Fifth lesson

We like shopping. Women perhaps are nodding their heads now and men..?

Today we're going to learn food products and plurals of nouns.

fruits shop

Please remember what you learnt last time. Listen to Jan and repeat all of it.

Lesson video   

Dictionary   

#WordTranslation
1å spise  to eat
2en butikk  a store
3grønnsaker  vegetables
4frukter  fruits
5et vær  the weather
6en dagligvarebutikk  a grocery store
7å kjøpe  to buy
8å handle  to do shopping
9å bli med  to join
10ei en sjokoladeplate  chocolate bar
11en tomat  a tomato
12tomater  tomatoes
13et eple  an apple
14epler  apples
15en agurk  a cucumber
16ei en bønne  a bean
17agurker  cucumbers
18bonner  beans
19et kjøtt  meat
20et svinekjøtt  pork
21hønsekjøtt  chicken
22et kyllingkjøtt  chicken meat
23et oksekjøtt  beef
24et storfekjøtt  beef
25et kalkunkjøtt  turkey meat
26en kål  a cabbage
27kåler  cabbages
28en hodekål  a head of cabbage
29hodekåler  heads of cabbages
30en gulrot  a carrot
31gulrøtter  carrots
32en brokkoli  broccoli
33brokkoli  broccoli (plural)
34en paprika  paprika
35paprikaer  paprikas
36en potet  a potato
37poteter  potatoes
38en løk  an onion
39løker  onions
40en hvitløk  a garlic
41hvitløker  garlic
42mange grønnsaker  many vegetables
43en grønnsak  a vegetable
44en frukt  a fruit
45en ananas  a pineapple
46ananaser  pineapples
47ei en pære  a pear
48pærer  pears
49sunt  healthy
50en banan  banana
51bananer  bananas
52en sitron  a lemon
53sitroner  lemons
54en mango  a mango
55mangoer  mangoes
56en kiwi  a kiwi
57kiwier  kiwis
58å huske  to remember
59ei en kassadame  a female cashier
60en kasserer  a male cashier
61å betale  to pay soon
62hva koster  how much does it cost?
63er det dyrt  Is it expensive?
64å betale med kontanter  to pay in cash
65å betale med kort  to pay by credit card
66penger  money
67å lage mat  to make food
68en frokost  breakfast
69en lunsj  lunch
70en middag  dinner (meal)
71en kveldsmat  supper

Notes   

God dag, alle sammen! Hvordan går det med dere? Hello there, how are you getting along with norwegianABC.com? Well? Ema and I have no doubt that you already can brag about trying to speak Norwegian! Dere prøver å snakke norsk! Veldig bra! By the way, I forgot to greet Ema. Halo, Ema! Emaaa? Hvor er du? Where are you? Hvor er du?

Hm, strange. Perhaps she is still in a shop... You should remember that place we ended the fourth lesson – leksjon nummer fire. Let's go to look for her, as we won't do without Ema today. And while going to the shop, let's learn some new words:   en butikk. A grocery store:   en dagligvarebutikk. Oh, what a long word. Listen, I’ll say it slowly, and you repeat:   en dagligvarebutikk. In a shop we buy   å kjøpe. So here we are faced that special Norwegian syllable “kj” again, but we already know how to pronounce it correctly, right? Let's repeat together:   å kjøpe. The next word we have to learn when going to the shop is a verb   å handle. Vi liker å handle – we like shopping. Women perhaps are nodding their heads now, and men are raising their eyebrows

A shop
  en butikk
A grocery store
en dagligvarebutikk
To buy
å kjøpe
To do shopping
å handle
We like shopping
Vi liker å handle
  • - Ema, Ema, hvor er du? Well, where has Ema gone?
  • - Halo, Jan, jeg er her. Jeg er i en dagligvarebutikk.
  • - Hei, Ema. Du er i en dagligvarebutikk – you are in a shop. Let's ask Ema, what is she doing here: We ask like this: Hva gjør du her?

At first we say an interrogative word: hva. In the second place, as you remember, is a verb – in this case, a verb „å gjøre“ - „to do“ in a form „gjør“, then - a personal pronoun „du“ and a local circumstance „her“. Hva gjør du her, Ema?

  • - Jan, jeg handler. – I'm doing shopping. Jan, vil du bli med? Vil dere bli med?

Ema invites us to join. Å bli med – means “to join”. Vil du bli med - ,,vil” is a modal verb we learned in the third lesson – Vil dere bli med? – Do you want to join? I hope you're saying “yes” :)

Du er i en dagligvarebutikk
You are in a shop
Å gjøre
to do
Jeg handler
I'm doing shopping
Å bli med
to join
Vil dere bli med?
Do you want to join?

