Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

In this lesson, we shall see a very useful phrase meaning “I don’t understand.” It is useful, of course, because many times you won’t immediately pick up on what people are saying.
In Nynorsk, “I don’t understand” is
Eg forstår ikkje.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Eg for-står ik-kje.
Once more:
Eg forstår ikkje.
The first word, eg, is the pronoun “I.”
Next we have forstår, a conjugated form of the verb “to understand.”
(slow) For-står.
Forstår.
After that comes ikkje; which means “not.”
(slow) Ik-kje.
Ikkje.
Altogether, that’s
Eg forstår ikkje.
Not knowing enough Norwegian may be one of the reasons for not understanding. In this case say
Eg forstår ikkje norsk.
This expression is translated into English as “I don’t understand Norwegian.”
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Eg for-står ik-kje norsk.
Eg forstår ikkje norsk.
The only new word here is norsk, meaning “Norwegian.”
(slow) Norsk.
Norsk.
All together, that’s
Eg forstår ikkje norsk.
Another solution is to tell someone, “I don’t speak Norwegian.”
Eg snakkar ikkje norsk.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Eg snak-kar ik-kje norsk.
Once again:
Eg snakkar ikkje norsk.
We already explained the first word eg.
This is followed by snakkar; a form of the Nynorsk verb å snakke, meaning “to speak.”
(slow) Snak-kar.
Snakkar.
Next we have ikkje which we've already seen means “not” and norsk, the word for “Norwegian.”
Here’s the whole sentence:
(slow) Eg snak-kar ik-kje norsk.
Eg snakkar ikkje norsk.
Literally, this is “I speak not Norwegian,” and means “I don't speak Norwegian.”

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