Learn how to point out an error or mistake in a polite way
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Upper Beginner Season 1 Lesson 17 - Did You Really Get that Norwegian Answer Wrong? Eric Here. |
| Ida: Hallo. I'm Ida. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to point out someone’s mistakes in a polite way |
| Ida: You’ll be learning how to use the phrase Jeg tror kanskje du har gjort en feil, which means “I think perhaps you've made a mistake.” |
| Eric: The conversation takes place outside a classroom at the community college. |
| Ida: It's between Linda and her teacher. |
| Eric: The speakers are a teacher and a student, so they’ll be using polite Norwegian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Linda: Unnskyld, har du to minutter til meg? |
| Læreren: Ja, absolutt Linda. |
| Linda: Det handler om prøva. Jeg tror kanskje du har gjort en feil. |
| Læreren: Sier du det? Kan du vise meg? |
| Linda: Det var her på spørsmål nummer tre. Du satt kryss ved siden av svaret mitt, men du sa i klassen at det var riktig. |
| Læreren: Å, ja. Du har rett. La meg korrigere det. Vær så god. |
| Linda: Tusen takk. Kan du også korrigere karakteren? |
| Læreren: Å, beklager. Ja, det kan jeg. Nå har du fått en A. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Unnskyld, har du to minutter til meg? |
| Læreren: Ja, absolutt Linda. |
| Linda: Det handler om prøva. Jeg tror kanskje du har gjort en feil. |
| Læreren: Sier du det? Kan du vise meg? |
| Linda: Det var her på spørsmål nummer tre. Du satt kryss ved siden av svaret mitt, men du sa i klassen at det var riktig. |
| Læreren: Å, ja. Du har rett. La meg korrigere det. Vær så god. |
| Linda: Tusen takk. Kan du også korrigere karakteren? |
| Læreren: Å, beklager. Ja, det kan jeg. Nå har du fått en A. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Linda: Excuse me, do you have two minutes? |
| Teacher: Yes, absolutely Linda. |
| Linda: It's about the test. I think perhaps you've made a mistake. |
| Teacher: Is that so? Can you show me? |
| Linda: It's here on question number three. You've put a cross beside my answer, but you said in class that it's right. |
| Teacher: Oh, yes. You're right. Let me correct that. Here you are. |
| Linda: Thank you very much. Can you also correct my grade? |
| Teacher: Oh, sorry. Yes, I can. Now you've got an A. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Hey Ida, can you tell us a little about the Norwegian education system? |
| Ida: Sure! One of the most important changes to the system occurred in 2006 when the government began kunnskapsløftet, which is "The Knowledge Promotion Reform". |
| Eric: What did this reform aim to change or improve? |
| Ida: It was mostly about changes of the content, organization and structure of schools in Norway. |
| Eric: So it was an overall upgrade then? |
| Ida: Yes, the goal was to increase the quality of schooling to give people the skills they need to succeed in the future. |
| Eric: The reasoning is that individual success leads to the success of the nation, more wealth creation and sustainable development. What principles inspired this reform, Ida? |
| Ida: Like in many other countries, schools in Norway are based on the principle of equal and adaptable education for all. |
| Eric: Until what age is school compulsory? |
| Ida: Until 16, before entering high school. Something really interesting about education in Norway is that, though students are given continuous assessments from first grade, they don't receive true grades until they start middle school at the age of 13. |
| Eric: I see. And when they start getting grades, how do they work? |
| Ida: Grades are ranked from 6 to 1, where 6 is excellent and 1 is fail. At the university level, students are given grades from A to F, where A is excellent and F is fail. |
| Eric: Alright, let’s continue onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is.. |
| Ida: absolutt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: absolutely |
| Ida: absolutt[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: absolutt [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: prøve [natural native speed] |
| Eric: test |
| Ida: prøve[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: prøve [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: kanskje [natural native speed] |
| Eric: perhaps |
| Ida: kanskje[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: kanskje [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: å vise [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to show |
| Ida: å vise[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: å vise [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: spørsmål [natural native speed] |
| Eric: question |
| Ida: spørsmål[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: spørsmål [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: kryss [natural native speed] |
| Eric: cross |
