være
Verb of the week: vaere
Hei alle sammen!
Welcome to our resuscitated feature, the verb of the week!
To begin with, I will introduce the most common, but also most
irregular verb in the Norwegian language: å være, to be.
å være = to be (infinitive form)
han er = he is (present tense for all persons and numbers * )
han var = he was (past tense)
han har vært = he has been (past participle)
'han' means 'he'.
* Norwegian, unlike many languages, has only one present tense
verb form. Compare it with English:
English Norwegian
------------------
I AM jeg ER
you ARE du ER
he IS han ER
she IS hun ER
they ARE de ER
Simple, no?
La oss prøve dette verbet:
Let's try out this verb:
(infinitive)
Å være, eller ikke å være: det er spørsmålet.
To be, or not to be: that is the question. (Hamlet)
(present)
I krig og kjærlighet er allting tillatt.
Literally: In war and love is everything allowed.
All is fair in love and war.
(past)
Maten var veldig god, men vi klarte ikke å spise opp alt.
The food was very good, but we did not manage to eat everything.
(present perfect)
For å vite hvor vi er på vei, bør vi vite hvor vi har vært.
To know where we are going, we must know where we have been.
Kan du skrive noen setninger med dette verbet?
Can you write some sentences with this verb?
Hilsen,
Pierre Thomson