Learn about the genitive case in Norwegian
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Intro |
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| Michael: How important is the genitive case in Norwegian? |
| Inger: And are there any remnants of it in the language? |
| Michael: At NorwegianClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Karen Lee is practicing how to talk about objects that belong to others with Trygve Tvedt. She says, "The student's book." |
| Karen: Boka til studenten. |
| Dialogue |
| Karen: Boka til studenten. |
| Trygve: Kaptainen på skipet. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen: Boka til studenten. |
| Michael: "The student's book." |
| Trygve: Kaptainen på skipet. |
| Michael: "The ship's captain." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In this lesson, we will learn about the genitive case, or, in Norwegian, |
| Inger: genitiv |
| Michael: In English grammar, the genitive case is predominantly used to show possession, and it is expressed by either adding an apostrophe and an “S” to the noun or by preceding the word with “of.” The expressions “The dog’s bone” and “The bone of the dog” are examples of the genitive case. |
| Michael: Modern Norwegian has gradually ceased using the genitive case, and only a few remnants of it can be observed in some expressions. To express possession, an “S” is also added to the name, but unlike in English, no apostrophe is used for separation. For instance, “John’s mother” would be |
| Inger: Johns Mor. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To understand things better, let’s take a closer look at the dialogue. Do you remember how Karen Lee says "The student's book"? |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Inger as Karen Lee: Boka til studenten. |
| Michael: Aside from simply adding an “S” at the end of the noun, another way to express possession in Norwegian is with the help of the preposition, |
| Inger: til |
| Michael: which has a similar function to the word “to” in English. The preposition is placed after the definitive form of the possessed object, which in this case is |
| Inger: Boka |
| Michael: or “book,” and before the possessor, which in this case is |
| Inger: studenten |
| Michael: or “student.” |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: Now, let’s take a look at our second sentence. Do you remember how Trygve Tvedt says "The ship's captain?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Inger as Trygve Tvedt: Kaptainen på skipet |
| Michael: The word |
| Inger: på |
| Michael: is a Norwegian preposition that could mean several things depending on how it’s used in a sentence. In this case, it functions similarly to the English “on” and takes the genitive case. You could also say that |
| Inger: Kapteinen på skipet |
| Michael: also translates to “The captain on the ship.” |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: So far, we have learned that, while modern Norwegian doesn’t use the true genitive case that much anymore, it still has a way of expressing possession as we have learned in this lesson. We have also learned that there are different ways we can express possession in Norwegian, one of which is by adding an -s after the name of the possessor. For example, “John’s house” in Norwegian is |
| Inger: Johns hus |
| Michael: We also learned that using prepositions, such as |
| Inger: til and på, |
| Michael: helps us express possession in Norwegian, such as in the case of |
| Inger: Mora til John |
| Michael: “Mother of John,” and, |
| Inger: Pelsen på kaninen |
| Michael: or “Rabbit’s fur.” |
| Expansion |
| Michael: We’ve learned that a common way of expressing the genitive or possessive case in Norwegian is by adding an “s” at the end of the noun, but what if the word already ends in “s?” In English, we add the apostrophe plus the “s” even if the word ends in an “s,” but only if it’s in singular form. For plural words ending in “s,” we only add the apostrophe. In Norwegian, the second rule applies to words ending in “s.” Here’s an example: |
| Inger: Anders’ biler |
| Michael: or “Anders’ car.” The same is true for words ending in -z and -x. For instance, “Max’s chicken” is |
| Inger: Max’ kylling |
| Michael: and “Jazz’s cup” is |
| Inger: Jazz’ kopp |
| Cultural Expansion |
| Michael: The use of the enclitic -s to express possession has evolved from the use of the four reflexive possessive pronouns |
| Inger: sin, si, sitt, and sine. |
| Michael: Between Bokmål and modern Nynorsk, the two written standards of the Norwegian language, it is in Nynorsk that the use of these pronouns is generally encouraged as opposed to the use of the enclitic -s. For example, instead of writing or saying “The girl’s car” as |
| Inger: Jentas bil, |
| Michael: Nynorsk would write or say |
| Inger: Jenta sin bil |
| Michael: making use of the reflexive possessive pronoun and not simply adding the enclitic -s. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We’re here to answer them! |
| Inger: Ha det! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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