FAQ

Some of my answers to questions on Norskklassen and Yahoo!Answers

Where do I begin?

Your plan (above) seems sound. But what is lacking is using Norwegian to communicate with. Learning a language is much more than memorizing vocabulary items and grammar rules.

My website can give you some very elementary lessons (NorWord and Pierre's verbs of the week), and some recommendations for learning material. I also provide lists of forms by part of speech, but I don't recommend memorizing the words / forms, but using them when you are preparing to speak.

I always suggest that students should read and read more. Do not translate, but see how much you understand and can figure out from the context. Read things you are interested in, and have some knowledge about. I could not understand a passage about nuclear physics in any language nor would it interest me, so I think it would be a poor choice (for me) to pick an article on that topic.

Do not translate from English (or any other language), but try to consider Norwegian as the primary language, not a derivative from another one.

Buy a dictionary (or use one online) but do not use it as a crutch to look up every word. Use it to unlock a passage you have worked at for a long time. A grammar book might help too, but once again, it can explain things not teach you!

You will need to be patient (many people want to learn languages quickly and easily) but it is a slow and difficult process. So be patient.

While is is NO replacement for speaking, you can write some sentences / paragraphs to this group, and if you ask for corrections, you will likely get some. Starting with Pierre's verbs of the week (sent out each Monday) would be a good place to try writing a bit of Norwegian.

If you have any questions about Norwegian (we use mostly bokmål here), feel free to ask!

Adjective forms

Adjectives agree (in gender and number) with the pronoun or noun it modifies. In this case DET is neuter, so you have to use VAKKERT.

Den er vakker; Det er vakkert.
Du er vakker, Vi er vakre.

Et fint hvitt hus

Re: "Spoken Norwegian"

Many of us who ended up teaching Norwegian in North America began our Norwegian careers using 'the Red Book.' And we still use a few phrases from that book with colleagues -- Daniel you probably remember the unforgettable "La oss ta det lille bordet ved vinduet"

lthough is is old, Haugen was a fantastic linguist and researcher and was (in the 1940s) on the cutting edge of the Audio-Lingual method. Proficiency approaches have overtaken this methodology but we shouldn't through the baby out with the bathwater....

The tapes (when I used them, they were 7" reel to reel magnetic tapes) are likely hard to come by now. I asked Professor Haugen about 15 years ago, and he indicated that the language center at Harvard might have copies, but they didn't. I saw several copies of a version of this book when googled. They were so cheap to make me wonder about the quality and reliability of the books / sellers.

Consider something more up to date, perhaps. The black & white photos in the 1964 edition were hilarious. Many were updated later, and Kaptein Knutsen was updated from a ship captain to a pilot on SAS airlines

Re: Superlative and comparative adjective endings

Hei.... in general comparatives and superlatives follow the 'normal' rules. Størst already ends in a combination of consonants with 't' so it wouldn't add another for an -et nouns

for example -- flott -- good, nice, does not another 't' for et nouns
Størst does however add an -e for plurals and definite nouns
Han er størst. Hun er den største.
The adjective 'fin' would have 'finere' and 'finest' and finest can take an -e (den fineste mann) but not a -t for et nouns.
See the chart of adjectives on my website: http://norwegianlanguage.info/grammar/adjectives.html

Re: Popular blogs in Norwegian?

Hei! Akkurat nå liker jeg en blogg fra en utvekslingstudent fra Norge til Virginia. Malene skriver godt og enkelt -- og har mye interessant å fortelle om.

http://maleneiusa.blogg.no/

Her er litt fra bloggen hennes:
Hei og hopp! Da er det på tide med ukas oppdatering. Den siste uka har vært helt super! Det har skjedd så mye gøy på skolen og tennis at det er nå jeg begynner å innse at det kommer til å bli vanskelig å forlate USA. Begynner virkelig å trives her.

Re: Another word order question

Hi... you are certainly right that the sentence you gave looks to an imperative (command), except that it includes the subject (du). Most commands do not have the du listed. (we used to call it an understood subject. So spis! is the command form for 'eat.'

If your example had had a "?" it would have been clearly a question. (Or if you had heard someone speak it, you would have heard question intonation).

Part of the problem might be that for å gjøre, the irregular present tense (gjør) and the command are identical.

MVH Louis

Re: Another word order question

This is standard question word order:
Verb subject -- the rest
Liker du fisk?
The forms for å gjøre 'to do' are
gjør (present tense / imperative)
gjorde (past)
har gjort (present perfect)
You can see this verb and many others at:
http://norwegianlanguage.info/votw/gjoere.html
http://norwegianlanguage.info/grammar/common-verbs.html
If you use a question word, the order is:
Hvorfor liker du fisk? Why do you like fish?

Audio Dictionary?

> Please suggest me Norwagean [sic] to English Audio Dictionary.

Hei. There are really no such dictionaries available (mine will be, when I finally finish writing it!). Try Lexin (no English, however).

For example the entry for 'bok' can be read and you can listen to the headword (in synthetic speech) here

http://decentius.hit.uib.no/lexin.html?dict=nbo-maxi&ui-lang=ENG&startingfrom=0&\ count=5&checked-languages=E&checked-languages=N&search=bok&run-search=

Look at the list of languages on the right side of the page and you might find a language that suits you!

http://decentius.hit.uib.no/lexin.html?ui-lang=eng&dict=nbo-maxi&checked-languag\ es=N

------------- LEXIN now includes audio for all Bokmål and Nynorsk dictionary content. After you have searched for a word in LEXIN, the speaker icon will show after each Bokmål and Nynorsk field. Klikk on the icon to get the text of the field read aloud. -----------------------------------------

Fast / free?

Is it possible to become fluent in Norwegian by learning online for free?

I suggest you find some Norwegians to COMMUNICATE with. That's the only way to learn how to converse. You can't do it with passive learning of words and grammar rules. I don't think I've seen any intelligent web sites that communicate.

My site (below) is for learners of Norwegian (mostly bokmål) and will give some suggestions about resources and some VERY elementary lessons.

Learn Danish help?!????

Where can I learn fluent Danish fast?? For free

you can't. learning a language is rarely fast, rarely free, and rarely will you become fluent. Sorry to burst your fantasy.

It takes hard work! Meantime, try the book Beginner's Danish by Nete Schmidt. It will give you a good start. Source(s): http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Danish

Danish or Norwegian language?

Are the written languages identical? (Bokmål, not Nynorsk)

most differences are transparent
Danish: mig Bokmål: meg Danish: at hjælpe 'to help Norwegian: å hjelpe

Yes, for many, Danish is harder to pronounce (with its stød). On the other hand if you aim at perfection, Norwegian has two meaning-differentiating tone in stressed words with more than one syllable. Norwegian is closer to spoken Swedish, so that is yet one more advantage to Norwegian.

Students of Norwegian (Bokmal) find it annoying to learn Nynorsk?

yes, ja. Noen er fornærmet over å måtte lære seg både bokmål og nynorsk.... men sånn er livet.

Dialects are valued in Norway and thus the general society finds it important to be tolerant and accepting. I will mention that many in nynorsk areas are equally annoyed that they have to learn "Dano-Norwegian." But most reasonable (adult) Norwegians feel the importance of knowing both!

Calling nynorsk the same as bokmål with spelling differences is naive. The tone of nynorsk is definitely more 'earthy' -- I don't mean the tonemer but the tone/ spirit.