Learn about the Norwegian adverb hvor and learn some practical ways to answer a question that uses hvor
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Filip: Hi, I am Filip. |
| Becky: And I’m Becky. Welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 21 - Where in Norway Are You Going? |
| Filip: In this lesson you’re going to learn how to use the adverb “where” and some other practical ways to answer a question with hvor in it. The conversation is between Kjersti and Espen, who are on their way out on the town, and trying to figure out where to go. |
| Becky: Okay, Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: There are a lot of places to choose from when you go out in Norway, right B? |
| Filip: Yes, especially in the larger cities, like Oslo. |
| Becky: The food and beverage quality is also pretty safe, isn’t it? |
| Filip: Yes. There are strict quality guidelines, and these are often checked at random by the Norwegian food safety authority. |
| Becky: So you won’t risk getting food poisoning by just going out to a new restaurant. |
| Filip: Exactly. But back to the choices. The food offered in Norway, and especially Oslo, tends to have some variation. The most common restaurants have a variety of dishes from a variety of different cuisines. |
| Becky: There are also more specialised restaurants, but a lot of them focus on exotic or foreign cuisines. |
| Filip: Some of the most common foreign cuisines you’ll find in Oslo and other larger cities are Japanese, Chinese, and Middle-eastern. Thai and Vietnamese restaurants dominate. |
| Becky: There are also Italian, French, and of course Norwegian restaurants. |
| Filip: So just go out and choose a restaurant that looks nice - it will probably be good! |
| Becky: OK, now let’s look at the vocabulary. |
| 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: The first word, ‘hen’, is the equivalent of “hen” or “hence” in Old English. |
| Becky: So it’s a bit different from the “hence” we use today. It means “further” or “away”. |
| Filip: We usually add it to sentences where we use prepositions that are vague, or when we use the adverb hvor. |
| Becky: Yes, and it’s usually placed at the end of the sentence to indicate that you’re talking about a place, and not something else. |
| Filip: You don’t *need* to add this word to any sentence, it’s basically redundant. Still, it’s often used by Norwegians. |
| Becky: Let’s hear an example. |
| Filip: Jeg skal dit hen |
| Becky: “I am going somewhere around there.” |
| Filip: ‘Å vite’ means “to know”. However there are two “to know’s” in Norwegian. The other one is ‘å kjenne’. |
| Becky: If you know French, this might sound more familiar to you. In Norwegian you use different words for ‘knowing’ as in wisdom or knowledge, and ‘knowing’ someone or something. |
| Filip: ‘Å vite’ is used when you possess knowledge or information about something. And ‘å kjenne’ is used when you recognise something or someone. |
| Becky: If you mix these up, the sentence may become hard to understand, so try to understand when to use which. |
| Filip: Jeg kjenner til mange som liker blodpudding |
| Becky: “I know a lot of people who like blood pudding” |
| Filip: The final word is ‘å tro’. |
| Becky: In Norwegian, like in English, we alternate between “to believe” and “to think”. |
| Filip: The first, ‘Å tro’ means “to believe” and is used in situations where you talk about trust, belief, convictions and so on. Then the second, ‘Å tenke’ means... |
| Becky: “To think”. It’s used when you’re talking about opinions, ideas, general thinking and so on. But they do overlap, so don’t worry if you’re stuck on which one to use. You can probably use both. Now let’s look at some examples. |
| Filip: Tror du at du kunne hjulpet meg? |
| Becky: “Do you think you could help me?” Now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson you’ll learn how to use the adverb “where”, and how to answer questions that involve “where”. |
| Filip: We’ll do this by going through and breaking down some of the sentences from our dialogue. That way, we can see how they function. |
