First lesson

Hei alle sammen! Hello to all of you willing to learn Norwegian simply and quickly.

dictionary

Dictionary   

notes

Notes   

- Hei alle sammen – hello there!

Hello to you all, bravely going step by step in learning Norwegian with norwegianABC.com. Jan, your   norsk lærer, Norwegian teacher, is greeting you. Don't forget, that with us you can learn anywhere and anytime – while drinking coffee, during a lunch break, driving a car, making dinner, or doing sports. Learn with joy!

Hordan går det med dere? Did you understand that I was asking “how do you do?” or “how are you?” Hvordan går det med dere? Går det bra? OK, let's start from the beginning and repeat what we have learned.

We're going to repeat greeting and farewells, and learn the Norwegian personal pronouns: I, you, he, she and others. We‘re also going to hear about the verb present tense presens, and the proper word order in statements and questions. Sounds scary and intimidating? Don't worry, norwegianABC.com and I, your norsk lærer Jan, will help you do the job altogether! Fint? OK? Let's go.

The first word which we have learned and are using when greeting someone is the word Hallo! Hello. My colleague Ema will help us in today's lesson.

• - Hallo, Ema.
• - Hallo, Jan.
• - Perfect. When praising you in Norwegian, we'll say bra!
• - Do you remember another very short Norwegian word, which we use in greeting our close friends? That's right, it's the word: hei.
• - Hi there! Hei.
• - Hei. Hey. Hei.
• - Veldig bra – very good.

Let's repeat a conversation between two people greeting and asking one another how they are doing. This is the conversation you heard in our sample lesson. So, let's repeat:

• - Hey, Jan. Hei, Jan.
• - Halo, Ema. How are you doing? Hvordan går det?
• - Takk, det går bra. Og hvordan har du det?

Ema said that she is doing well, and asked me the same. I'll answer her: “Thanks, I'm fine.”   takk, veldig bra.

Takk, as you remember, means thank you. We also say   tusen takk - thank you very much, and it literally means thank you a thousand times. Tusen takk.

We also express gratitude with the sentence:   takk skal du ha. – Literally translated, it means „Thanks to you.“

Great! Veldig bra! Do you remember how to ask a friend, how he is doing? Say it, and I’ll wait.

• - Hvordan går det?

Did you ask it this way? Wonderful! Bra! You did it right if you asked in this way, too: Hvordan står det til? The pronunciation of this phrase is complicated, so let's ask Ema to help us.

• - Hvordan står det til?

And what does veldig bra mean? Veldig bra. It means very well! Good job guys!

We can also just ask if everything is fine when wondering how our friend is doing. In such a case we ask:   går det bra? Let's pronounce R softly, and try to imitate the melody of this sentence. Går det bra?

Or: Har du det bra? I'm repeating it slowly. This phrase consists of many short words: Har - du - det - bra? Or: Står det bra til? Står – det-bra-til?

Går det bra? Har du det bra? Står det bra til?

Ja, det går bra means ,,Yes, everything is going well”. The word „Ja“ means „Yes“.   ja - yes. We should pronounce A openly: Ja.

The word „Nei“ means „No“. Nei.

And do you remember which words to use in saying goodbye?   ha det bra.

You can use this phrase in saying goodbye not only to close friends, but also to business partners, employers and other people. If at least one companion says Ha det bra, the second has to just say ha det. Ha det.

We can also say goodbye like this :   vi sees ,   vi høres ,   vi møtes, or:   på gjensyn.

Maybe you have already noticed the word   vi in our speech. Vi means “we”. Vi (we) is a pronoun, in Norwegian -   pronomen.

Let's learn them.

  jeg

I

  du

You

  han

He

  hun

She

Pay attention to pronunciation. Take a seat facing a mirror. Pronounce “u” with lightly opened lips, and “n” - softly: Hun.

  det

It

We use Det in talking about things, animals, and also neuter. Let's repeat:

Jeg, du, han, hun, det.

Great! So, we have just learned those singular pronouns. And in plural we have these pronouns:

  vi

We

  dere

You

  de

They

Now we're going to say pronouns in Norwegian, and you tell us out loud what they mean: jeg, du, han, hun, det.

And now plural: vi, dere, de.

Remember that the word “de” is also used in naming nouns in plural. For example, when talking about children, we say “de”. When talking about women, saying “they”, we use “de”. When talking about things, we also use the same “de”. For example, windows - “de”, books - “de”.

Let's play – after a pause you say in Norwegian the words I'm going to say.

• - You and I is what?
• - Vi.
• - He and she?
• - De.
• - Lamps?
• - De.
• - Children?
• - De.
• - Women?
• - De.
• - You and friends?
• - Dere.
• - He?
• - Han.
• - She?
• - Hun.
• - I?
• - Jeg.
• - You?
• - Dere.

