Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

In this lesson, we will learn a question that will help you expand your Norwegian vocabulary without looking at a single page of a dictionary. “How do you say (blank) in Norwegian?” is a sentence that will amazingly replace your pocket dictionary and phrasebook.
Norway is famous for salmon, so let’s assume that you want to buy some but have no idea what to call it in Norwegian!
“How do you say “salmon” in Nynorsk?” is
Korleis seier ein «salmon» på norsk?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kor-leis sei-er ein «salmon» på norsk?
Once more:
Korleis seier ein «salmon» på norsk?
The first word, korleis means, “how.”
(slow) Kor-leis.
Korleis.
This is followed by seier, a verb meaning “say.”
(slow) Sei-er.
Seier.
Next, we have ein, which means “one,” but here the translation is “you.”
(slow) Ein.
Ein.
After ein we have the word in English, which in this case is “salmon.”
And at the end of the question we have på norsk, which means “in Norwegian.”
(slow) På norsk.
På norsk.
All together, we have
Korleis seier ein «salmon» på norsk?
Literally, this means, “How says you 'salmon' in Norwegian?”
And the answer, by the way, is laks.
You can also use this expression without using any English. Simply ask “How do you say this in Norwegian?” In Nynorsk, “this” is
Dette
(slow) Dette.
Dette.
So in Nynorsk “How do you say this in Norwegian?” is
Korleis seier ein dette på norsk?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kor-leis sei-er ein det-te på norsk?
Once again:
Korleis seier ein dette på norsk?
The structure is exactly the same as the previous sentence, except that instead of “salmon” we have the word dette, which means “this.”
All together, we have
Korleis seier ein dette på norsk?
While asking this question you can point at the specific something that you are curious about.
To ask, “How do you say that in Norwegian?” simply substitute the word dette with det (“that”).
(slow) Det.
Det.
The phrase will sound like this:
Korleis seier ein det på norsk?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kor-leis sei-er ein det på norsk?
Once more:
Korleis seier ein det på norsk?
Let’s look at another example. Let's pretend that you have been invited to a birthday party. You want to know how to say “Happy birthday” in Norwegian. The question you should ask is:
Korleis seier ein «happy birthday» på norsk?
“How do you say happy birthday in Norwegian?”
(slow) Kor-leis sei-er ein «happy birthday» på norsk?
Korleis seier ein «happy birthday» på norsk?
The answer is gratulerer med dagen!

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