Learn how to ask for important information in Norwegian and how to answer this type of question
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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 23 - Following Proper Mountain Etiquette in Norway. In this lesson we’re going to take a look at mountain etiquette. |
| Filip: Yes! This will definitely come in handy if you want to go hiking in Norway. |
| Becky: We’ll look at how to ask for important information, and also what answers to these questions might look like. |
| Filip: The conversation is between Espen and Kjersti, who are heading out to go hiking again. This time, they are asking about mountain tips and rules at an information center. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Filip: Those are all very handy tips for hiking in the mountains. |
| Becky: Yes. In Norway, there are actual guidelines for hiking in the mountains that were developed for peoples’ safety. But whether or not you follow these guidelines is up to you. |
| Filip: Right, they are called ‘fjellvett’ or “the mountain code” and we strongly recommend that you follow them if you ever attempt to travel in the mountain areas. |
| Becky: And that’s because every year, several people, and many of them tourists, disappear in the Norwegian mountains, and it’s no surprise. Because even though hiking can be nice and enjoyable, it’s always important to take precautions. |
| Filip: One of the most dangerous things you can encounter in Norway’s mountains is the weather. Always watch weather forecasts and keep track of them even while you are out hiking. |
| Becky: Definitely - the weather can change rapidly, and can quickly mean the end of your trip. |
| Filip: This is especially important during winter, when snow storms result in the deaths of several unlucky people every year. |
| Becky: For more information and guidelines check out the link in the lesson notes. |
| Filip: You’ll also find general guidelines for hiking in the mountains, and also The Norwegian Mountain Code. |
| Becky: So check that out, listeners. Now let’s move on to 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: First up is ‘Å passe’ which means “to watch”. |
| Becky: This is in the sense of “to watch over something.” And not “Watch tv” or anything else. |
| Filip: When you’re using it in this sense, you usually have to add ‘på’ which means “on”, after ‘passe’ so that it makes sense. |
| Becky: This is kind of a set phrase - you could also think of it as meaning “to guard”. |
| Filip: ‘Å passe’ can also have another meaning tied to this concept. You can say ‘å passe seg’. This means... |
| Becky: “to move out of the way”. It’s essentially “guarding yourself” from whatever might have happened if you didn’t move. |
| Filip: In that sense, you can also command ‘Pass deg!’ which is similar to the English “Watch out!” Ok, next we have ‘forsiktig’. |
| Becky: Depending on the sentence, this is either an adjective or an adverb. |
| Filip: In most cases when you use ‘vær’ followed by ‘forsiktig’, it is the adjective “be careful”. But you can also say ‘Legg den forsiktig fra deg.’ |
| Becky: “Put it down carefully/slowly”. Here, it becomes an adverb. |
| Filip: You might have noticed by now that some adjectives change slightly sometimes. Most often they change through the addition or omission of a ‘-t’. |
| Becky: This is because of the gender of the noun it applies to. |
| Filip: You can either say ‘dette er tungt’. |
| Becky: “This is heavy” which is the neuter gender pronoun “this” plus the adjective “heavy” |
| Filip: Or you can also say ‘denne er tung.’ |
| Becky: Which is also “this is heavy”, but this time we’re using the masculine gender version. Let’s look at some examples of these three words. |
| Filip: Pass på klokken din |
| Becky: “Take care of your clock/watch” |
| Filip: Vær forsiktig med vasen |
| Becky: “Be careful with the vase” |
| Filip: Denne ballen er tung |
| Becky: “This ball is heavy”. Ok, now let’s move on to the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask what is important when doing something. We are also going to look at how you might answer questions like this. |
| Filip: Let’s start with the question as usual. ‘Hva er viktig å passe på i fjellet?’ |
| Becky: “What is important to remember or to watch out for while hiking in the mountains?” |
| Filip: The question itself might make some sense, but some of the words might be a bit difficult. Like we explained in our vocab explanation, ‘Passe på’ can be translated in many ways in English. |
| Becky: But they all have a common root. “To take care of”, “watch out for”, or “have in mind.” |
| Filip: Ok, now that we have that out of the way, the phrase we want to learn here is ‘hva er viktig å’. |
| Becky: “What is important to...” the last “to” here is actually a part of the verb, the article, that comes after this phrase. But it’s easier to remember it this way. |
| Filip: After ‘hva er viktig å’, you can put any verb you like. For example, ‘hva er viktig å se i Oslo?’ |
| Becky: “What is important to see in Oslo?” |
| Filip: Here, we put the verb ‘se’ meaning “see” and ‘i Oslo’, the preposition ‘i’ and the place noun ‘Oslo’. |
| Becky: When saying “in Oslo” it will always be the preposition ‘i’ that comes first. |
| Filip: In the question ‘hva er viktig å’, we can also change the adjective to whatever we like. ‘Hva er fint å se i Oslo?’ |
| Becky: “What is nice to see in Oslo?” You can see that this changes the question a bit. |
| Filip: Now just as a small note here. There was one other question that used ‘hva’ in the dialogue. ‘Hva med...’ |
| Becky: “What about..” Remember it from two lessons ago? It’s very simple - just put any noun or pronoun after... |
| Filip: ‘Hva med..’ and you get the English equivalent “What about...” |
| Becky: Let’s look at some examples using what we have learned. |
| Filip: Hva er viktig å få med seg i Juni? |
| Becky: “What’s important to experience in June?” |
| Filip: Hva er kult å gjøre på Bali? |
| Becky: “What’s cool to do in Bali?” |
| Filip: Hva med denne bilen? |
| Becky: “What about this car?” |
| Filip: So now you know how to ask, but what about the answers you’ll get? Let’s focus on one sentence from our dialogue, and see how you can change it to fit different answers. ‘Det viktigste er at du trår forsiktig og holder deg våken.’ |
| Becky: “The most important thing is to tread carefully and stay alert.” |
| Filip: Let’s cut this sentence down a bit because the last part after ‘og’ is sort of redundant for explaining the structure. |
| Becky: We’ll have another lesson some time that describes all the functions of ‘og’, which in English is “and”. |
| Filip: So the root phrase in the dialogue sentence is ‘det viktigste er...’ |
| Becky: “Most important is...” Again, you can add whatever is important after the phrase. |
| Filip: You can also change the verb into something else, like we did with the question. |
| Becky: Let’s look at some of the examples. |
| Filip: Det viktigste er at du drar på stranda! |
| Becky: “The most important thing is that you go to the beach!” |
| Filip: Det kuleste er å surfe! |
| Becky: “The coolest thing is to surf” |
| Filip: Den beste bilen er den der! |
| Becky: “The best car is that one!” |
Outro |
| Becky: Great, I think that’s enough for this lesson. |
| Filip: If there was anything you didn’t catch, just listen back and read the lesson notes. |
| Becky: Thanks for listening everyone, bye! |
| Filip: Sees snart! Hade! |
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