Learn how to complain about school life
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Upper Beginner Season 1 Lesson 16 - Is Your Norwegian Classmate Pulling Their Weight? Eric here. |
| Ida: Hallo. I'm Ida. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to complain in an academic setting using the present perfect in Norwegian. The conversation takes place outside a classroom at the community college. |
| Ida: It's between Linda and her fellow student and friend, Halvor. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends, so they'll be using informal Norwegian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Halvor: Du ser utslitt ut, Linda. |
| Linda: Det har vært ei vanskelig uke. Jeg har bare fått altfor mye hjemmelekser. Jeg har rett og slett ikke tid til å gjøre alt. |
| Halvor: Har du sagt ifra til læreren din? |
| Linda: Ja, jeg sendte henne en e-post, men jeg har ikke fått svar fra henne. |
| Halvor: Oi. Det var dårlig. Og nå er hun sen igjen, merker jeg. |
| Linda: Og vet du hva den verste tingen er? Han som jeg skal jobbe med på prosjektet har aldri tid til å møtes! |
| Halvor: Hvem skulle du jobbe på prosjektet med? |
| Linda: Med deg, Halvor! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Halvor: Du ser utslitt ut, Linda. |
| Linda: Det har vært ei vanskelig uke. Jeg har bare fått altfor mye hjemmelekser. Jeg har rett og slett ikke tid til å gjøre alt. |
| Halvor: Har du sagt ifra til læreren din? |
| Linda: Ja, jeg sendte henne en e-post, men jeg har ikke fått svar fra henne. |
| Halvor: Oi. Det var dårlig. Og nå er hun sen igjen, merker jeg. |
| Linda: Og vet du hva den verste tingen er? Han som jeg skal jobbe med på prosjektet har aldri tid til å møtes! |
| Halvor: Hvem skulle du jobbe på prosjektet med? |
| Linda: Med deg, Halvor! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Halvor: You look exhausted, Linda. |
| Linda: It's been a difficult week. I've just got far too much homework. I just don't have the time to do everything. |
| Halvor: Have you told your teacher? |
| Linda: Yeah, I sent her an email, but I haven't gotten a reply from her. |
| Halvor: Gosh. That's bad. And now she's late again, I see. |
| Linda: And do you know what the worst thing is? The guy I'm working with on the project never has time to meet up! |
| Halvor: Who are you meant to be working on the project with? |
| Linda: With you, Halvor! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ida, could you tell us something about universities in Norway? |
| Ida: Well, you might be surprised to learn that there are only eight universities in Norway. |
| Eric: That's a pretty small number compared to other countries. |
| Ida: Yes, but they all have good reputations, and according to the Academic World Ranking of Universities 2014, the University of Oslo comes in 69th of the top 500. |
| Eric: That's not bad! What are the most important research fields at Norwegian universities? |
| Ida: The University of Oslo specialises in social science and medicine, the University of Stavanger is known for petroleum engineering, and the University of Tromsø offers research on the northern lights and the Arctic. |
| Eric: That last one sounds really interesting. Is it true that university education in Norway is free? |
| Ida: Yes; since Norwegian universities are state universities, they are publicly funded which means they don’t have tuition fees. |
| Eric: Are the courses open to foreign students? |
| Ida: Yes, both EU- and non-EU students can enroll and receive education for free, the same as Norwegians. |
| Eric: So it seems quite affordable. |
| Ida: But be careful, because living expenses in Norway are pretty high. |
| Eric: I’ve heard that. Can you tell us the Norwegian name of one of these eight universities? |
| Ida: Sure, the most well-known is Universitetet i Oslo |
| Eric: Which is "University of Oslo." Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ida: å være utslitt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be exhausted |
| Ida: å være utslitt[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: å være utslitt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: vanskelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: difficult |
| Ida: vanskelig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: vanskelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: hjemmelekse [natural native speed] |
| Eric: homework |
| Ida: hjemmelekse[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: hjemmelekse [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: lærer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: teacher |
| Ida: lærer[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: lærer [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: e-post [natural native speed] |
| Eric: email |
| Ida: e-post[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: e-post [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: dårlig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: bad |
| Ida: dårlig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: dårlig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: verste [natural native speed] |
| Eric: worst |
| Ida: verste[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: verste [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: prosjekt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: project |
| Ida: prosjekt [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: prosjekt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: altfor [natural native speed] |
| Eric: far too |
| Ida: altfor [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: altfor [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: rett og slett [natural native speed] |
| Eric: just |
| Ida: rett og slett[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: rett og slett [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's have a closer look at some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ida: altfor |
| Eric: meaning "far too." |
| Ida: This adverb, literally translated, means "excessively." Please remember that it is usually used to express something negative, and if put in a positive context, it can sound a bit sarcastic. |
| Eric: Let’s give an example. |
| Ida: If you say Du er altfor snill, meaning "You are way too kind," it can be interpreted as either the person is being too kind and this is causing you trouble, or that you think that the person is being kind because of some secret agenda. |
| Eric: So you should be cautious of using this adverb in a positive sentence. |