So let's go together with Ema and look at what she has bought already. I can see at a distance that a fully loaded shopping cart stands there. Let's get closer. Ema, hva skal du kjøpe? Ema, what will you buy? Remember, we have learned a modal verb “skal” in the third lesson. You see how useful it is? Hva skal du kjøpe, Ema?

  • - Jan, jeg skal kjøpe ett brød.

Did you understand what Ema is going to buy? Ett brød – one loaf of bread. Jeg skal kjøpe ett brød.

Ett brød
one loaf of bread
  • - Ja, og jeg skal kjøpe fem sjokoladeplater „Troika”.

Ema is a gourmet. She is going to buy five “Troika” chocolates, liked by most Norwegians. By the way, it's my favourite – chocolate bar also ei / en sjokoladeplate. Fem sjokoladeplater – five chocolate bars.

Ei / en sjokoladeplate
chocolate bar
Fem sjokoladeplater
five chocolate bars

Yes, today we are going to learn plurals of nouns. Without it we are lost, for sure. The plurals of nouns in Norwegian are made in quite a simple way. You can have a chocolate or another favourite sweet, if you have it somewhere near, and listen to the grammar rules. By the way, I can't help being happy – only with norwegianABC.com, you, Ema and I can learn in such a fun way!

So, in Norwegian, as we already know perfectly, there are three noun genders: feminine, masculine, and neuter. What do we do after hearing a Norwegian noun we don't know yet? We search on the internet dictionary or in a book, to see what gender the noun is. Another funny thing is that a noun in plural form is usually written in a dictionary. But let's learn to make it by ourselves. The dictionary is not going to be near all the time.

The plural of masculine and feminine gender nouns is made by adding an ending -er. For instance, in the same way as with the delicious term “chocolate bar”: en sjokoladeplate – sjokoladeplater.

Let's make a plural of another word. Look into Ema's shopping cart – well,what else is she going to buy? And here it is. Tomatoes. A tomato in Norwegian is „en tomat“, the plural will be – tomater – tomatoes. We just have to add an ending -er, because we know that this noun is of masculine gender. Tell us how many tomatoes Ema is going to buy.

A tomato
en tomat
Tomater
tomatoes
  • - Jeg skal kjøpe tjueto tomater.

So we see what a precise person Ema is, as she has counted them all. And did you understand how many tomatoes she is going to buy?

Tjueto tomater
22 tomatoes

Veldig bra. If you said a wrong number, rewind the fourth lesson, and learn the numbers :) OK, now let's see how we are going to make plurals of nouns in neuter gender, that is nouns having an article „et“. In order to do this: count how many syllables a noun of neuter gender has:

1)If a noun of neuter gender is monosyllabic, for instance, et brød – bread, its plural remains the same - brød. Two units of bread will be „to brød“.

2)If a noun of neuter gender is polysyllabic, for instance, et eple – an apple, its plural will be made in the same way as making nouns of masculine and feminine gender – by adding an ending -er: epler. Five apples – fem epler.

Hm, and now you tell me, what is the plural of the word „en luft” – air? Be careful! :) It's impossible, because the word „air“ simply has no plural at all.

Such words like en melk – milk, en saft or en juice – juice, et vann – water and so on, also have no plural – these words describe uncountable things.
  • - Jan, jeg skal kjøpe en agurk.
  • - Did you understand? En agurk – a cucumber.
  • - Nei, nei, Jan, jeg skal kjøpe fire agurker.

Ema probably is going to make salad, so she will by four cucumbers – fire agurker. En agurk – a cucumber, fire agurker – four cucumbers. We're doing fine in making plural, kjempebra, very good! What else is lacking in the salad? We have some cucumbers and tomatoes. Beans? Ei /en bønne – a bean. Bønner – beans. En bønne – bønner. Ema, skal vi kjøpe bønner?

En agurk
a cucumber
Fire agurker
four cucumbers
Ei /en bønne
a bean
Bønner
beans
  • - Nei, vis skal kjøpe kjøtt.

Et kjøtt – meat. We won't make a plural with this noun, and do you know why? Yes, we can't count meat. But the meat will fit perfectly with the cucumbers, right, sant?

Et kjøtt
meat

Let's learn more varieties of meat:

Pork
et svinekjøtt

Chicken in Norwegian will be „hønsekjøtt”, but Norwegians don't use this word talking about customary “chicken”, they say et kyllingkjøtt – it means “chicken meat”.