Veldig bra! If you are not sure that you remember it well enough, then relax, ease up, and replay the recording with us one more time. You're going to do well in no time!

Are you getting tired of breaking and rolling your tongue? No? With norwegianABC.com Norwegian it’s handled easily, right? Learn everywhere, whatever you do, and the results will surprise you! Veldig bra!

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Now we're going to talk about the Norwegian noun,   substantiv. It's a word answering the question, “WHAT?” Substantiv.

Listen carefully, now we're going to learn some relevant information. In Norwegian, at least in most of its dialects, there are three genders

Feminine

hunkjønn

Masculine

hankjønn

Neuter

intetkjønn

So, in Norwegian there are three genders, and we can't tell to which of them a noun belongs, from their meaning alone. We’ll also have to memorize a few things, because, unlike in English, the neuter group contains more than only things and animals. An adjective is also inflected by genders – this means that the spelling of an adjective changes according to the gender of a noun. We'll talk about it in further lessons.

So now let's look at this in a more concrete way. From now on, when learning a new noun, that is a word answering a question “what is it?” we'll learn not only the word, but also its gender.

If a noun is of masculine gender, the article “en”, will go in front of the noun.

  en gutt

a boy

  en bil

a car

„Ei” is an article of feminine gender.

  ei jente

a young woman, a girl

  ei dør

door

„Et” is an article of neuter gender.

  et hus

a house

  et barn

a child

Listen carefully to how this word is pronounced. The tongue shouldn't be tensed at all. It should touch the roof of the mouth, not the teeth. Let's repeat: et barn.

If a noun is not countable, for instance, milk, air, or water (how could we count air, right? :) ), an indefinite article is not used, and the uncountable words won't have plural. We don't say „milks“, right?

In some Norwegian dialects the feminine gender is extinct, and because of this almost all the adjectives of feminine gender can be used with articles of masculine gender.

Sounds complicated? You can see a word of feminine gender here, together with the feminine article, for instance   ei hånd - a hand, let's repeat: ei hånd.

So, we can use an article of masculine gender together with a noun of feminine gender in most cases. Do you remember the article? Yes! En. We can also say ei hånd and en hånd. A word of feminine gender ei jente, which means “a girl”, and which we have just learned today, can also be written with an article of masculine gender: en jente – a girl.

Try to learn some new Norwegian words on your own within each lesson:   nye ord på norsk.

You will enrich your vocabulary with new words. I'll reveal a secret of mine to you, which will let you learn new words faster . Cut some thick paper into smaller leaflets. Write an English word on one side, and Norwegian on the other. Don't forget that if it's a noun – write the gender articles we have learned today: en – for the masculine, ei – for the feminine, et – for the neuter. Look them through, quiz yourself, and learn! It's – simple lett and, og in Norwegian, effective effektivt!

We have already mentioned the verb in our sample lesson. So, a verb in Norwegian always goes in the second place in a sentence. Today we'll talk more about it.

A verb in this language is inflected only in tenses. So, when learning a verb form in a particular tense, you will be able to adjust it to any person.

That is, saying either “I read”, or “you read”, or “they read” will use the same verb form, only the pronoun will differ (that is “I”, “you”, and so on).

Usually the present tense, presens, is made adding the suffix -r to the infinitive.

Snakke (talk)

snakker

Lese (read)

leser

Bo (live)

bor

Ha (have)

har

Infinitive of a verb, infinitiv, is marked by the article å.

  å snakke

to talk

  å lese

to read

  å bo

to live

  å ha

to have

Like in all of life, and within Norwegian grammar – exceptions can be found. The present tense, presens, of those verbs, is made in another way, not adding -r to the infinitive as usual:

Å vite (to know)

vet or veit

I know

jeg vet

Å vite

jeg vet

Å gjøre (to do)

gjør

I do

jeg gjør

Å gjøre

jeg gjør

Å si (to say)

sier

I say

jeg sier

Å si

jeg sier

Å spørre (to ask)

spør

I ask

jeg spør

Å spørre

jeg spør

Å være (to be)

er

I am

jeg er

Å være

jeg er

Here you can hear some examples with those verbs:

Jeg bor i Oslo.

I live in Oslo.

S and l consonant combination often is pronounced as SH and L: Oslo.

Han leser bøker.

He reads books.

Usually a sentence begins with a subject, subjekt in Norwegian. As a rule, in the second place a predicate comes (a word, describing action), predikat in Norwegian. It can be made of two or more words. After that – an object (secondary part of a sentence, answering questions what for, what – objekt in Norwegian) and various circumstances.

Jan står opp veldig tidlig.

Jan gets up very early.

