Learn the basic rules of Norwegian sentence structure
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.
Intro |
|---|
| Michael: How are sentences structured in Norwegian? |
| Anette: And are the rules rigid? |
| Michael: At NorwegianClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Ben Lee, a foreign-exchange student, is listening to music with a friend, Silje Soergaard. He recognizes the artist and says to his friend, "I know him, it's Kygo." |
| Ben: Jeg kjenner til han, det er Kygo. |
| Dialogue |
| Ben: Jeg kjenner til han, det er Kygo. |
| Silje: Jeg kjenner også til han. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Ben: Jeg kjenner til han, det er Kygo. |
| Michael: "I know him, it's Kygo." |
| Silje: Jeg kjenner også til han. |
| Michael: "I know him too." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will be looking at how sentences are structured in Norwegian. Norwegian word order rules are quite rigid, but this is a good thing for a student of Norwegian because it means you don't have to learn many exceptions! We will start by looking at one of the simplest rules. Once you know it, you will start sounding a lot more like someone who is familiar with Norwegian. It is called the V2 rule. "V2" translates to "verb second" and what this means is that the verb is always the second fragment or element of the sentence. Let's have a look at some examples. The Norwegian verb for "is" sounds like this: |
| Anette: er |
| [PAUSE 3 SECONDS] |
| Michael: If we want to say, "He is here" in Norwegian, it will sound like this: |
| Anette: Han er her. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: As you will have noticed, the verb is in the second position. It is the second element of the sentence. In English, if we want to emphasize the word "here," we can say, "here he is" and that word order would be perfectly acceptable. However, if we were to use the same word order in Norwegian, we would come up with this sentence: |
| Anette: Her han er. |
| Michael: And that would be wrong. Why? Because the verb is not the second element of the sentence. The verb has been placed in the third position and this is not consistent with the V2 rule. In order to fix the sentence, we have to say: |
| Anette: Her er han. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: With the verb in the second position, this sentence is now correct. And so you can see that the V2 rule is a very strict one. This rule stays in place, even if we mix the order of the rest of the words in the sentence around. |
| You might now be wondering why I said Norwegian sentence structures are so strict if we can move the rest of the words in the sentence around. It's a very good question, and the answer is simple, really. You see, in Norwegian sentences, the subject can move. The verb must always be in the second position, but the subject can be in either the first or the third position. Let's try it with a few more words in the sentence. We will use the verb "understand" which, in Norwegian, sounds like this: |
| Anette: forstår |
| [PAUSE 3 SECONDS] |
| Michael: Let's make the sentence "He understands Norwegian sentences now." In Norwegian, it sounds like this: |
| Anette: Han forstår norske setninger nå. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: As you can see, the verb is in the second position. In English, we can also say: "Now he understands Norwegian sentences. ." However, in Norwegian, we would have to say: |
| Anette: Nå forstår han norske setninger. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: This translates directly to: "Now understands he Norwegian sentences." From this example, you can again see how the verb stayed in the second position but the subject, "he" moved from the first position to the third. There are very few exceptions to this rule. |
| While talking about the subject in the third position, I'd like to point out that, if the subject is in the third position and there are two verbs, then the subject splits the verbs. Let's look at an example. The Norwegian verb for "can" is: |
| Anette: kan |
| [PAUSE 3 SECONDS] |
| Michael: And if we add that to our previous sentence, we can say: "Now he can understand Norwegian sentences." In Norwegian, it sounds like this: |
| Anette: Nå kan han forstå norske setninger. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: which translates directly to: "Now can he understand Norwegian sentences." As you can see, the subject "he," in the third position, splits the two verbs "can" and "understand." |
| There is another situation in which two verbs are split and that is when we are negating a sentence. Here's an example. In Norwegian, the word for "not" is: |
| Anette: ikke |
| [PAUSE 3 SECONDS] |
| Michael: Let's add it to our previous sentence to turn it into a negative. The negative sentence will then be: "He cannot understand Norwegian sentences now." In Norwegian, this is what it sounds like: |
| Anette: Han kan ikke forstå norske setninger nå. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: You should notice how the negation |
| Anette: ikke |
| Michael: split the two verbs |
| Anette: kan |
| Michael: and |
| Anette: forstå |
| Michael: Listen to the sentence one more time: |
| Anette: Han kan ikke forstå norske setninger nå. |
| Michael: Pretty simple really. But what if there is only one verb and you want to negate a sentence? Well, if there is only one verb, then this negation is always positioned after the verb. Let's listen to how we say, "He doesn't understand Norwegian sentences now." |
| Anette: Han forstår ikke norske setninger nå. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: In this case, the direct translation is "He understands not Norwegian sentences now." As you can see, the negation follows the verb. It's really not that complicated. |
| Finally, let's look at a different aspect of Norwegian sentence structure, and that is where to put adverbials. Adverbials, if you are wondering, are words or phrases that tell us about time, place, method and reason. They answer the questions: when, where, how and why. When we have these elements in a Norwegian sentence, they should either be in the first position or the last position. Let's make a sentence using the adverb "today." In Norwegian, this is: |
| Anette: I dag |
| [PAUSE 3 SECONDS] |
| Michael: Perhaps you could hear that it is actually a phrase, not a single word, like in English. However, it is still adverbial in nature. Now, let's put it into a sentence. In English, we would say, "Today, I bought a car," and, in Norwegian, the same sentence would be: |
| Anette: I dag kjøpte jeg en bil. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: As you can hear, the adverbial phrase is in the first position. You can also put it at the end of the sentence, just like in the English: "I bought a car today." Listen to the Norwegian: |
| Anette: Jeg kjøpte bil i dag. |
| [PAUSE 4 SECONDS] |
| Michael: That should be pretty clear. There are other rules that apply when sentences get more complex, but you now know the basics of Norwegian sentence structure. Because of this, more complex sentences should not present much of a challenge. |
| [Summary] |
| In this lesson, we talked about how Norwegian sentences are structured. You learned about the V2 rule, which means that the verb is always in the second position in the sentence. |
| You also learned that the subject can move around but only between the first and third positions. |
| Adverbials can move around too, but only between the first and last positions in a sentence. |
| You also learned that the negation word in a sentence is always placed after the verb and that, if there are two verbs, it splits them. The subject of the sentence will also split two verbs if it is in the third position. These are the basics, and once you know them you will sound a lot more fluent when speaking or writing Norwegian! |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sentences we've heard in this lesson. I'll say the sentence in English, and then I want you to try and reply in Norwegian. Anette will then model the correct answer—listen to her carefully and repeat, with emphasis on your pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "I know him, it's Kygo?" |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Anette: Jeg kjenner til han, det er Kygo. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anette: Jeg kjenner til han, det er Kygo. |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Michael: Good! And do you remember how to say "I know him too?" |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Anette: Jeg kjenner også til han. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anette: Jeg kjenner også til han. |
| [BEEP. PAUSE 5 SECONDS.] |
| Cultural Insight |
| Michael: Norwegian, like English, is classified as an S-V-O language. This means it follows the subject-verb-object word order. There are many other languages that follow this order as well. These include Chinese, Spanish, French, and Portuguese. In English, meaning depends almost entirely on word order, but this is not true of Norwegian. This is why, for instance, we can move the subject and the adverbials around in Norwegian sentences. Interestingly, the V2 rule is found in every Germanic language, except in English. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Anette: Ha det! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide