Fifteenth lesson

Travelling, family names and noun forms

Welcome on board – in the fifteenth lesson – leksjon nummer femten – norwegianABC.com greets you from a plane. We are on the way to the sunny Egypt. In the Norwegian language, the noun has four forms. Let`s learn them all!

dictionary

Dictionary   

notes

Notes   

God dag, alle sammen! Velkommen om bord! Hello everybody! Welcome onboard – in the fifteenth lesson – leksjon nummer femten – norwegianABC.com greets you from a plane. We are on the way to the sunny Egypt.

• - Ema, sover du ? Ema, are you asleep? Wake up and say hello, our lesson has already begun!
• - Oi! Ja? Unnskyld. Hei! God dagen!

As always, let’s start the lesson with a listening exercise, lytteøvelse, let’s do some exercise for our tongues and ears.

Lytteoppgave. Hva hører du? Lang eller kort vokal? Listening exercise. What do we hear? Long or short vowel? If long – we say “lang”, if short – “kort”. Let’s start.

• - Ema, sover du ? Ema, are you asleep? Wake up and say hello, our lesson has already begun!
• - Oi! Ja? Unnskyld. Hei! God dagen!

dit

lang

ditt

kort

litt

kort

lit

lang

fin

lang

finn

kort

bitt

kort

bit

lang

pip

lang

pipp

kort

stille

kort

stile

lang

Skal vi gjenta? Ja? Now repeat all the words in a row:

dit

ditt

lit

litt

fin

finn

bit

bitt

pip

pipp

stile

stille

Let’s practice saying more difficult consonants and their combinations:

Pay attention to the pronunciation of the sound ‘ng’ - press your tongue against the palate, attention:

Fint! Great! Oh, it is fun to fly! You just sit relaxed and watch the clouds through the window... But let’s not forget that we have to learn.

In the Norwegian language, the noun has four forms: indefinite –   ubestemt form, for example, as we have learned – ei datter, en gutt, et hus, and definite –   bestemt form (will talk about it soon), and, accordingly, the singular (  entall) and plural (  flertall)forms.

The bestemt form of feminine singular nouns is made by adding the ending -a, for example:

ei jente – a girl,   jenta – that/this girl,

ei flaske – a bottle,   flaska – that / this bottle

In the plural bestemt form, we add the ending -ene: jentene, flaskene.

The bestemt form of masculine singular nouns is made by adding the ending -en, for example:

en dag – a day,   dagen – that/this day,

en måned – a month,   måneden – that/this month

The plural bestemt form is made in the same way, by adding the ending -ene:

  dagene– those days

  månedene– those months

The bestemt form of the neuter gender is made by adding the ending -et, for example:

et hus – a house,   huset – that/this house

et barn – a child,   barnet – that/this child

The plural bestemt form is made in the same way as bestemt flertall of the feminine and masculine gender, by adding the ending – ene: husene, bilene.

Let’s try and make the bestemt of singular nouns. Attention, by this exercise we will kill two birds with one stone: we will learn the names of family members and make the singular bestemt form:

Mother

  en mamma

How do we say the definite form of en mamma in the singular?   mammaen.

Daughter

  ei datter

Let’s make the bestemt form:   dattera.

Son

  en sønn

Let’s make the bestemt form:   sønnen.

Wife

  ei kone

What is the bestemt form? We can hear that "wife" is a feminine noun:   kona.

Husband (spouse)

  en mann eller   en ektemann

Let’s make the bestemt form:   mannen eller   ektemannen.

Brother

  en bror

What is the singular definite form?   broren.

Sister

  ei en søster

Let’s make the feminine and masculine variants of the bestemt form:   søstera eller   søsteren.

Cousin (male)

  en fetter

The bestemt entall form is   fetteren.

Cousin (female)

  ei en kusine

How do we say “ei/en kusine” in the bestemt entall of both genders?   kusina eller   kusinen

Aunt

  ei en tante

Bestemt form entall:   tanta eller   tanten.

Uncle

  en onkel

Bestemt entall er:   onkelen.

I can already hear you asking when we use the ubestemt and bestemt forms.

1. After the article of the indefinite noun: ei, en, et, for example: ei jente, en mann, et hus.

2. When we introduce new information:

Jan skriver et brev.

Jan is writing a letter.

Jeg ser en film på TV.

I’m watching a movie on TV.

3. Always after the following words (please remember them):

Mye

a lot of (with uncountable nouns)

Mange

a lot of (with countable nouns)

Noe / noen

a little bit, some

For example:

mye vann

a lot of water

mange venner

a lot of friends

noen penger

some money

4. The ubestemt form is most often used after numbers:

Jeg har ti kroner.