Chicken meat
et kyllingkjøtt
Chicken
hønsekjøtt
Beef
et oksekjøtt or et storfekjøtt
Turkey meat
et kalkunkjøtt

OK, let's see what else Ema has in the cart. Oh...

A bunch of vegetables! We’ll say them all, and you repeat after us. Since today we're learning plurals, we say it all together:

A cabbage
en kål
Cabbages
kåler
en kål
kåler
A head of cabbage
en hodekål
Heads of cabbages
hodekåler
en hodekål
hodekåler
A carrot
en gulrot
Carrots
gulrøtter
en gulrot
gulrøtter

The plural of this noun, as with several others which we'll talk about a little bit later, is not made by following any rules. You just need to learn it by heart.

Broccoli
en brokkoli
Broccoli (plural)
brokollier
en brokoll
brokoller
Paprika
en paprika
Paprikas
paprikaer
en paprika
paprikaer

Attention, we can see that the plural of the international name to this vegetable is made not according to the rule, we don't say „papriker“, we just say „paprikaer“.

A potato
en potet
Potatoes
poteter
en potet
poteter

I like spicier meals, so let's see if Ema picked up some things which could complement et kjøtt – meat perfectly:

An onion
en løk
Onions
løker
A garlic
en hvitløk
Garlic (plural)
hvitløker

Ema has put a really large amount of vegetables - mange grønnsaker into her shopping cart. En grønnsak – a vegetable – grønnsaker – vegetables. Mange grønnsaker. You ask, what is „mange“?

En grønnsak
a vegetable
Grønnsaker
vegetables

In Norwegian there are two words meaning “many” and “much”: mange and mye. It's very simple to identify when we should use which word.

We say “mange” next to objects we can count, as we have just mentioned: mange grønnsaker.

Let's pay attention to pronunciation of “mange”: don't pronounce “ng”, say „mange“ – when saying “ng” our tongue should press the palate.

  • - Mange, mange. We can count vegetables, so we say “mange”.
We use “mye” with the nouns we can't count, let's say: water, milk: „mye vann“, „mye melk“.

Pronunciation of “mye” is also special. Let's repeat it together:

  • - Mye, mye. Mye vann, mye melk. Well, and how can we solve the fruit thing? Ema, skal du kjøpe frukter?
En frukt
a fruit
Frukter
fruit
  • - Jeg skal kjøpe frukter. Jeg skal kjøpe en ananas. Nei, jeg skal kjøpe to ananaser.
En ananas
a pineapple
Ananaser
pineapples
Two pineapples
to ananaser
  • - Og jeg skal kjøpe sju pærer.
A pear
ei/en pære
Pears
pærer

Well, and what does „sju pærer“ mean? Yes, that's right, seven pears, riktig – „right”. Ema is a pear lover :) Great, pærer er sunt. Sunt – healthy. Pærer er sunt.

Sju pærer
seven pears
Sunt
healthy
  • - Ja, pærer er sunt. Frukter og grønnsaker er sunt.
  • - Ja, veldig riktig! Eating fruit and vegetables is healthy.
  • - Javel, jeg skal kjøpe tre bananer.
En banan
banana
Bananer
bananas
Tre bananer
three bananas
Mange bananer
many bananas

Do you remember how to name one of the most popular fruit in Norwegian? Think a bit. Et eple. How can we say – many apples? Apples, with no doubt, are countable, so we will say “mange”. Et eple is a noun in neuter gender, consisting of two syllables. We can make its plural by adding an ending -e. Yes, exactly: mange epler. Supert!

Well, well, and what else did Ema choose from fruit? Yes, I see a lemon:

En sitron
a lemon
Lemons
sitroner

I picked my favourite fruit also.

A mango
en mango
Mangoes
mangoer
Attention – we say “mangoer”, not “manger”.

Well, and what is this tiny, green and downy fruit at the very bottom of Ema's shopping cart? Yes, you have probably guessed:

A kiwi
en kiwi
Kiwis
kiwier

And now let's repeat the vegetables. Jan will say them in Norwegian – each name of a vegetable in a singular or plural form. You say it in English. After a pause you can check the correct answer with me. Ready? Put the chocolate aside for a while, if you're still eating it as I offered in the beginning of this lesson, so we can start:

en brokkoli
broccoli
hvitløker
garlic
poteter
potatoes
paprikaer og gulrøtter
paprikas and carrots
en løk og en hodekål
an onion and a head of cabbage

Veldig bra! You didn't get tired, did you? Let's continue, la oss fortsette. How are we going to manage the varieties of meat? I'll say each kind of meat in Norwegian and English, but pay attention, my combination may be incorrect. For instance, I'll say “pork” in Norwegian, and translate it as “chicken”. So you'll have to say if I translate it correctly, and if it’s not, you have to translate it the right way. Do you think that I am torturing you? :) Let's go:

  • - Et kalkunkjøtt - turkey meat.
  • - Yes, right: et kalkunkjøtt – turkey meat.
  • - Et oksekjøtt - chicken meat.
  • - No, wrong. Et oksekjøtt – beef.
  • - Et svinekjøtt – pork.
  • - Yes, right: et svinekjøtt – pork.
  • - Et kyllingkjøtt – chicken meat.
  • - Yes, right: et kyllingkjøtt – chicken.

