Learn how to ask about personality
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Eric: Hi everyone, and welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 14 - How Would You Describe Your Norwegian Friend? Eric Here. |
| Mai: Hei, I'm Mai. |
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about personalities. The conversation takes place at a coffee shop. |
| Mai: It's between Martin and Anne. |
| Eric: The speakers are friends. Therefore, they will speak informal Norwegian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Anne: Du husker venninna mi Hanne, ikke sant? Hun har blitt ganske rar i det siste. |
| Martin: Hva mener du? |
| Anne: Hun er kjempesmart, men i blandt sier hun helt merkelige ting. |
| Martin: Hun er kanskje bare litt fjern? |
| Anne: Jo, kanskje. Det kan jo hende at hun bare er distré. |
| Martin: Det kan jo hende. Holder ikke foreldrene hennes på å skille seg? |
| Anne: Jo, pappaen hennes er visst ganske så voldelig ogsånt. Mammaen hennes fikk vel nok... |
| Martin: Det forklarer kanskje saken. Jeg har alltid likt mammaen hennes. Hun er alltid så munter. Håper skilsmissen ikke går utover Hanne for mye. |
| Anne: Ja, Hanne er jo så søt og koselig. |
| Eric: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Anne: You remember my friend Hanne, right? She has become pretty weird lately. |
| Martin: What do you mean? |
| Anne: She's very smart, but sometimes she says really odd things. |
| Martin: She might just be a bit aloof? |
| Anne: Yeah, maybe. Could be that she's just absent-minded. |
| Martin: That could be. Her parents are in the middle of a divorce, right? |
| Anne: Yes, her dad is apparently quite violent and stuff. Her mom must have had enough... |
| Martin: That maybe explains the situation. I've always liked her mother. She's always so cheerful. I hope the divorce doesn't affect Hanne too much. |
| Anne: Yeah, Hanne is so cute and nice. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Eric: Mai, what are the marriage and divorce rates like in Norway? |
| Mai: During the year of 2015, approximately twenty thousand couples got married, and about nine thousand couples divorced. |
| Eric: That’s an interesting proportion. What does it take to get married? |
| Mai: You have to be at least 18 years old to get legally married. Since 2009, it’s legal to marry someone of the same sex. Nevertheless, a lot of people choose to not get married but still stay in a serious relationship and live together. |
| Eric: I’d say that’s common in other countries too. |
| Mai: Living with someone you’re in a relationship with is called å være samboere |
| Eric: Literally "to be living together." |
| Mai: A samboer is the person you live with. Sambo comes from the words sam, meaning "together," and bo, meaning "to live." Literally, this means "to live together." |
| Eric: So “to be ‘samboere’” is “to live with someone without being married.” |
| Mai: Right, this arrangement is so widespread that Norwegians created a special expression for 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... |
| Mai: rar [natural native speed] |
| Eric: weird |
| Mai: rar[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: rar [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: merkelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: odd |
| Mai: merkelig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: merkelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: fjern [natural native speed] |
| Eric: aloof |
| Mai: fjern[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: fjern [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: distré [natural native speed] |
| Eric: absent-minded |
| Mai: distré[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: distré [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: å skille seg [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to get divorced |
| Mai: å skille seg[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: å skille seg [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: voldelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: violent |
| Mai: voldelig[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: voldelig [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: å få nok [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to get enough |
| Mai: å få nok[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: å få nok [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: å gå utover [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to affect |
| Mai: å gå utover[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: å gå utover [natural native speed] |
| Eric: Next we have... |
| Mai: munter [natural native speed] |
| Eric: cheerful |
| Mai: munter[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: munter [natural native speed] |
