Learn how to ask for directions in Norwegian and learn more advanced grammar
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Filip: Hi everyone, I am Filip. |
| Becky: And I’m Becky. Welcome back to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Lower Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 11 - Have you Reached Your Norwegian Destination? In this lesson, we’ll have our last look at asking directions, and dealing with them. |
| Filip: Finally. I was starting to think it was a bit too much! |
| Becky: Well, it’s always helpful and there’s so many directions we could teach the listeners! |
| Filip: But we’ll make this the last one for now. The conversation is between Kjersti and Espen, who have managed to reach Lillehammer. Now they are heading towards Galdhøpiggen but need help and are asking for directions. |
| Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: It’s not uncommon for Norwegians to ask directions from passers-by, is it? |
| Filip: No, it’s quite common. Usually you’ll be lucky and find a person who’s familiar with the area, who can help you out. But in touristy areas, that’s less likely. |
| Becky: True. And even if you find someone, they aren’t usually overly helpful. They’ll tell you the directions and keep walking. You need to ask actively if you want something explained, for example. |
| Filip: Yeah, Norwegians don’t like to stand around for too long. And while we’re generally polite, we’re also a bit careful around strangers, especially since crime rates have risen. |
| Becky: So when asking for directions, it’s best to be nice and polite and have a smile on your face. People are more likely to help if you look accommodating. |
| Filip: Indeed. Well, let’s move on to the vocab. |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Filip: The first word is ‘Bare hyggelig’, is a way of saying “No problem” or “my pleasure”. |
| Becky: It means “just/only pleasure”. Now, this is a set phrase and it can’t be changed without ruining its meaning. Let’s hear an example. |
| Filip: Bare hyggelig å hjelpe |
| Becky: “It’s my pleasure to help” |
| Filip: Next we have ‘Hvordan’, which means “how”. But don’t confuse it with the ‘hvor’ in ‘hvor mye.’ |
| Becky: Yes, that means “how much” . |
| Filip: But alone, ‘hvor’ means “where”. There are a few words that ‘hvor’ can be coupled with to create new question types that ask “how much of [quantity], [quality], [distance] and so on”. |
| Becky: We’ve already talked about a few of them, but there are many more conjunctions just waiting to be discovered. Filip, an example please? |
| Filip: Hvordan går det? |
| Becky: How are you? |
| Filip: Finally, we have a tricky one. ‘Etter det er det.’ As you saw in the dialogue, this was translated as “After that”. |
| Becky: And that’s probably the best translation. |
| Filip: ‘Etter det er det’ directly translated is “After that is it”. |
| Becky It’s used in explanations and statements that connect the first explanations, with the effect or next explanation. |
| Filip: Each ‘det’ in this phrase can be substituted for ‘den’ depending on noun gender. |
| Becky: Let’s look at an example. |
| Filip: Maten skal koke i fem minutter, etter det er den ferdig. |
| Becky: The food should boil for five minutes, after that it’s ready. |
| Becky: Okay, let’s move on the grammar. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Filip: In this lesson, you’ll learn to ask how to get somewhere. |
| Becky: The first thing Espen asked was how to get to Galdhøpiggen. |
| Filip: Yes, he said ‘Hvordan kommer jeg meg til?’ |
| Becky: “How do I get to...”. Actually Filip changed the dialogue sentence a bit. |
| Filip: Right, I said ‘jeg meg instead of vi oss.’ |
| Becky: “I myself” instead of “we ourselves”. The reason you put the subject and object pronouns in series like that, is that you are literally asking “How do I get me myself to”. |
| Filip: But that’s not the word-for-word translation. Word-for-word, it doesn’t even make sense in English. “How come I myself to”. |
| Becky: Right, it’s not very intuitive. |
| Filip: ‘Hvordan kommer jeg meg til’ is followed by a place like Oslo or Togstasjonen. The sentence then sounds like this - ‘Hvordan kommer jeg meg til Oslo’ |
| Becky: How do I get to Oslo? |
| Filip: Hvordan kommer jeg meg til togstasjonen? |
| Becky: How do I get to the train station? |
| Filip: Imagine you have a map and you know where your destination is on it. While pointing at your destination, you can ask ‘Hvordan kommer jeg meg hit?’ Here, you are substituting ‘til’ with ‘hit’. |
| Becky: Which means “here”. The sentence then becomes “how do I get here?” |
| Filip: That’s right. And you might have noticed that I changed one more word from the original conversation. I changed ‘mot’ with ‘til’ or ‘hit’. ‘mot’ is just as useful a phrase and actually means... |
| Becky: …”Towards.” |
| Filip: So you’d be asking something like ‘Hvordan kommer jeg meg mot Oslo?’ |
| Becky: How do I get towards Oslo? |
| Filip: Now let’s look quickly at the pronouns. |
| Jeg - meg |
| Becky: I - myself |
| Filip: du - deg |
| Becky: “You - Yourself” |
| Filip: Hun/han/det/de - seg |
| Becky: “She/he/it/they - Herself/himself/itself/themselves |
| Filip: vi - oss |
| Becky: “We - Ourselves” |
| Filip: And dere - dere |
| Becky: “You (guys) - yourselves.” Now let’s look at some examples using each of these. |
| Filip: Hvordan kommer jeg meg hit? |
| Becky: “How do I get here?” |
| Filip: Hvordan kommer du deg til flyplassen? |
| Becky: “How do you get to the airport?” |
| Filip: Hvordan kommer hun seg hjem? |
| Becky: “How does she get home?” |
| Filip: Hvordan kommer vi oss bort? |
| Becky: “How do we get away?” |
| Filip: And Hvordan kommer dere dere til kinoen? |
| Becky: “How do you guys get to the cinema?” |
| Filip: And now some phrases from in the dialogue. |
| Becky: Right, when answering one of the questions above. The beginning phrase is easy. And usually everybody uses the same one. |
| Filip: ‘Da må’ + pronoun + this and that direction. |
| Becky: The passer-by in this dialogue said... |
| Filip: ...’da må dere svinge til høyre her og ut på E6’. and then ‘å svinge inn på Riksvei 15.’ |
| Becky: She says “to swing/turn out on E6” and “swing/turn in on Riksvei 15”. Whether you use “in” or “out” here, is purely subjective, and based on the speaker’s mind map. |
| Filip: So you can safely ignore whether the person answering says “in” or “out” and concentrate on what road you are “getting onto”. |
Outro |
| Becky: Ok, and that’s all for this lesson. Make sure you check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you next time! |
| Filip: Takk for at dere hørte på, hade! |
| Becky: Bye! |
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