Jan is laughing, so maybe he sleeps long in the mornings. But we should go back to grammar, because we don't want Norwegians to laugh at our grammar mistakes, do we?

Sometimes a sentence begins not with a subject, but with any circumstance (or an object). However, the predicate always stays in the second place in the sentence. In such a case the subject is told after the predicate, that is – in the third place. And when a predicate consists of two words (I must buy, I can read, and so on), the subject interferes between them.

Jeg bor i Oslo.

I live in Oslo.

Let's add a time circumstance: nå – now. I live in Oslo now. In Norwegian this sentence would sound like: Nå bor jeg i Oslo. Translated word by word: now live I in Oslo. At first we say a time circumstance, followed by the predicate, and then – the local circumstance.

  nå

now

Jeg bor i Oslo.

I live in Oslo.

Nå bor jeg i Oslo.

I live in Oslo now.

Han leser bøker.

He reads books.

Nå leser han bøker.

Now he is reading books.

At first – a time circumstance, then – a predicate, then – an object.

Repeat it, and master it. Correct sentence composition is very important! In Norwegian   veldig viktig – very important.

And now let's makine some sentences in Norwegian. “A question” in Norwegian is:   et spørsmål.

As you already understood, it's a word of neuter gender, a gender we have been learning today.

Å spørre

to ask

So, we'll learn how we can ask a question in Norwegian,   å spørre på norsk.

Unfortunately, there is no such interrogative word as “Do you...?” in Norwegian.

“Yes / No” questions (or “closed questions”) begin with a predicate (if a predicate consists of two verbs – with the first of them.

For instance:

Bor du i Oslo? Word by word, it means: Live you in Oslo? And we translate it correctly into English in this way: Do you live in Oslo? Bor du i Oslo? As we can see, we’ve begun the interrogative sentence with a verb “bor”, then, according to strict order of the interrogative sentence, we set the other parts out: Bor du i Oslo? Let's repeat together with an appropriate sentence melody: Bor du i Oslo?

Kommer han fra Bergen?

Is he from Bergen?

Now let's ask Jan, where he comes from or where he lives, because we are interested, right? Great! Now I'm going to try:

• - Jan, hvor kommer du fra? Where do you come from, Jan? Kommer du fra Oslo? Are you from Oslo?
• - Nei, jeg kommer fra Hønefoss. No, I'm not from Oslo, I'm from Hønefoss.

Amazing! You can already understand each other and ask questions after getting acquainted! Dere er flinke! You‘re probably wondering, „What did you say, Ema?” Yes, dere er flinke! You're smart, or clever! Dere er flinke! Didn't you forget to say takk to me - thank you?

  dere er flinke!

You're smart, or clever!

So called “HV – questions” begin with an interrogative phrase, after which a predicate or the first verb of the predicate comes.

In other words – there are Norwegian words, interrogative words,   spørreord, which can help in forming questions. Since they all begin with the consonants “hv”, they are often called “hv-” questions (or open questions).

So let's learn them, they will help us very much:

Hva

what

Hvem

who

Hvor

where

Hvor mange

how many

Let's pay attention to the pronunciation: “ng” is pronounced pressing your tongue to the palate: hvor mange.

  hvor mye

how much

  hvor gammel?

What is your age?

Hvor gammel? – Of what age? Let's learn a useful question! Hvor gammel er du? „How old are you?” or “What is your age?”

We'll learn numbers very soon! I know you can't wait!

  hvor lang tid?

How much time?

  hvor lang?

How long?

  hvor lenge?

How long?

  hvor ofte?

How often?

  hvorfor?

Why?

  hvordan?

How?

  hva skal du kjøpe?

What will you buy?

The word “hva” is used to all the questions of an object – what, or what for. For instance: Hva skal du kjøpe? – What are you going to buy?

Besides, it is used when asking about things.

  hva er det?

What is it?

When talking about people, we should use an interrogative word “hvem”. Hvem. Hvem er det? Who is it? Let's repeat together, trying to express the intonation:

  hvem er det?

Who is it?

Let's say, you meet your girlfriend or boyfriend in a cinema with another person, and then ask them furiously:

• - Hvem er det?

Well, we hope that in such a situation your boyfriend will say that she's his cousin. Det er min kusine. Or “he's my cousin”. Det er min fetter.

Det er min kusine.

She's my cousin.

Det er min fetter.

He's my cousin.

Veldig bra! Today we have learned a lot, for sure. Dere er flinke! Repeat, listen to it on and on, and Norwegian will come to you easily. Don't forget that you can listen to our lessons anywhere and anytime – when driving, doing sports, or taking a rest at home.

Learning Norwegian with us is simple and fun. Norsk er lett!

• - See you next time! Ha det bra.
• - Ha det bra. Vi høres!