Learn how to use modified adjectives and how to talk about your fears
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Filip: Hi, I am Filip. |
| Becky: And I’m Becky. Welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 18 - What’s Your Greatest Fear in Norway? Well, this is a scary topic right here. |
| Filip: We’ll it’s Kjersti and Espen and their friends who’re going to talk about fear. And in this lesson, you’re going to learn some ways to talk about feelings using ‘jeg er’ with modified adjectives, and also how to ask about them. |
| Becky: That’s right, what we’ll look at in this lesson is not only useful for talking about fear, but for any kind of small talk or dinner conversation. |
| Filip: That’s right. The characters are talking about their fears around dinner. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: Now, even though fear isn’t the most common subject during dinner conversations with friends, you might stumble on similar conversations. |
| Filip: But it’s still something that might come up, because Norwegians like to talk about every subject under the sun. |
| Becky: Politics and recent news are often common topics, and with younger people, pop culture or likes and dislikes might also come up. |
| Filip: And if all else fails, Norwegians will end up talking about the weather or asking what has happened lately. |
| Becky: I guess it’s not that different from other countries or cultures then. |
| Filip: Very true, but what’s important is that by learning Norwegian, you can get involved in these daily conversations, and that might be rewarding in itself. |
| Becky: Couldn’t have said it better myself. Now, let’s move on to our vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Filip: First up, the word ‘mest’ can be either a modifier or an adverb. It sounds similar to its English translation... |
| Becky: Which is “Most”. As in “I am the most hungry”, or “mostly”. |
| Filip: When ‘mest’ comes in front of an adjective, it’s not always easy to guess whether it means “most” or “mostly”. |
| Becky: If you hear it spoken, the clue is that the ‘M’ will be stressed if it means “most” and flat if it means “mostly”. |
| Filip: It’s harder to see the difference if you’re just reading it, though. |
| Becky: Right, when you’re reading it, it usually helps to see the context, to understand what it means. |
| Filip: That’s true, but it might still be a bit tricky. Luckily, our next word is much simpler. ‘Kjemperedd’ is another example of a word that’s a concatenation of two words. You’ll often see concatenations that start with the adverb ‘kjempe’. |
| Becky: That’s because combining this word with any adjective makes it much stronger. |
| Filip: So ‘Kjemperedd’ is something that’s more than ‘veldig redd’ |
| Becky: Which is “Very scared” It’s more like “incredibly” or “inexplicably scared”. Let’s have some examples now. |
| Filip: Hun er mest søt |
| Becky: “She is mostly sweet” |
| Filip: Han er mest glad i kake |
| Becky: “He is most fond of cakes” |
| Filip: Jeg er kjempesulten! |
| Becky: “I am insanely hungry!” Ok, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson you’ll learn how to talk about fear in Norwegian. |
| Filip: Or as we mentioned earlier in this lesson, not necessarily fear, but using ‘jeg er’ with modified adjectives, as well as a question and a phrase that fits in this scenario. |
| Becky: Ok. First off, let’s start with the question we saw in the dialogue. |
| Filip: Hva er du mest redd for, Espen. |
| Becky: This is a very basic question, “What are you most afraid of Espen?”. It can be translated word for word into English, so it shouldn’t be too hard to understand how it works. |
| Filip: So what if we change it a bit? For example, you can easily change the pronouns. ‘Hva er hun mest redd for, Espen?’ We changed ‘du’ with ‘hun’. |
| Becky: In English, “you” with “she”. Please note that we’re still asking Espen this question, and assuming that he knows the answer. And you can remove Espen from the equation just by removing the word “Espen”. It’s that simple! |
| Filip: The question would then be asked to whoever is listening. ‘Hva er hun mest redd for?’ |
| Becky: Now what happens if you change the modifier here? |
| Filip: The modifier is ‘mest’ meaning “most”, so if we change it to ‘minst’, we get ‘Hva er hun minst redd for?’ |
| Becky: That new modifier means “least”, so the question now is “What is she least afraid of?” |
| Filip: These are just a couple of ways you can change the question. You can also change the adjective, but sometimes that means you have to change the last adverb as well. |
| Becky: Ok, so how do you answer a question like this? One option is the way Espen answered in our dialogue. |
| Filip: His answer was a little hesitant - ‘Det må nok være å bli blind.’ The first part here, ‘Det må nok være...’ Means... |
| Becky: “That probably has to be...” Indicating that he isn’t entirely sure if that’s his biggest fear. |
| Filip: The next part of the sentence is simple. ‘å bli blind’. It means... |
| Becky: “to become blind”. |
| Filip: Your answer to the question ‘hva er du mest redd for?’ could simply be ‘å bli blind.’ |
| Filip: Or you can answer with a verb in its infinitive form, as in ‘å dø’, meaning “to die”. |
| Becky: Ok, let’s go back to “it probably has to be”. Instead of adding a verb after it, you could add a noun like |
| Filip: ‘Slanger.’ Meaning “snakes”. In the sentence, ‘Det må nok være slanger.’ |
| Becky: “it probably has to be snakes” |
| Filip: Finally, you can also respond like Kjersti did in the dialogue, by saying ‘jeg er’ plus the verb ‘redd’ meaning “afraid” and ‘for’ meaning “of”. Follow that with whatever you’re afraid of. Here you can add ‘å bli døv’, ‘å dø’, or ‘slanger’ after ‘Jeg er’. |
| Becky: Alright let’s stop there and look at some examples. |
| Filip: Ok! ‘Hva er du minst glad for?’ |
| Becky: “what are you least happy about?” |
| Filip: Det må nok være eksos |
| Becky: “That probably has to be exhaust fumes” |
| Filip: Å bli latterliggjort |
| Becky: “To be made fun of” |
| Filip: Jeg er minst glad for teite bursdagsgaver |
| Becky: “I am least happy about stupid birthday presents” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, let’s leave it there for this lesson. |
| Filip: Make sure to listen again and look at the lesson notes. |
| Becky: And we hope you learned a lot in this lesson. Thanks everyone! |
| Filip: Takk for at dere hørte på, hade! |
| Becky: Bye! |
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