| Eric: And last... |
| Mai: å holde på [natural native speed] |
| Eric: to be in the middle of |
| Mai: å holde på[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mai: å holde på [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... |
| Mai: å holde på |
| Eric: meaning "to be in the middle of." |
| Mai: Å holde på can also usually mean "to hold on." |
| Eric: Let’s consider the other meaning, “to be in the middle of.” How can you use it? |
| Mai: If someone is asking you, for example, if you’re cleaning your room and you're still doing it, you can answer with Jeg holder på. |
| Eric: This means "I'm in the middle of it." |
| Mai: Here is another example: De holder på å male huset. |
| Eric: ...which means "They are in the middle of painting the house." |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mai: å gå utover |
| Eric: meaning "to affect." |
| Mai: Å gå means "to go," and utover means "outward." So together, they mean "to affect." |
| Eric: You use it the same way as in English. Can you give us an example in Norwegian? |
| Mai: Sure. For example, you can say, Katastrofen gikk utover alle. |
| Eric: ...which means "The catastrophe affected everyone." |
| Eric: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mai: å få nok |
| Eric: meaning "to get enough." |
| Mai: You can use it whenever you feel like you’ve had enough of something. For example, you can say, Jeg har fått nok av all sutringa di. |
| Eric: ...which means "I've had enough of all your pouting." |
| Mai: You can also say Jeg har fått nok av søtsaker |
| Eric: meaning "I’ve had enough sweets." |
| Eric: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Eric: In this lesson, you'll learn how to talk about personality. |
| Mai: First, we’ll see how to make assumptions. |
| Eric: When you want to make an assumption about other people or a situation you don’t know about directly, you need to make a conjecture. This is something the speaker supposes to be possible or is not sure of. |
| Mai: There are a few Norwegian expressions that can come in handy. |
| Eric: Is there an example in the dialogue? |
| Mai: Yes, we’ll go through them now. Hun er kanskje bare litt fjern? |
| Eric: meaning “She might just be a bit aloof?” |
| Mai: Pappaen hennes er visst ganske voldelig. |
| Eric: “Her dad is apparently quite violent.” What are some keywords or key expressions when making assumptions? |
| Mai: For example, Kanskje. |
| Eric: meaning “maybe,” “might.” |
| Mai: Nok |
| Eric: “probably.” |
| Mai: Kan hende |
| Eric: “could be.” These words change the meaning of a sentence to an assumption. Let’s give a couple of examples. |
| Mai: First, the sentence Jeg skal spise godteri. |
| Eric: This means “I’m going to eat candy.” It’s a plain affirmation. |
| Mai: To make it an assumption, you can say Jeg skal kanskje spise godteri. |
| Eric: which means “I might eat candy.” |
| Mai: The addition of the word kanskje makes the sentence sound different. Here’s another example: Hent veska mi, den er på bordet. |
| Eric: “Get my bag, it’s on the table.” |
| Mai: Hent veska mi, den er nok på bordet. |
| Eric: “Get my bag, it’s probably on the table.” |
| Mai: In this case, we just added the word nok. |
| Eric: Ok, now let’s widen our vocabulary and learn some personality adjectives. |
| Mai: There are a lot of Norwegian adjectives you can use to describe yourself or someone you know. |
| Eric: We’ll go through some of the positive and negative personality adjectives here. |
| Mai: We had some examples of personality adjective in the dialogue. For example, fjern and distré. |
| Eric: meaning “aloof” and “absent-minded.” Let’s see some positive ones. |
| Mai: For example: entusiastisk and sjarmerende |
| Eric: meaning “enthusiastic” and “charming,” respectively. Can you give us a sample sentence using those two? |
| Mai: Sure thing. For example, you can say: Han har en veldig sjarmerende personlighet. |
| Eric: “He has a very charming personality.” |
| Mai: ærlig means “honest.” You can say, Hun var ærlig og fortalte sannheten. |
| Eric: “She was honest and told the truth.” Listeners, you can find more positive personality adjectives in the lesson notes. Now, let’s look at some negative ones. |
| Mai: For example: egoistisk, kontrollerende and utålmodig |
| Eric: Meaning “selfish,” “controlling,” and “impatient.” Let’s see a couple of sample sentences using those words. |
| Mai: Hun er veldig kontrollerende, så det er vanskelig å si nei. |
| Eric: “She's very controlling, so it's hard to say no.” |
| Mai: Han blir utålmodig selv etter fem minutter. |
| Eric: “He gets impatient even after five minutes.” |
Outro |
| Eric: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Mai: Ha det bra! |
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