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Lesson Transcript

Hei, jeg heter Nora. Hi everybody! I’m Nora.
Welcome to NorwegianClass101.com’s “Norsk på 3 minutter”. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Norwegian.
In the last lesson, we learned how to ask "When" questions in Norwegian.
This time, we are going to ask "Who" questions.
Imagine you want to ask your friend who the girl just behind him is.
Here, the question you can ask is Hvem er hun bak deg?
[slowly] Hvem er hun bak deg?
So let’s break down this question:
First we had:
Hvem which is the basic translation of "Who" in Norwegian.
er which is "are," the present tense of the verb å være, which we have already studied.
hun means "she."
And finally bak deg which is "behind you."
deg is the object pronoun for "you."
All together it is hvem er hun bak deg?
So in Norwegian, "Who" is mainly translated as Hvem.
For example, if you want to ask "Who are these people?" You could say Hvem er disse menneskene?
[slowly] Hvem er disse menneskene?
Here's another example:
If you are in a museum, you can ask Hvem malte dette bildet? This means "Who painted this painting?"
[slowly] Hvem malte dette bildet?
Another phrase with hvem that is used a lot is Hvem sin? In this case, the meaning is "Whose."
So if you want to ask "Whose pencil is it?" you will have to say Hvem sin blyant er det?
If we break down this question, it is-
Hvem sin which is "whose"
blyant which is “pencil”.
Then we have er which is the present tense of the verb å være, which you should know.
And finally, det, which means "it."
You can also use the word hvem to ask "For whom?" using the phrase til hvem.
Let's practice by asking "For whom is this piece of cake?"
Til hvem er dette kakestykke?
[slowly] Til hvem er dette kakestykke?
Now it’s time for Nora’s Insights.
If someone that you didn't expect is knocking at your door in Norway, you could ask Hvem er det? before opening the door.
This means "Who is it?"
However, the most common thing Norwegians say in this situation is just “hallo?”
In this lesson, we learned how to correctly use "Who" in Norwegian.
The next lesson will be our last of this absolute beginner series.
We will deal with the last question word Hvorfor, so I’ll be waiting for you in the next Norsk på 3 minutter lesson.
På gjensyn!

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