Ech, the names of meat are not the easiest ones, but it will be great if we don't get lost in a Norwegian shop, and choose our favourite one, right?

Husker dere frukter? - And do you remember the fruit?

Å huske
to remember

We make a question: husker dere frukter? Husker dere frukter? So tell me, which fruit do you like? Hvilke frukter liker dere? In the second lesson we were learning about „hvilken, hvilket, hvilke“ and making questions. If this question sounds complicated, then listen to grammar rules in the second lesson again. Hvilke frukter liker dere? Which fruit do you like? Answer, we are waiting. Bra!

We have been learning quite well in this lesson. Uff. Maybe we can go to the cash desk with all of our products already. OK? A female cashier ei / en kassadame is sitting and smiling kindly to us. If a male cashier sat here, we would say: en kasserer. Halo, god dag.

A female cashier
ei / en kassadame
A male cashier
en kasserer
  • - Jan, kad du hjelpe meg?
  • - Ja, Ema, jeg skal hjelpe deg. Ema is asking for help. It isn't easy to pick so many products from the cart.
  • - Hva koster mangoer, Ema?

Well, here we are near the cash desk already. Jan is helping me take the products out of the cart. We'll have to pay soon – å betale, to pay – å betale, and he is worried about how much it all costs! Hva koster? – How much does it cost? Jan is worried about how much my favourite mangoes cost, I've put eight of them into the cart – åtte mangoer cost. Vel vel.

To pay soon
å betale
To pay
å betale
How much does it cost?
Hva koster?
  • - Ema, hva koster åtte mangoer?
  • - Jan, åtte mangoer koster to hundre og femti kroner.
  • - To hundre og femti kroner?
  • - Ja, Jan. Er det dyrt? Is it expensive? Er det dyrt eller billig? Is it expensive or is it cheap?
Dyrt
expensive
Billig
cheap
  • - Nei, det er billig. Vi kan kjøpe mangoer.
  • - Greit. Jeg liker mangoer.
  • - Javel. Hvor mye skal vi betale? How much will we have to pay? Skal vi se. Vi må betale ni hundre kroner. Ema, skal vi betale med kontanter?
Å betale med kontanter
to pay in cash
Å betale med kort
to pay by credit card
  • - Ema, skal vi betale med kontanter eller skal vi betale med kort?
  • - Ja, vi kan betale med kontanter. Værsågod, her er penger, ni hundre kroner. Here you are, this is the money, nine hundred crones. Værsågod, her er penger, ni hundre kroner. Plural of the noun “money” - penger.
Money
penger
  • - Nei, Ema, takk, jeg kan betale. Jeg skal betale og du kan lage kveldsmat.
  • - Jan says that he will pay, and I can make supper. :) ech, what a smart man.
Å lage mat
to make food
En frokost
breakfast
Å lage frokost
to make breakfast
En lunsj
lunch
Å lage lunsj
to make lunch
En middag
dinner (meal)
Å lage middag
to make dinner / meal
En kveldsmat
supper
Å lage kveldsmat
to make supper

And how do you say “to eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper”?

To eat
å spise
To eat breakfast
å spise + frokost

And how do you say “to eat lunch”? Say it loudly, I'm waiting.

Bra! Å spise lunsj.

To eat dinner
å spise middag
To eat supper
å spise kveldsmat

Kjempebra! Very, very good!

Well, and I will have to: å lage kveldsmat – make supper, og å spise kveldsmat – and eat supper, sammen med Jan – together with Jan. Oh, he has already paid for the products, and is coming to us. Poor guy, he's bringing many bags.

A bag
en pose
Bags
poser
En pose
mange poser

Javel, ha det bra alle sammen! We're going home and will make a meal - vi går hjem og vi skal lage mat. Do not forget, that with norwegianABC.com you can learn while making your meal, or doing anything else anywhere – while driving, running, swimming, flying or lying! It's only important for you to be in a good mood and willing to learn beautiful and proper Norwegian language!

  • - Jan and I are saying to you all, we will see you next time.
  • - Ha det, vi høres neste gang!

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