Norwegian/Lesson 1

Norwegian | Table of Contents - Introduction - Lesson 1 - Lesson 2 - Lesson 3

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Lesson One

Part One

Dialogue One

Arne: God Dag! (Go dahg)

Bente: God Dag! Hvordan har du det? (Go dahg! Vor-DAN har doo deh?)

Arne: Jeg har det bra, takk. Og du? (Yei har deh bra, takk. Og doo?)

Bente: Bare bra, takk. (Ba-re bra, takk)

Arne: Hva gjør du? (va yuhr doo?)

Bente: Jeg studerer. (Yei stu-derer.)

Vocabulary

Bare [Ba-re]: Just/Only

Bra [bra]: Good/Fine

Dag [dag]: Day

Det [de]: It

Du [doo]: You

Gjør [yuhr]: Doing

God [go]: Good

Har [har]: Have

Hva [va]: What

Hvordan [vor-DAHN]: How

Jeg [yei]: I

Og [oh]: And

Studerer [stu-DARE-er]: Study

Takk [tahk]: Thanks

Phrases

Hva gjør du? What are you doing?

Hvordan har du det? How are you? (Literally: How do you have it?)

Jeg har det bra. I'm fine. (Literally: I have it good)

God Dag: Good morning (Literally: Good day)

Exercises

Translate the following words/phrases from Norwegian into English.

1 - Jeg har det bra

2 - Du

3 - Hva

4 - God Dag

5 - Takk

Extra Vocabulary

Here are a few more words which will increase your Norwegian vocabulary.

Engelsk [en-gELSK]: English

Norsk [norshk]: Norwegian

Norge [NOR-geh]: Norway

Oslo [Ohs-lo]: Oslo (The capital of Norway) [OHS-lo]

Dialogue Two

You should be able to understand this conversation fairly well now.

Bente: God Dag!

Arne: God Dag! Hva gjør du?

Bente: Jeg studerer.

Arne: Hva studerer du?

Bente: Jeg studerer norsk. Og du? Hva studerer du?

Arne: Jeg studerer engelsk.

Part Two

Dialogue Three

Emma: Hei! Jeg er norsk.

Bjørn: Hei, jeg er norsk også.

Emma: Hvor bor du?

Bjørn: Jeg bor i Oslo. Hvor bor du?

Emma: Jeg bor i Bergen, men jeg kommer fra Tromsø.

Bjørn: Hvor er Tromsø?

Emma: Tromsø er i Nord-Norge.

Vocabulary

Bergen [BAR-yen]: Bergen, A large city on the western coast of Norway

Bor [bore]: Live/Living

Er [are]: Is/Am/Are

Fra [fra]: From

Hei [hai]: Hi/Hello

Hvor [voor]: Where

I [ee]: In

Kommer [COME-mer]: Come/Coming

Men [men]: But

Nord [nort]: North

Nord-Norge [nort-nor-yeh]: Northern Norway

Også [OH-show]: Also

Tromsø [TROHM-srr]: Tromso, a city in far northern Norway.

Phrases

Jeg kommer fra... I come from...

Jeg bor i... I live in...

Hvor kommer du fra? Where do you come from?

Hvor bor du? Where do you live?

Gender

In Norwegian, every noun (a person, place, thing, or idea) has a gender assigned to it. There are three genders in Norwegian - Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter. There are very few feminine nouns used in Norwegian, and many people simply treat them as masculine nouns, so in this course, we will combine the masculine and feminine genders into the "common gender".

Below are two nouns - One neuter noun, one common noun.

Vin [vin or veen]: Wine

Øl [rrl]: Beer

Vin is common, and Øl is neuter. Why does this matter? It matters because it affects the way you treat these words. An example is with the Norwegian word for "one", which can either be "en" or "ett".

En vin [en vin]: A wine [en vin]

Et øl [eht rrl]: A beer

Common gender words use "en" for one, while Neuter gender words use "et" for one. We will cover more on gender later.

Forming Questions

To form a question in Norwegian, invert the verb and noun. For instance...

Du kommer fra: You come from (A statement) Kommer du fra: Do you come from (lit: come you from) (A question)

You can also form a question by adding a question word (what, where, who, etc). So far, you have learned the words "hvordan", "hva", and "hvor".

Hva lærer du? What are you learning? Hvordan har du det? How are you? Hvor kommer du fra? Where do you come from?

Exercises

Turn the following statements into questions.

1. Du er norsk.

2. Jeg er engelsk.

3. Du bor i Bergen.

4. Du har det bra.

5. Du studerer engelsk i London.

6. Jeg kommer fra Norge.

7. 'Jeg hetter ali.

Extra Vocabulary

(En) Kaffe [KAH-fuh]: Coffee

(En) Fisk [fisk]: Fish

(Et) Kjøtt [shrrt]: Meat

Liker [LEE-care]: Like/Likes

Dialogue Four

You should be able to understand the following dialogue given your current knowledge of Norwegian.

Emma: God Dag! Hvordan har du det?

Bjørn: Bare bra, takk. Og du?

Emma: Jeg har det bra. Hva har du?

Bjørn: Jeg har en fisk.

Emma: Liker du fisk?

Bjørn: Ja, jeg liker fisk. Liker du kjøtt?

Emma: Nei, men jeg liker kaffe.

Bjørn: Jeg liker kaffe, også, og jeg liker øl og vin.

Emma: Hvor bor du?

Bjørn: Jeg bor i Oslo. Og du?

Emma: Jeg bor i Tromsø i Nord-Norge.