Where Are You?

Learn how to ask where somebody is

Vocabulary (Review)

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Lesson Transcript

Hei, jeg heter Nora. Hi everybody! I’m Nora.

Welcome to NorwegianClass101.com’s “Norsk på tre minutter”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Norwegian.

In the last lesson, we learned how to talk about nationality. This is the second part of our lesson on the verb å være, which is "to be".

This verb is also used to talk about location, to say things like "I am in the street" or "He is in the room", so it's very useful!

When you want to know where something or someone is, you use the verb å være in Norwegian.

For example, when someone asks you on the phone Hvor er du? That means "Where are you?".

Let's break it down.

Hvor means "Where"

er is "are.” This is the verb “to be”, å være, conjugated for present tense.

And du, as you know, is the word for "you".

All together it is Hvor er du?

[slowly] Hvor er du?

Answering this question is very easy! You just say Jeg er plus the place where you are.

Jeg means “I” and

er is that verb å være again.

Then you add the place. So for example, you can say Jeg er i veien which is "I am in the street"

[slowly] Jeg er i veien.

Now let’s see a few other possible answers with “I”-

"I am at the office" would be Jeg er på kontoret.

"I am in a meeting" would be Jeg er i et møte.

"I am in a store" would be Jeg er i en butikk.

Another useful expression with the verb å være is when you answer the phone. To introduce your name you can say Det er + your name.

So when I pick up the phone I often say Det er Nora. It is really simple—you just say Det er, which means "It is" + your name.

This verb å være only changes based on time like other verbs. However, the changes don’t follow any obvious logic here. The infinitive form is often used in conjunction with skal, thus skal være is implying future time “to be going to.” For recent past å være changes to var which means “was.” For perfect past the verb changes to har vært, “has been.” And present, as you might remember, is simply er.

Now it’s time for Nora’s Insights.

The verb å være can also be used in the following convenient question if you are lost in the street, for example - Jeg vet ikke hvor jeg er, kan du hjelpe meg?

That means “I don’t know where I am, can you help me?”

[slowly] Jeg vet ikke hvor jeg er, kan du hjelpe meg?

In this lesson we learned how to talk about your location thanks to the verb å være. Next time we’ll learn how to talk about age using the same verb. So do you want to know how to ask somebody’s age? I’ll be waiting for you in the next Norsk på tre minutter lesson.

På gjensyn!

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