Twentieth lesson

Past tense and pronunciations

We are joyfully greeting you for the twentieth time, dear norwegianABC.com students. Today we will focus on stum d – the silent d and the past tense – preteritum.

dictionary

Dictionary   

notes

Notes   

• - Heisann! Hello! Velkommen tilbake! Welcome back! We are joyfully greeting you for the twentieth time, dear norwegianABC.com students. How are you? It’s nice to meet again.
• - Heihei! Velkommen tilbake! Vi begynner leksjonen med en lytteøvelse. Greit?

Well, let’s start the lesson with a listening exercise. We are all aware of the fact that a word is not always pronounced the same as it is written. Today we will focus on stum d – the silent d. The letter d, depending on the Norwegian dialect, may be pronounced or not in the same word. Interestingly, in the ancient times, in the Viking era, there was a tendency to pronounce d in certain words. These days the same rule applies on the Western Norwegian coast. Meanwhile, we are learning the bokmål variant, where the pronunciation you will hear soon prevails. Please pay attention to when we do hear the d pronounced and when we do not:

fjord, stund, tid, glad, hånd, fred, jord, vond, vid, rund, land, blad, god, and, midten

In this listening part, our task is to try and hear and repeat the sentence melody and the pronunciation of det and er. Attention, let’s start. Uttalen av det og er, tonefall.

Hvem er det?
Det er Lise.

Hvem er det?
Det er Nils.

Hvordan er det?
Det er riktig.

Hvordan er det?
Det er bra.

Hvilken dag er det?
Det er torsdag.

Hvilken dag er det?
Det er søndag.

Great. Here is another pronunciation exercise and a pronunciation rule I’d like to ask you to remember. Ema, could you tell us the rule, please?

If r goes before d, we combine these two sounds and pronounce r with relaxed tongue, emphasizing d.

• - Jan, jeg sier at når r står foran d, uttaler vi dem sammen som /d/. Ikke sant?
• - Jaja, riktig. Helt riktig. Her følger korte eksempler:

Hvem er det?
Hvordan har du det?
Lørdag.
Hva har du i bagasjen?
Hver dag.

A new, sunny day has dawned in Hurghada today. The weather is just fine, Jan and I are going to the main beach in the early morning, then plan to visit El Dahar – the Old Town of Hurghada. I must tell, Jan is annoyed. His big yellow suitcase has not been recovered. But in spite of everything our spirit is good. Ikke sant, Jan?

• - Joooo.... Det er sant. Det er sommer. – Yes.... It’s true. It’s summer here.
  Det er varmt. Sola skinner. Det er fint vær. – It’s warm. The sun is shining. The weather is good.
  Trærne er grønne. Gresset er grønt. – The trees are green. The grass is green.
  Det er jo så fint her i Hurgada! – After all, it is so nice here, in Hurghada!

• - Åh nei... Tja! Lise?! – Oh no... Yeah! Lisa?!
• - Oi! Jan? Hei, Jan! Hei, Ema! – Oh! Jan? Hi, Jan! Hey, Emma!

Heisann! Hi! We have unexpectedly met Lisa.

• - Lise! Du ser så flott ut! – Lisa! You look great!
• - Åh ja? Takk, Jan. – Oh yeah? Thank you, Jan.
  Så hyggelig å treffe dere! Så uventet! – It’s so good to meet you! What a surprise!
  Jan, Ema, hvor lenge kommer dere til å være her? – Jan, Ema, how long are you planning to stay here?
• - Ja... vel.. Vi vet ikke. – Right... Well... We don’t know.
  Vi vil ta det med ro den første dagen. Neste dag vi kan reise inn til byen. – We are going to take it easy the first day. Tomorrow we may go to the city/the city center.
• - Jeg kan vise dere gamlebyen til Hurghada, kalt “El Dahar”. – I can show you the Old Town of Hurghada, called “El Dahar”.
  Jeg bor på hotellet kalt Shedwan Golden Beach i gamlebyen til Hurghada. – I am staying at Shedwan Golden Beach Hotel, in the Old Town of Hurghada.
  
• - Ja? Liker du hotellet? – Really? Do you like the hotel?
• - Det som er fint med å bo her, er at rett over gata til hotellet finner vi shoppingmuligheter. – What is nice about living here, is that I only have to cross the street for shopping.
  Og et ærlig, urbant miljø – ikke noe sminket og pusset gatemiljø som skal ligne storbyer i Europa. – And of course, the urban environment is not artificial – not the one we find in the streets of the European cities – painted and prettified.
  Hva med dere? Hvilket hotell bor dere på? – And what about you? Which hotel do you live in?
  