| Ida: That’s right. |
| Eric: Can you also give us an example of a negative sentence? |
| Ida: Sure. For example, you can say.. Det er altfor varmt for å sove her inne. |
| Eric: ..which means "It's way too hot to sleep in here." Okay, what's the next word? |
| Ida: dårlig |
| Eric: meaning "bad." |
| Ida: When used as an adjective, dårlig means "not well" or "ill," for example, Jeg er dårlig, |
| Eric: which means "I'm ill.” |
| Ida: It can also mean “not good,” as in dårlig vær meaning "bad weather", or it can mean “deficient,” as in en dårlig kniv |
| Eric: referring to "a knife not cutting well." |
| Ida: It can also refer to something morally bad, as in dårlige venner |
| Eric: indicating “friends that are not good for you.” |
| Ida: Sometimes dårlig can be used as an adverb. A common expression in Norwegian is Det var dårlig gjort |
| Eric: which literally translates to "That was bad done," but actually means "That's unfair." Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Ida: rett og slett |
| Eric: meaning "just." |
| Ida: Rett og slett is an expression, and a synonym of the adverb bare meaning "just." Rett is "straight," og is "and" and slett is "plain." |
| Eric: It's clear that this idiom means "plainly and simply.” Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Ida: Sure. For example, you can say.. Du kan rett og slett gi opp. |
| Eric: .. which means "You can just give up." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson you'll learn to complain about school life. |
| Ida: We'll look at how to make and use the present perfect tense in Norwegian when complaining in an academic setting. |
| Eric: First, let's dissect the sentence that we'll be concentrating on from our dialogue. |
| Ida: It’s Jeg har bare fått altfor mye hjemmelekser. |
| Eric: This translates as “I’ve just got far too much homework.” |
| Ida: Breaking it down, we have the pronoun jeg meaning "I." After the pronoun comes the verb, har fått, which is the present perfect tense of å få, which means "to receive." Actually in between the auxiliary verb har and fått, we have the adverb, bare, |
| Eric: which means "just." Luckily, this happens in English too, so it shouldn't be too hard to grasp. When adding adverbs like ”just,” "already," "almost," "probably," and so on, they are put in between the auxiliary verb and the conjugated verb, just like they would be in English. |
| Ida: Following that, we have altfor meaning “far too,” then mye, the adjective meaning “much.” Hjemmelekser is the noun “homework.” Altogether we have Jeg har bare fått altfor mye hjemmelekser, |
| Eric: “I’ve just got far too much homework.” It's pretty much a straight-forward word for word translation. Now, let’s look more closely at the present perfect. First let’s remember that the present perfect is used when focusing on the consequences of an event and not the time when it happened. |
| Ida: For example, Vi har kjøpt en ny bil. |
| Eric: “We’ve bought a new car.” It is also used for actions that began in the past, and are still going on in the present moment. |
| Ida: For example, Jeg har bodd i Norge i 2 år. |
| Eric: “I’ve been living in Norway for two years.” What's the rule to form the present perfect? |
| Ida: As you can see, the present tense in Norwegian is made by adding the auxiliary verb å ha, “to have,” conjugated in the present tense har, “have,” before the action verb in the past participle. |
| Eric: We can divide Norwegian verbs into two groups, weak and strong verbs. |
| Ida: For the weak verbs, we can follow two main rules. The first is that verbs ending with a /et in the simple past tense keep the same ending in past participle. The auxiliary is always har. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Ida: å jobbe, meaning “to work,” ends with -e and its simple past is either jobba or jobbet, so the present tense is har jobbet. |
| Eric: Let’s hear a complete sentence. |
| Ida: Sure, Jeg har jobbet hele uken med oppgaven. |
| Eric: “I have worked on the task all week.” Ok, now, what's the second rule for the weak verbs? |
| Ida: Verbs ending with te, de, or dde, in the simple past lose the e in present perfect tense. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Ida: å prøve, which means “to try,” in the simple past is prøvde, so the present perfect is har prøvd |
| Eric: Please use it in a complete sentence. |
| Ida: Jeg har prøvd å kontakte Halvor, men han svarer ikke på telefonen. |
| Eric: “I have tried to contact Halvor, but he doesn’t answer the phone.” |
| Ida: Now let’s see the present perfect for the so-called strong verbs. Unfortunately there is no rule for conjugating the present perfect tense of strong verbs. |
| Eric: Listeners, you can find a list of the most common ones in the lesson notes. |
| Ida: For example “to walk” in Norwegian is å gå, the simple past is gikk and the present perfect is har gått |
| Eric: So simple past and present perfect are quite different. |
| Ida: That’s right. But there is something that can be recognized as a common feature. The past participle is made up of the infinitive with a double t at the end. |
| Eric: For example? |
| Ida: We just saw å gå, the present perfect of which is har gått. Let’s consider å gi |
| Eric: which means “to give” |
| Ida: The past participle is gitt. |
| Eric: You just add a double t after the infinitive. |
| Ida: Right. The complete present perfect is har gitt |
| Eric: How about one more example? |
| Ida: Yes, let’s see one that doesn’t follow the rule, å gjøre |
| Eric: meaning “to do.” |
| Ida: The simple past is gjorde and the present perfect is har gjort |
| Eric: In this case, the fastest way is to learn all the forms by heart. |
| Ida: Right. The good news is that you don’t have to memorize conjugations. |
| Eric: Getting back to the main topic, when you want to complain about the workload you’ve been given, or the many times you have told the student office about about a problem with your grades, just use the present perfect tense. Let’s give some final examples. |
| Ida: Jeg har sagt ifra til administrasjonen. |
| Eric: "I have told the administration office." |
| Ida: Jeg har ikke fått noe råd fra veilederen min. |
| Eric: "I haven't gotten any advice from my advisor." |
| Ida: Finally a good one to excuse yourself is Jeg har ikke hatt tid til å studere til prøven. |
| Eric: "I haven't had time to study for the test." |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Ida: Ha det bra. |
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