Learn how to give simple explanations about familiar places
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Upper Beginner Season 1 Lesson 22 - Talking About the Good Times in Norwegian. Eric here. |
| Ida: Hallo. I'm Ida. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you’ll learn how to describe your neighborhood and housing accommodations. The conversation takes place outside a classroom at a university extension. |
| 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 |
| Linda: Hvor er du fra, Halvor? Du snakker ikke dialekt. |
| Halvor: Jeg er fra en liten landsby midt i Østlandet. |
| Linda: Vokste du opp på gård? |
| Halvor: Nei, det var et rekkehus, men det var flere gårder i nærheta. Vekste du opp i en storby? |
| Linda: Ja, vi hadde en liten leilighet midt i sentrum. |
| Halvor: Jeg tror ikke at jeg kunne bo i en bolig så liten som en leilighet. |
| Linda: Vi flyttet til en enebolig i forstedene da jeg fylte femten. Vi hadde en stor hage også. |
| Halvor: Det høres litt bedre ut enn ei høyblokk! |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Linda: Hvor er du fra, Halvor? Du snakker ikke dialekt. |
| Halvor: Jeg er fra en liten landsby midt i Østlandet. |
| Linda: Vokste du opp på gård? |
| Halvor: Nei, det var et rekkehus, men det var flere gårder i nærheta. Vekste du opp i en storby? |
| Linda: Ja, vi hadde en liten leilighet midt i sentrum. |
| Halvor: Jeg tror ikke at jeg kunne bo i en bolig så liten som en leilighet. |
| Linda: Vi flyttet til en enebolig i forstedene da jeg fylte femten. Vi hadde en stor hage også. |
| Halvor: Det høres litt bedre ut enn ei høyblokk! |
| Eric: Now, listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Linda: Where are you from, Halvor? You don't speak in dialect. |
| Halvor: I'm from a small village in the middle of eastern Norway. |
| Linda: Did you grow up on a farm? |
| Halvor: No, it was a townhouse, but there were many farms nearby. Did you grow up in a city? |
| Linda: Yes, we had an apartment in the middle of the city center. |
| Halvor: I don't think I could live in a residence as small as a flat. |
| Linda: We moved to a detached house in the suburbs when I was fifteen. We had a big garden, too. |
| Halvor: That sounds a bit better than a tower block! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Ida, are there many dialects in Norway? |
| Ida: Yes, there are. An important distinction within the Norwegian dialects is the difference between western Norwegian dialects and eastern Norwegian dialects. |
| Eric: Does this have anything to do with the mountain chains that separate the country? |
| Ida: It certainly does. The eastern part of the country uses a lot of words ending with -e's, which is the masculine gender, whereas in the western part you will hear a lot of words ending with -a's which is the feminine gender. |
| Eric: Do Norwegians find dialects difficult to understand? |
| Ida: We do! That’s why high school curriculums often include lessons about Norwegian dialects. If you ask someone where they’re from in Norway, they may answer you by asking if you can figure it out by listening to their dialect. But don't worry if you don't know, most Norwegians can’t even guess! But the ones who know like to brag about it. |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Eric: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Ida: landsby [natural native speed] |
| Eric: village |
| Ida: landsby[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: landsby [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: gård [natural native speed] |
| Eric: farm |
| Ida: gård[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: gård [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: rekkehus [natural native speed] |
| Eric: townhouse |
| Ida: rekkehus[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: rekkehus [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: storby [natural native speed] |
| Eric: city |
| Ida: storby[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: storby [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: leilighet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: apartment |
| Ida: leilighet[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: leilighet [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: sentrum [natural native speed] |
| Eric: city center |
| Ida: sentrum[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: sentrum [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: enebolig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: detached house |
| Ida: enebolig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: enebolig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have.. |
| Ida: hage [natural native speed] |
| Eric: garden |
| Ida: hage[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: hage [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And lastly.. |
