... |
| Gina:Or “off” in English. |
| Nora:And finally the phrase i så fall which means “in that case”. |
| Gina:We explained the last phrase in our vocab and phrase usage section. |
| Nora:The most important part of this sentence is det går ikke. |
| Gina:And in fact, that’s the only answer needed to the question above. Let’s look at how this phrase works. |
| Nora:Det går is a phrase indicating general possibility. |
| Gina:In our vocab usage section, we talked about ... |
| Nora:å gå an |
| Gina:... as meaning “to be possible”. |
| Nora:While it is common to add the an at the end of det går... |
| Gina:...it is not in any way necessary. |
| Nora:But alone, å gå simply means “to go”. |
| Gina:That’s why combining |
| Nora:det |
| Gina:meaning “it” and |
| Nora:å gå |
| Gina:meaning “to go” together is necessary to make the phrase “it is possible” or “it goes”. |
| Nora:And depending on whether det or går comes first... |
| Gina:The sentence is either an affirmation or a question. |
| Nora:Like, if we say Det går å kjøre gjennom her. |
| Gina:Det comes first and forms the affirmation “It is possible to drive through here”. |
| Nora:While on the other hand we say går det å kjøre gjennom her? |
| Gina:And it becomes a question because går, the verb, is first. “Is it possible to drive through here”. Let’s look at some examples of this. |
| Nora:Går det om vi tar på oss mer klær? |
| Gina:Is it possible if we put on more clothes?" |
| Nora:Det går ikke an å svømme over |
| Gina:“It isn’t possible is impossible to swim across” |
Outro |
| Gina:That’s going to do it for this lesson. |
| Nora:Listeners, take some time to study the lesson notes and leave a comment on the site! |
| Gina:And most importantly, don’t forget to study more! |
| Nora:See you next time! Ha det |
| Gina:Thanks for listening, everyone. Bye! |
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