• - Fysj... Jeg husker ikke navnet på hotellet engang! – Hmm... I don’t even remember the hotel’s name!
• - Ja? :) Sier du det? Hvordan det? – Yeah? Really? How come?
• - I går stjal noen kofferten min på hotellet. I går stjal noen kofferten min på hotellet. – Yesterday someone stole my suitcase in the hotel.
• - Sier du det?!! Er det mulig? Så ekkelt! – Really? Is it possible? How unpleasant!

It is very nice to chat with Lisa, but we have to learn a new grammar topic, which, I believe, you’ve been waiting for. This is the past tense – preteritum. I am complaining to Lisa:

I går stjal noen kofferten min på hotellet. – Yesterday someone stole my suitcase in the hotel.

The preteritum tense, as you have probably noticed, unlike other past tenses in the Norwegian language, is expressed by one verb. The preteritum is used to specify that the action took place in the past and, attention, has ended. Also the preteritum is used when an adverb of time is being named (or at least implied) indicating when the action occurred.

Do you remember the homework of the fourteenth lesson? If you did it well, it will be easy for you to understand many of the following adverbs of time:

i går

yesterday

i fjor

last year

i morges

this morning

klokka ti

at ten o’clock

for tre år siden

three years ago

i forrige uke

last week

sommer 2006

in summer of 2006

i 1996

in 1996

The preteritum tense is also used to express a hypothetical, unrealistic action, for example: if I won a million… In Norwegian, we would say...: hvis jeg vant en million...

How do we make the preteritum tense?

According to how we form verbs in past tenses, they are divided into weak verbs –   svake verb – and strong verbs –   sterke verb.

Of course, there are more past tenses in the Norwegian language than the preteritum, but we will talk about them later. So strong verbs, sterke verb, when making their preteritum, change the vowel and do not get a different ending. This change of the vowel is called avlyd. For example:

  å skrive

to write

  skrev

wrote

  å finne

to find

  fant

found

Meanwhile, weak verbs, svake verb, change their endings. In the preteritum tense, they acquire the endings –et, –de, –te or –dde. For example:

  å kaste

to throw

  kastet

threw

  å leve

to live

  levde

lived

  å dømme

to decide, to condemn, to convict

  dømte

decided, condemned, convicted

  å ro

to row

  rodde

rowed

You will have to learn by heart which verbs are weak and which verbs are strong. Also you will have to learn by heart the past tense forms of strong verbs as vowels change without following any rule. We have heard the theory, now let’s repeat several times to master it and then let’s start practicing.

The first exercise is very simple. We will say the infinitive infinitiv of a verb and its meaning and you will say the present tense presens and the past tense - preteritum. In the beginning, you will simply have to learn by heart most preteritum forms – repeat them together with us and then try to say the preteritum form without our help. In the exercise, we will say the verb forms according to this model: to live – å leve – jeg lever (I live) – jeg levde (I lived).

Let’s start the exercise.

To be – å være
  å være –   jeg er –   jeg var

To do – å gjøre
  å gjøre –   jeg gjør–   jeg gjorde

To go / to drive – å kjøre
  å kjøre –   jeg kjører –   jeg kjørte

To cook / to make – å lage mat
Attention, the preteritum form of this verb can be dual:
  å lage mat –   jeg lager mat –   jeg laget mat eller   jeg lagde mat

To love – å elske
  å elske –   jeg elsker –   jeg elsket

To eat – å spise
  å spise –   jeg spiser –   jeg spiste

To walk – å gå pause
  å gå –   jeg går –   jeg gikk

To sell – å selge
  å selge –   jeg selger –   jeg solgte

Bra! Well done, don’t stop, let’s continue. Next –   neste:

To hold – å holde
  å holde –   jeg holder –   jeg holdt

To lay – å legge
  å legge –   jeg legger –   jeg la

Jan You must be tired. Let’s pamper you with a short break. Relax and listen. Today “Fakta om Norge” will tell you about the symbols of Norway.

1) The most important symbol of Norway, without a doubt, is its flag. The flag is red with an indigo blue Scandinavian cross outlined in white.
The combination of red, white and blue is considered to be the symbols of democracy in Norway.