| Ida: kryss[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: kryss [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Ida: å korrigere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to correct |
| Ida: å korrigere[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: å korrigere [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last… |
| Ida: beklager [natural native speed] |
| Eric: sorry |
| Ida: beklager[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: beklager [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Eric: Let's take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is.. |
| Ida: å handle om |
| Eric: meaning "to be about (something)" |
| Ida: å handle is the verb and om is a preposition. Separately these two words can have several meanings, but together they only have one meaning, which is "to be about (something)". |
| Eric: Can you give us an example? |
| Ida: Sure. For example, you can say.. Det jeg vil fortelle deg, det handler om Halvor. |
| Eric: ..which means "The thing I want to tell you, it's about Halvor." |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Ida: å gjøre en feil |
| Eric: meaning "to make a mistake" |
| Ida: å gjøre en feil is a phrase meaning "to make a mistake". å gjøre is the verb "to do", and en feil is the noun phrase "one mistake". |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Ida: Sure. For example, you can say.. Jeg beklager, jeg gjorde en feil. |
| Eric: .. which means "I apologize, I made a mistake." Are there other ways to express the same meaning? |
| Ida: Well, you could also say å ta feil which literally means "to take mistake". Å ta is the verb "to take" and feil is the noun "mistake". Å ta feil is used when someone assumed something, and was wrong about the assumption. For example Jeg tok feil angående tidstabellen |
| Eric: meaning "I was wrong about the timetable." Okay, what's the last phrase? |
| Ida: å ha rett |
| Eric: meaning "to be right" |
| Ida: Å ha is the verb "to have", and rett is the noun "right". Together, å ha rett means "to be right". We can also say å ha rettigheter, which means "to have rights". The noun rett, meaning "right", comes from the noun rettighet meaning "right" as in "civil rights". Å ha rett derives from å ha rettigheter. |
| Eric: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Ida: Sure. You could say.. Han tror han alltid har rett. |
| Eric: .. which means "He thinks he's always right." Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you will learn how to point out an error in a polite manner. Let’s start by taking a look at the sentence from the dialogue. |
| Ida: Jeg tror kanskje du har gjort en feil. |
| Eric: This means “I think perhaps you've made a mistake." Ida, how do we break down this phrase? |
| Ida: First we have Jeg which is the pronoun “I”, followed by the verb tror meaning “think”. Then we have the adverb kanskje which means “perhaps”, and then the phrase we will look at today, du har gjort en feil which is “you’ve made a mistake.” |
| Eric: The last one is in present perfect tense, as you may remember from a previous lesson. |
| Ida: If you use Du har gjort en feil meaning “you’ve made a mistake” alone, it can sound a little offensive, regardless of whether the person is actually correct or not. |
| Eric: So, could you give us some tips to avoid sounding rude? |
| Ida: When pointing out someone’s mistake in a polite way, we often use the verb å tro, “to think” in front of the sentence du har gjort en feil, “you’ve made a mistake”. |
| Eric: Ah, like in the example. |
| Ida: Right, By adding the adverb kanskje “perhaps” it softens the phrase even more, making it sound polite. |
| Eric: Are there any similar words we can use? |
| Ida: There are more variations of this, including the adverb muligens “possibly”, the adjective tenkes meaning “conceivable”, and the phrase kan hende meaning “can occur”. For example, Jeg tror muligens du har gjort en feil. |
| Eric: “I think you’ve possibly made a mistake” |
| Ida: Here’s another example with a different structure and using tenkes. Det kan tenkes at du har gjort en feil. |
| Eric: “It’s conceivable that you’ve made a mistake.” Now, if you’re the person who possibly made the mistake, how can you answer? |
| Ida: If you’re wrong, you can just say Ja, du har rett. |
| Eric: meaning “Yes, you’re right.” |
| Ida: If the other person was wrong, you can negate with Nei, du tar feil. |
| Eric: Literally “No, you take the wrong.”, but actually meaning “No, you are wrong.” |
| Ida: We could also soften the reply, by adding jeg tror or kanskje |
| Eric: Respectively meaning “I think” and “perhaps” |
| Ida: Altogether, Jeg tror du kanskje tar feil. |
| Eric: “I think you perhaps are wrong.” Ok, let’s wrap up this lesson with a couple of sample sentences. |
| Ida: Jeg tror han muligens har gjort en feil. |
| Eric: "I think he's possibly made a mistake." |
| Ida: Du har kanskje rett. |
| Eric: "You're perhaps right." |
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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