Learn some simple tricks to learn Norwegian grammar
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| Jasmine: Hi, everyone, and welcome to the grammar portion of NorwegianClass101.com's All About Series! This is All About Series Lesson 3, Norwegian Grammar. |
| Filip: Oh no, not grammar! |
| Jasmine: I'm sure some of our listeners are having the same reaction. But, we're here to tell you – there's nothing to worry about here. |
| Filip: That's right! We've made Norwegian grammar so simple that you'll wonder what the fuss was all about. |
| Jasmine: Yes, we´re here to help you along the way, and make it fun. So lets take a look at what Norwegian grammar is all about. Filip, what can you tell us about it? |
| Filip: For one, basic word order is similar to English. |
| Jasmine: You probably don't need to study it. |
| Filip: Some of the more difficult aspects of Norwegian grammar, like gender and subjunctives, can't be easily summed up. You need complicated grammar explanations to understand how it all works, right? |
| Jasmine: Nope Both gender and the subjunctive can be easily summed up in one word: agreement. Grammatical agreement means that the pieces and parts of a sentence need to agree with or match everything else. We'll talk more about this a bit later. |
| Verbs |
| Jasmine: Another basic grammatical concept is verbs. |
| Filip: Verbs indicate action, like "run" or "sit." |
| Jasmine: Right. All languages have verbs, which makes learning verbs an important place to start. |
| Filip: But every language uses those verbs differently which means that they need special attention. |
| Jasmine: That's right. Norwegian verbs act almost exactly the same as English verbs, so if you know the English basics then there's nothing to worry about. |
| Filip: That means...less vocabulary to learn! |
| Conjugation |
| Jasmine: Norwegian verbs contain one central meaning - time (also called tense). |
| Filip: "Time" (or tense) is past, present, or future. |
| Jasmine: That's it? No other meanings are needed?! |
| Filip: Only time. This meaning is expressed by changing the verbs according to specific patterns called conjugations. |
| Jasmine: Yes. Conjugating verbs is a way of making the verbs agree or match what you are talking about. |
| Filip: Time is indicated by changing the verb to a past, present, or future form. |
| Jasmine: English verbs change, or conjugate, too. The difference is that English verbs change according to different conjugation patterns. |
| Filip: That's right. For example, time can be expressed as "I was happy" (past), which is different from "I am happy" (present), which is different from "I will be happy" (future). |
| Jasmine: Exactly. In English they also express the meaning "person" like "I am happy," which is different from "He is happy," which is different from "We are happy." |
| Filip: Which is not at all necessary for verbs in Norwegian! Norwegian verbs are conjugated according to patterns that are slightly different than English. |
| Jasmine: Yet Norwegian verbs have the same or slightly more meaning in them than English verbs do. |
| Filip: For example, a response to "Kommer du snart?" ("Are you arriving soon?") is "Jeg løper," which means, "I running." |
| Jasmine: In English the present time (tense) "am" is needed to make a sentence. In Norwegian this is not needed. |
| Filip: That's right. Although "to be" exists in Norwegian it is not needed to express "time." |
| Jasmine: There are, however, lots of interesting and simple ways you can use verbs in Norwegian. |
| Filip: Don't worry! We'll teach you each and every one of them as our course goes along. But now, we need to talk a bit about grammatical gender. |
| Gender |
| Jasmine: Agreement is also expressed in Norwegian with gender. |
| Filip: Gender in Norwegian denotes a particular type of agreement among words, not people. |
| Jasmine: Exactly. "dame" ("woman") is feminine but so is "ku" ("cow") and "sol" ("sun"). |
| Filip: Likewise, "mann" ("man") is masculine but so is "bil" ("car") and "vask" ("sink"). |
| Jasmine: This may sound strange but it is pretty easy to pick up. |
| Filip: English does this too, just not as much. |
| Jasmine: For example, we don't say, "He is a stewardess" because "stewardess" denotes femininity and "He" indicates masculinity. |
| Filip: Oh, and Norwegian also has a gender neutral form like "hus" ("house") and "skap" ("cupboard"). So all in all, three grammatical genders. |
| Jasmine: Tables, chairs, cars, trees, socks, and food all have gender in Norwegian. |
| Filip: Once again, don't get caught up in the details, just go for the general concept. |
| Jasmine: That's right. We'll go over this in more detail in future lessons. |
| Plurality |
| Filip: The last thing we should talk about is plurality. |
| Jasmine: Once again, this is a form of agreement among words. |
| Filip: Right. We already learned that verbs need to be altered or conjugated to the correct time. |
| Jasmine: Same as English. |
| Filip: Yes. Norwegian extends plurality to nouns and articles. Well, I guess that's enough for today. |
| Jasmine: We hope this has prepared you for your journey into Norwegian. |
| Filip: Hopefully after this there should be no major surprises! |
| Jasmine: Keep up with the All About Series for more lessons that will teach you Norwegian the easy and fun way! |
| Filip: Until next time! |
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