Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

In the previous lesson, we covered how to ask, “How do you say this in Norwegian?” - Korleis seier ein dette på norsk? Do you remember? In this lesson, because we don’t want to be caught off guard in any situation in Norway, we're going to introduce a new phrase that is very important to help you focus your skills, not on the sounds, but on the writing. So let’s start this new lesson.
In Norwegian, “Could you write it down?” is
Kan du skrive det ned?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kan du skri-ve det ned?
Once more:
Kan du skrive det ned?
The first two words are our familiar phrase kan du?, meaning “can you” or “could you.”
(slow) Kan du?
Kan du?
Next we have skrive det. The first word here, skrive means “write” and det, the second word means “it.” Together, this means “write it.”
(slow) Skri-ve det.
Skrive det.
Finally, we have ned, which means “down.”
(slow) Ned.
Ned.
All together:
Kan du skrive det ned?
This means, "Could you write it down?”
As you may already have observed, the previous phrase is not very specific. To make yourself more clear, you can say “Could you write down this phrase?”
Kan du skrive ned denne frasen?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Kan du skri-ve ned den-ne fra-sen?
Once more:
Kan du skrive ned denne frasen?
The new expression in this question is denne frasen. Denne means “this” for masculine and feminine words and frasen means “the phrase.” Together, it means “this phrase.”
(slow) Den-ne fra-sen.
Denne frasen.
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time:
(slow) Kan du skri-ve ned den-ne fra-sen?
Kan du skrive ned denne frasen?
You can also say
Kan du skrive ned dette ordet?
In English, that means “Can you write down this word?”
Let’s break it down.
(slow) Kan du skri-ve ned det-te or-det?
Kan du skrive ned dette ordet?
The new expression in this question is dette ordet. Dette means “this” for neuter words, and ordet means “the word.” Together, these two words mean “this word.”
(slow) Det-te or-det.
Dette ordet.
It might happen that people are not carrying a piece of paper or a pen. So before asking Kan du skrive ned dette ordet? try asking
Har du penn og papir?
“Do you have a pen and paper?”
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Har du penn og pa-pir?
Once more:
Har du penn og papir?
The first part of the phrase, har du?, is made up of har (“have”) and du (“you”). Together, this means “do you have?”
(slow) Har du?
Har du?
Then, you have penn, which in English is “pen.”
(slow) Penn.
Penn.
Then, you have og which means “and.”
(slow) Og.
Og.
Finally, we have papir which means “paper.”
(slow) Papir.
Papir.
Here’s the whole sentence:
(slow) Har du penn og pa-pir?
Har du penn og papir?
As usual, before asking about someone else’s stationery supplies, it’s a good idea to say “excuse me” unnskyld, at the beginning of the sentence.

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