Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Yura : Hello again, this is Yura. Welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 17 - Experience Nature in Norway.
Filip : Og dette er Filip. I’m Filip!
Yura : In this lesson, we’ll take a look at how to express feelings about things you see, or know. We are also looking at how to conjugate adjectives, which will be useful when expressing feelings or opinions.
Filip : Indeed. By conjugating adjectives, you can go from saying “this is a good sandwich” to saying “this is the best sandwich!”
Yura : So the conversation is between Mark and Espen, as usual, and they’re talking about nature.
Filip : That’s right. Norway certainly has a lot of nature to experience. By far there is more nature than inhabited areas. If you ever come to Norway, be sure to check out some of the famous nature spots, like the fjords, the mountain steppes, and last but not least, the northern lights!
Yura : Definitely! But first let’s listen to the conversation.

Lesson conversation

Mark : Så dette er Jotunheimen.
Espen: Det stemmer. En av norges største natur reservater.
Mark : For en fantastisk utsikt!
Espen: Noe annet enn bylandskap, eller hva?
Mark : det er sikkert og visst!
English Host: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly.
Mark : Så dette er Jotunheimen.
Espen: Det stemmer. En av norges største natur reservater.
Mark : For en fantastisk utsikt!
Espen: Noe annet enn bylandskap, eller hva?
Mark : det er sikkert og visst!
English Host: Now let’s hear it with the English translation.
Mark : Så dette er Jotunheimen.
Yura So this is “Jotunheimen.”
Espen: Det stemmer. En av norges største natur reservater.
Yura That’s right. One of Norway’s biggest nature reserves.
Mark : For en fantastisk utsikt!
Yura What a fantastic view!
Espen: Noe annet enn bylandskap, eller hva?
Yura Quite a change from the city landscape, huh?
Mark : det er sikkert og visst!
Yura That’s for sure!
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Yura : Hey Filip, are there a lot of people in your home town?
Filip : Not really, no. I come from a city called Tønsberg. It’s a known city in Norway, but has a population of about 30,000 people.
Yura : Is that considered a small city then?
Filip : Actually, no. It is a small city yes, but Norway doesn’t really have cities that big. Take Oslo for example – half a million people, and it’s the capital city. In most other places, that is pretty small.
Yura : Yeah, but Norway doesn’t really have that many people either, about 5 million total.
Filip : Yes, but that just leaves a lot of space for everyone, and especially nature.
Yura : Oh, I just love the enormous nature reserves in Norway! Not a house to be seen anywhere, just you and mother nature.
Filip : Nothing like it. Did you visit some famous places when you lived in Norway Yura?
Yura : Of course I did! I took the boat through the Hardanger fjord.
Filip : How was it?
Yura : Well... you’ve been there too, right?
Filip : Actually no... It’s kind of embarrassing, but I have never seen the fjords of Norway...
Yura : Well then you should!
Filip : I have always wanted to, but it’s not cheap. I have been to “Glittertind” though, the highest point in Norway.
Yura : Listeners, be sure to let us know where you have visited in Norway - or, if you haven’t been yet, where you’d like to go!
Filip : Now let’s move on to the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson.
The first word we shall see is:
å stemme [natural native speed]
to be correct (correct)
å stemme [slowly - broken down by syllable]
å stemme [natural native speed]
Next:
stor (største) [natural native speed]
large (largest)
stor (største) [slowly - broken down by syllable]
stor (største) [natural native speed]
Next:
natur [natural native speed]
nature
natur [slowly - broken down by syllable]
natur [natural native speed]
Next:
reservat [natural native speed]
reserve
reservat [slowly - broken down by syllable]
reservat [natural native speed]
Next:
fantastisk [natural native speed]
fantastic
fantastisk [slowly - broken down by syllable]
fantastisk [natural native speed]
Next:
utsikt [natural native speed]
vantage, view
utsikt [slowly - broken down by syllable]
utsikt [natural native speed]
Next:
annet [natural native speed]
other, else
annet [slowly - broken down by syllable]
annet [natural native speed]
Next:
by [natural native speed]
city
by [slowly - broken down by syllable]
by [natural native speed]
Next:
landskap [natural native speed]
landscape
landskap [slowly - broken down by syllable]
landskap [natural native speed]
Next:
sikkert [natural native speed]
sure
sikkert [slowly - broken down by syllable]
sikkert [natural native speed]
KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES
Yura : Let’s take a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. So Filip, In this lesson the dialogue was very similar in both Norwegian and English. The only thing I found a little weird was the statement at the end.
Filip : Ah, you mean det er sikkert og visst?
Yura : Yes that’s it. How come the English and Norwegian is so different here?
Filip : It’s just one of those things that you have to remember as a whole sentence...
Yura : So there is no real grammatical structure in this that makes it different?
Filip : Nope, it’s more a socially developed thing. All languages have these sentences that can’t be directly translated or explained so well. You’ll just have to remember this one.
Yura : Ok. As you say, Norwegian isn’t the only language that has this. You can’t just say det er sikkert?
Filip : Well you can, but its meaning will be more like “It’s safe” rather than “That’s for sure.”
Yura : Ok, with that, let’s move on to the grammar.