2) The moose is also a symbol of Norway. The Norwegians, living in remote farms, are often awakened by a jab of a moose’s muzzle in the window early in the morning. Yes, even these days there is abundant wildlife in Norway.

3) Do not forget another Norwegian ambassador – since the old times the Norwegians have believed in the existence of small hairy men with long big noses. They are known as trolls. Trolls (troll is troll in Norwegian) are Norse mythological creatures often met in fairy tales and legends; they are still popular in modern fantasy literature and visual arts. Trolls are depicted as human-shaped, large, ugly and very old. Trolls live solitary in mountain caves and in the depths of the forest. They can’t stand the sunlight. Trolls are probably the most common items in souvenir shops and are brought from Norway by the tourists from all over the world.

4) Well, and the fourth object, widely regarded as the symbol of Norway, is the Oseberg ship – an especially graceful ship, decorated with a dragon head keel, attracting plenty of tourists’ attention. This ship since its discovery in 1904 has become not only the symbol of Oslo, the capital of Vikings, but of the entire Norway as well.

Now, you have taken a little rest so let’s do another exercise that will help you master the preteritum tense. I will say a sentence in the present tense, and you will say the same sentence in the past tense preteritum. Here is an example:

Jan og Lise bader i dag. – Jan and Lisa are swimming today.

You will say as follows:

Yesterday Jan and Lisa swam too. – I går badet Jan og Lise også.

Remember the word order in the sentences when they are started with an adverb of time. Do you understand the task? Okay, let’s start, la oss begynne:

De lager mat i dag. – Today they will cook food.
I’ll help you, you must say: Yesterday they cooked food too.
I går laget de også mat.

De leser bøker i dag. – Today they are reading books.
I går leste de også bøker. – Yesterday they read books too.

De reiser med tog i dag. – Today they are travelling by train.
I går reiste de også med tog. – Yesterday they travelled by train too.

Jan og Lise går en tur i dag. – Jan and Lisa are going for a walk today.

  å gå en tur

to go for a walk

I går gikk Jan og Lise også en tur.

How did you do with this task? Well, in our next task we will let you work independently. Tell us what you did yesterday using the preteritum tense. When will you use it? Yes, when naming the process that has already ended and also in the sentences in which an adverb of time is named or implied indicating when the action took place.

In order to help you stay on your way, I’ll give you some keywords –   stikkord.

It would be great if while telling, you would insert as many adverbs of time in the sentences as possible, for example: yesterday morning, last night, yesterday, yesterday at ten o’clock in the evening and so on. I would like to remind you that it is important to observe the correct word order in the sentence if it does not start with the subject.

Jan, maybe you should say the keywords not only in the infinitive form, but also in the preteritum forms. This will help our students to create a story.

  å stå opp –   sto opp – to wake up
  å dusje –   dusjet – to shower
  å pusse tenner –   pusset tenner – to brush teeth
  å spise frokost –   spiste frokost – to have breakfast
  å lese aviser –   leste aviser – to read papers
  å dra på jobb –   dro på jobb – to go to work
  å jobbe –   jobbet – to work
  å gå på kafé –   gikk på kafé – to go to a café
  å se på TV –   så på TV – to watch TV
  å danse –   danset – to dance
  å høre på musikk –   hørte på musikk – to listen to the music
  å studere norsk –   studerte norsk – to learn the Norwegian language

We hope that you have put in your best effort and told us correctly and in full what you were doing yesterday. Lisa, what did you do yesterday?

Jeg sto opp klokka sju. – I got up at seven o’clock.
Jeg spiste frokost klokka halv åtte. – I had my breakfast at half past seven.
Jeg lå på badestranda fra halv ni til kvart på tolv. – From 8:30 until 11:45 I was lying on the beach.
Jeg gikk tilbake til hotellet klokka tolv. – I went back to the hotel at twelve.
Jeg spiste middag klokka fire. – At four o’clock I ate my lunch.
Jeg leste avisa klokka fem. – I read the papers at five.
Jeg traff Emir klokka sju. – At seven o’clock I met Emir.

• - Hvem traff du klokka sju, Lise? Hvem er Emir? – Who did you meet at seven o’clock? Who is Emir?
  EMIR??? Hva slags navn er det?! – Emir? What kind of a name is that?!

I think a storm of feelings is rising here. I’ll leave Jan and Lisa to explain themselves and will go to the beach. Hmm, but who is Emir, after all... We’ll find out it in the next lesson, see you then, på gjensyn.