| Ida: høyblokk [natural native speed] |
| Eric: tower block |
| Ida: høyblokk[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Ida: høyblokk [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. Our phrase for this lesson is.. |
| Ida: å vokse opp |
| Eric: which means “to grow up” |
| Ida: å vokse is a verb meaning “to grow” and opp is the preposition meaning “up”. |
| Eric: Together they make... |
| Ida: å vokse opp |
| Eric: which means “to grow up”. It is used the same as the English expression “to grow up somewhere”. But note that the English expression “grow up!” which means “behave like an adult”, does not exist in Norwegian. In this case you can say... |
| Ida: skjerp deg |
| Eric: which literally means “sharpen up”. You also can't use.... |
| Ida: å vokse opp |
| Eric: regarding plants. For plants, you can simply say… |
| Ida: vokse, meaning “grow”, without opp |
| Eric: For example, you can say… |
| Ida: solsikken vokser fort |
| Eric: “The sunflower grows fast.” |
| Eric: Ida, can you give us another example using this phrase? |
| Ida: Sure. For example, you can say.. Jeg vokste opp i Norge. |
| Eric: ...which means “I grew up in Norway.” Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson you’ll learn how to describe your neighborhood and housing. Let’s take a look at the expression from the dialog… |
| Ida: så liten som |
| Eric: this means “as small as”. The grammar structure is simple... |
| Ida: så plus adjective plus som. Så is the adverb meaning “as” and som is the preposition meaning “like”. But you can translate så...som like the English construction “as (blank) as”. |
| Eric: If a noun you are describing is masculine or feminine, you don't need to change the adjective in this grammar structure. However, if the noun is neuter, you should add the letter.. |
| Ida: -t |
| Eric: to the end of an adjective. Here’s an example. |
| Ida: Jeg har aldri sett et skihopp så høyt som holmenkollbakken. |
| Eric: “I’ve never seen a ski jump as high as Holmenkollen ski jump.” |
| Ida: Here, skihopp is the neuter gender, so you must put -t at the end of høy, meaning “high”. So you get høyt. |
| Eric: In our dialog, Halvor said… |
| Ida: Det høres litt bedre ut enn ei høyblokk! |
| Eric: which means “That sounds a bit better than a tower block!” “Better” is a comparative form of the adjective “good”. Ida, let’s explain how to form the comparative superlative forms of adjectives in Norwegian. |
| Ida: Sure thing! The system is quite similar to the English system. The most common way to make comparatives and superlatives is to add [re] or [ere] to the end of adjective endings to make the comparative forms, and [-st] or [est] to make the superlative forms. |
| Eric: I see. In English, we add the [er] ending, but in Norwegian it’s opposite, [re]. |
| Ida: Right. For example. kort - kortere -kortest |
| Eric: “short” - “shorter” - “shortest” |
| Ida: pen - penere - penest |
| Eric: “pretty - prettier - prettiest”. |
| Ida: stor - større -størst |
| Eric: “big - bigger - biggest”. Of course there are some exceptions to this rule and a few irregular adjectives. You can find these in the lesson notes. So Ida, how would you make a comparison between two things in Norwegian? |
| Ida: It’s simple. The sentence structure is noun + the comparative form of the adjective + enn + noun, or the noun + superlative form of adjectives. |
| Eric: For example, you can say… |
| Ida: Hagen min er større enn hagen din. |
| Eric: “My garden is bigger than your garden” |
| Ida: Bilen min er raskest. |
| Eric: “My car is fastest”. There is another way to make a comparison using superlatives. |
| Ida: Right. You can use the following structure – noun + positive form + superlative. |
| Eric: For example, you can say… |
| Ida: Leiligheten din er liten, men min er mindre. |
| Eric: “Your apartment is small, but mine is smaller.” Like in English, when describing familiar places, Norwegians tend to describe the place in the past tense, even though the place still exists in theory. For example… |
| Ida: Ja, vi hadde en leilighet midt i sentrum. |
| Eric: “Yes, we had an apartment in the middle of the city centre.” |
| Ida: Vi flyttet til en enebolig i forstedene da jeg fylte femten. Vi hadde en stor hage også |
| Eric: “We moved to a detached house in the suburbs when I was fifteen. We had a big garden, too.” Ok, let’s wrap up with some more sample sentences. |
| Ida: Stuen er så koselig som den kan bli. |
| Eric: “The living room is as cozy as it gets.” |
| Ida: Jeg bor utenfor sentrum. |
| Eric: “I live outside of the city center.” |
| Ida: Parken er så stor som en bydel. |
| Eric: “The park is as big as a district.” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Ida: Ha det bra. |
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