I have ten krones.

5. We always find the indefinite form also in a noun following genitiv

Lizas katt.

Lisa’s cat.

Kongens datter.

King’s daughter

For the purpose of certainty, let’s compare the use of the forms ubestemt and bestemt, ok? Look:

As I have mentioned before, the ubestemt form is used when we introduce new information: Jan skriver et brev.

1. We use the bestemt form when the information is already known to us: Brevet er til Lise.

Let’s compare: Jan skriver et brev. Brevet er til Lise. – Jan is writing a letter. That letter is to Lisa. Translating a noun in the bestemt form into English, we may use ‘that, this’.

Dette er Lise. This is Lisa.

We present new information.

Lise er dattera til Emilie. Lisa is Emilie’s daughter.

we describe that Lisa is Emilie’s daughter, thus dattera is used in the bestemt form.

Dattera til

someone’s daughter

Let’s ask Jan to tell about his family.

• - Jan, kan du fortelle om din familie? / Jan, can you tell us about your family?

Carefully listen to my story as you will clearly hear the difference in the use of the bestemt and ubestemt forms:

Jeg har en stor famile. I have a large family / or / My family is large.

Vent litt. Her er et bilde. Wait a moment. Here is a picture.

Jeg har en mamma. Mammaen min heter Hanne. Hun liker å bake kaker. I have a mother. My mother’s name is Hanne. She likes to bake cakes.

Jeg har en far. Faren min heter Elias. Han er glad i å sykle. I have a father. My father’s name is Elias. He loves to ride a bicycle.

Jeg har ei søster. Søsteren min heter Thea. I have a sister. My sister’s name is Thea.

Thea er pen, ikke sant? Thea is beautiful, isn’t she?

Ja, det er sant! Søsteren din Thea er pen! Yes, it’s true, your sister Thea is beautiful! Have you noticed that I said: søsteren din er pen – I use the bestemt form because we have talked about the sister before, right?

Jeg har en søster til. I have another sister. En søster til – another sister.

Søsteren min som har lyst hår heter Ida. My sister with blond hair is Ida.

  lyst hår

blond hair

As et hår is a neuter noun, we add the ending -t to the adjective – lyst hår.

2. Attention. We use the bestemt form when the noun in the subordinate clause is connected by ‘som’ – which – and is described more specifically, for example: søsteren som...

Søsteren som har lyst hår heter Ida.

Jeg har tre kusiner. Kusinen min som har svart hår heter Julie. Hun er så søt... / I have three cousins. The name of the cousin with black hair is Julie. She is so cute...

  svart hår

black hair

Kusinen min som har rødt hår heter Ragnhild. / The name of the cousin with red hair is Ragnhild.
Kusinen min som har krøllete hår heter Nora. / The name of the cousin with curly hair is Nora.

  krøllete hår

curly hair

Se her, Ema. Jeg har en fetter. Fetteren min heter Mathias. / Look here, Ema. I have a cousin. My cousin’s name is Mathias.

Mmmm... Fetteren din Mathias er veldig pen. / Your cousin Mathias is very handsome. I hope one day I will meet him.

Og se her, Ema, jeg har to fettere til. Fetteren min som er liten av vekst heter Kenneth. / And look here, Ema, I have two more cousins. The name of the cousin who is small in stature is Kenneth.

  liten av vekst

short stature

Fetteren min som er høy heter Markus. Han er glad i å lage mat. / The tall cousin’s name is Markus. He loves to cook.

Fetterne som står ved siden av Ragnhild bor i Tyskland. / The cousins who stand next to Ragnhild live in Germany.

  ved siden av

next to, beside

Here we encounter the exception when some nouns have irregular plural forms and the word ‘cousin’ is one of such exceptions:

Indefinite singular form (entall ubestemt)

en fetter

Definite singular form (entall bestemt)

fetteren

Indefinite plural form (flertall ubestemt)

fettere(r)

Definite plural form (flertall bestemt)

fetterne

Attention: in this sentence we use the bestemt plural form – fetterne because we have talked about the cousins before (this can be understood from the previous conversation) and in this sentence we have a subordinate clause describing the cousins: som. The bestemt plural of the feminine, masculine and neuter nouns is usually made by adding the ending -ene.

Kusinene som bor i Norge heter Nora og Ragnhild. / The cousins who live in Norway are Nora and Ragnhild.

Flyvertinnen som kommer her har mye å spise! / The approaching flight attendants have a lot to offer to eat (literally), but we will say– have a lot of food!