Lesson focus

Yura : In this lesson, you will learn how to conjugate adjectives, right Filip?
Filip : That’s right. Conjugating adjectives is an important step in the language, since it can enable you to further express opinions or feelings.
Yura : Right. So let’s see the example from our dialogue where this is used.
Filip : Sure
Filip : En av norges største natur reservater.
Yura : “One of Norway’s biggest nature reserves.”
Yura : Ok, so the conjugated adjective in this sentence is “biggest”.
Filip : That’s right, største in Norwegian.
Yura : So tell us a little bit about how we conjugate these adjectives in Norwegian, Filip.
Filip : Well as you know, adjectives split into 3 groups when conjugated. An example of this, is “Big,” “bigger” and “biggest.” Three ways of saying the same adjective, but different meanings progressively.
Yura : Right, and we distinguish them in English by adding letters to the end of the adjectives. Let’s call them stage one, two and three. Stage one stays unchanged, while we add letters to stage two and three.
Filip : In English, you add “er” to the second stage, and “est” to the third. In Norwegian it’s almost the same, but we have some differences. First of all. Stage two isn’t er, but e or ere in Norwegian.
Yura : can you give an example of this?
Filip : Sure. Kort becomes kortere. In some cases, other letters will change a little as well, like lang which becomes lengre. Here the ‘a’ in the first stage becomes an ‘e’ in the second stage. lAng - lEngre
Yura : Why is this?
Filip : It sounds better, that’s all. You’ll just have to pay a little attention to adjectives since some letters sometimes change for the sake of flow.
Yura : All right. And the third stage?
Filip : In the third stage, English adds “st” to the adjective. In Norwegian, ‘st’ or ‘est’ is added. In cases where other letters are changed in the second stage, like with lang, this is the same in the third stage: Lang - lEngre - lEngst.
Yura : Well, this is not too different from English. As we have seen in the lessons so far, keeping a flow in the language is important in Norwegian. You can make yourself understood even if you don’t use this, but it will sound strange.
Filip : Yes, but don’t worry too much about it. Knowing how to keep flow is something that will develop naturally the more you speak Norwegian.
Yura : OK, now that we have gone through the rules, let’s hear some examples of adjectives being conjugated
Filip : Lang - Lengre - Lengst
Yura : “Long” - “Longer” - “Longest”
Filip : Kort - Kortere - Kortest
Yura : “Short” - “Shorter” - “Shortest”
Filip : Stor - Større - Størst
Yura : “Big” - “Bigger” - “Biggest”
Filip : Liten - Mindre - Mindst
Yura : “Small” - “Smaller” - “Smallest”
Yura : Hey Filip, In the last example here, the Norwegian changes quite a bit.
Filip : Yes it does. This is an irregular adjective, and it therefore has a different word in the first step than the second and third step. This is just something you have to memorize.
Yura : It can be a pain, but most languages have irregulars like this. Also, in the dialogue, Espen says største. Where does the ‘e’ in the end here come from?
Filip : When continuing a sentence after a conjugated adjective in English, you don’t need to change anything, but you have to do this in Norwegian to make it sound natural. We add an ‘e’ at the end in cases where a sentence continues after the adjective to create a better flow. let’s see an example
Filip : Jeg er størst!
Yura : “I am the largest!”
Filip : Jeg er den største i klassen!
Yura : “I am the largest in the class!”
Filip : As you heard, we added an ‘e’ in the longer sentence. This is, as mentioned, only for the flow.
Yura : can you also give examples of sentences where different forms or adjectives are used?
Filip : Jeg er god til å stå på ski, men bedre til å svømme.
Yura : “I’m good at skiing, but better at swimming.”
(farewell)
Yura : All right, that’s it for this lesson, we hope you learned something!
Filip : Conjugation isn’t always easy in Norwegian, but remember the irregulars, and the rest should go fine!
Yura : Hope to see you again for our next lesson. Take care and good luck!
Filip : Håper å se deg igjen snart, hade bra, og lykke til med studiene!

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