| Becky: Let’s start with the first question from the dialogue. |
| Filip: Alright. First of all, “where” is ‘hvor’ in Norwegian. Our first sentence was ‘Hvor skal vi gå hen?’ |
| Becky: First off, the translation in our dialogue was slightly adapted. Word for word, this question would translate to “where are we going to go to?” or “Where should we go to?”. |
| Filip: This is how it works - it’s built up using the adverb ‘hvor’, which always comes first. Then comes ‘skal’. |
| Becky: It means “should” or “going to”. |
| Filip: This is followed by ‘vi’ which means “we”, a pronoun that can be substituted with any pronoun or noun. After the pronoun comes the verb ‘gå’. |
| Becky: “go”. This can also be substituted with some verbs. |
| Filip: And finally we have ‘hen’ meaning “to”. Let’s focus on the first 3 parts of this sentence, which form the set phrase ‘hvor skal’ + pronoun, and which are followed by a verb and any additional necessary words. |
| Becky: Next up, we have another easier question using “where”. |
| Filip: ‘Hvor ligger’ + noun or pronoun. |
| Becky: This essentially means “where is” + noun/pronoun. This question couldn’t be simpler. Let’s look at some examples of the two. |
| Filip: Hvor skal du spise hen? |
| Becky: “Where are you going to eat?” |
| Filip: Hvor skal dere hen? |
| Becky: “Where are you going?” |
| Filip: Hvor ligger kinoen? |
| Becky: “Where is the cinema?” |
| Filip: Answering these questions is pretty easy. |
| Becky: Since they are all essentially VSO questions, all you have to do is change the structure into SVO to make the answer. |
| Filip: Let’s look at the question ‘Hvor skal han hen?’ which means “Where is he going to?” You simply switch around the word order to make it ‘Han skal’, then you add ‘til’ which means “to”. |
| Becky: And then the name of the place he is going to. It’s as simple as that. |
| Filip: The same goes for the ‘hvor ligger’ questions. Say you have the question ‘hvor ligger butikken’, which means “Where is the shop?” The answer to this is ‘Butikken ligger...’ plus the place where the shop is. Remember, you always need a preposition before the name of the place, and these can be a bit tricky. If the shop is in Oslo, for example, you simply say ‘Butikken ligger i Oslo.’ |
| Becky: But let’s take this one step further, and look at how the “where” questions were answered in our dialogue. |
| Filip: We used the phrase ‘jeg vet ikke hvor’ which simply means “I don’t know where”. It’s shortened down from ‘jeg vet ikke hvor vi skal gå hen’. |
| Becky: “I don’t know where we should go to”. We can cut the last part because it’s already understood. This is a set phrase and we can’t change it much. |
| Filip: Another set phrase is ‘Hva med’ meaning “What about” plus whatever place or thing you are suggesting. This is as simple as it can be. Think of a place to go, then simply say ‘hva med’ and the place. |
| Becky: Finally, let’s look at the last sentence Kjersti says. |
| Filip: Jeg tror Lise vet hvor den ligger. |
| Becky: “I believe Lise knows where it is”. Here we start with the sentence... |
| Filip: ‘Jeg tror’, which means “I believe” or “I think.” It’s followed by the “[name]”, ‘vet’ |
| Becky: This translates as “[Name] knows”. |
| Filip: And finally, ‘hvor den ligger’. It’s a set phrase used to reply to ‘hvor ligger den?’ You may notice ‘den’ moved to be between ‘Hvor’ and ‘ligger’. ‘Hvor den ligger.’ |
| Becky: Let’s look at some examples of these answers. |
| Filip: Jeg skal spise på MacDonalds |
| Becky: “I am going to eat at McDonald’s” |
| Filip: Jeg vet ikke hvor, hva med teater? |
| Becky: “I don’t know where, what about the theater?” |
| Filip: Jeg tror jeg vet hvor den ligger |
| Becky: “I think I know where it is” |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, That’s all for this lesson! |
| Filip: Make sure to listen again, and look at the lesson notes. |
| Becky: Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Filip: Takk for at dere hørte på, hade! |
Comments
Hide