Here, the flight attendants with food are coming. Jan is happy!

• - Ema, skal vi ta en kopp kaffe? / Ema, shall we have a cup of coffee?
• - Ja, gjerne det. / Yes, gladly.
• -Jeg har lyst på et smørbrød. / I want a sandwich.
  Ema, vil du ha   et smørbrød? / Ema, do you want a sandwich?
• - Nei, slett ikke! / No, no way!
  Jeg vil ha to sjokoladekaker. /I want two chocolate cakes.

While we are having a snack, let’s take a short break “Fakta om Norge”. Today, we will continue talking about traditional Norwegian food: do you remember I promised you to tell you what the most exotic dish of Norway is? Wait a minute. Let’s start from the beginning.

In the Norwegian cuisine, thick flour porridge – rømmegrøt is often served, which is made from milk, cream, and flour. Even during a wedding, porridge with cream is offered.

A sandwich – et smørbrød – is an inseparable part of every Norwegian’s everyday life. In the morning, pupils, students, office workers, doctors – everybody makes piles of sandwiches and take them to work or even when going for a walk.

Matpakke – this word deserves special attention. It means prepared and packaged food. Norwegians rarely have lunch in cafes as this would be too expensive. Matpakke is an excellent solution.

We need to learn another specific word as well   pålegg as the Norwegians use this word to call anything they can put on a sandwich:

cheese

  en ost

sausage

  ei en pølse

vegetables

  grønnsaker

fruit

  frukter

jam

  et syltetøy

All this is called pålegg.

A hot dish in Norway is usually eaten only once per day, at lunch, which takes place rather late. The traditional Norwegian bread is hard but crispy. In some cases, the hostesses used to keep it even for half a year. However – this is a secret – if the Norwegian bread is soaked briefly in milk or buttered well – you could lick your fingers.

Other interesting Norwegian dishes:

Lefse – a potato pancake baked in a flat metal pan, covered with butter, cinnamon, sugar or flavoured with sandwich components, twisted and sectioned.

Krumkake – a waffle baked in a waffle-iron, twisted and seasoned with cloudberry berries, mousse, ice cream, and pudding.

Ølbrød – beer soup made of black, light beer, orange peel and ginger, sugar, egg yolk, flour, and milk. Butter was of particular value in the ancient times – it was a kind of monetary unit – and nicely carved pails of butter were served on a table. Huge pyramids of butter were used to decorate the bridal table.

• - Ema, hva er klokka?
• - Jan, den er kvart på elleve.

We need to hurry with the lesson because soon we’ll be landing in Moscow. Well, we will continue “Fakta om Norge” – about food – in the next lesson. Let’s go back to the grammar. We have talked about the bestemt forms of singular and plural nouns. Now let’s do some tasks.

Ema will tell brief episodes using a noun, and you will have to use the singular or plural bestemt or ubestemt forms. After a pause, as usual, we will help you check whether you have used the correct noun form. Lykke til, good luck.

Use the correct ‘en mann’ – a man – form:

Jeg kjenner ________. – I know the man.

Jeg kjenner en mann.

________ heter Kjell. – This man’s name is Kjell.

Mannen heter Kjell.

In the following three sentences, use the correct form of the word ‘venn’ – a friend:

I Bergen har Lise mange ________. – Lisa has a lot of friends in Bergen.

I Bergen har Lise mange venner.

Men i Stavanger har hun bare én ________. – However, she has only one friend in Stavanger.

Men i Stavanger har hun bare én venn.

________ som bor i Bergen besøker henne ofte. – Friends who live in Bergen often visit her.

Vennene som bor i Bergen besøker henne ofte.

In the following three sentences, use the correct form of the word ‘et brød’ – bread.

Hjemme spiser vi mye ________ . – We eat a lot of bread at home.

Hjemme spiser vi mye brød.

I dag kjøper jeg to ________ . – Today I am buying two loaves of bread.

I dag kjøper jeg to brød.

________ koster 30 kroner. – The bread costs 30 krones

Brødet koster 30 kroner.

How are you doing in this lesson are you confident with the use of the bestemt and ubestemt forms? Do not worry if you do not succeed immediately. Listen to the theory and examples until you understand. Tell us about your family: what are your mom and dad’s names, do you have any brothers, sisters, aunts, cousins?

Mention your friends and beloved pets. When presenting them for the first time, use the ubestemt form, and when describing later or soon after with the help of "som", use the bestemt form.

We are already landing in Moscow! Vi lander i Moskva! We are hurrying to change the planes, see you in the next lesson, på gjensyn!

• - Ha det, vi snakkes om ei stund!