Eat my monkeydust

Today’s word: justere

• English: Adjust
• Pronunciation: ʸewss-tay-rer

First attempt

Vanligvis når jeg søk etter 
bukser i butikkene, er det
umulig å finner noen som har den
riktig størrelse! Jeg har lenge
beiner, så kanskje noen kan justere 
lengden av buksen etter jeg har kjøpt den?
Jeg liker ikke å spør fordi jeg vil heller
ha et lett liv :)

Errors/observations:

• Using søk etter in this context is incorrect, similarily in English it would not be normal to “search” for something like this, rather “look for”, which translates as “ser etter” or “leter etter”
• Silly mistake, å finner should be å finne
• som har den riktig størrelse – since I am talking about a difinitive article (the right size) we must make the adjective and noun definite – som har den riktige størrelsen. A simpler alternative sentence could be “med riktig størrelse”
• lenge is a period of time whereas lange refers to physical length
• beiner should be bein – this word does not take the -er ending in the plural form
• lengden av – should be lengden på – just one of those things!
• Another silly mistake with infinitive verbs, å spør should be å spørre
• The final sentence generated some discussion, with a female colleague saying it doesn’t make sense (because why wouldn’t you ask for extra services that customers are entitled to?) and a male colleague agreeing that from a “can’t be bothered” (and perhaps male) perspective, all we want is to find the right thing and buy it… or leave. Anyway, the sentence could maybe be better as “Det gidder jeg ikke å spørre om, fordi…” implying that I can’t be bothered to ask, rather than just saying that I don’t like to ask

Corrected version (one variation):

Vanligvis når jeg leter etter 
bukser i butikkene, er det
umulig å finne noen som har den
riktige størrelsen! Jeg har lange
bein, så kanskje noen kan justere 
lengden på buksen etter jeg har kjøpt den?
Det gidder jeg ikke å spørre om fordi jeg vil heller
ha et lett liv :)

Translation:

Normally when I look for
trousers in the shops, it's
impossible to find some with the
right size! I have long
legs, so maybe someone can adjust
the length of the trousers after I have bought them?
I can't be bothered to ask about it because I would rather
have an easy life :)

Summary

It’s easy for English speakers to get caught out when talking about when things happen in Norwegian, the most apparent example is in English using “We will take a trip in a week” could be mistakenly translated to “vi skal ta en tur i en uke”. What you’ve actually said is “we will take a trip for a week” as i in this sense means “during”. The correct sentence would have been “vi skal ta en tur om en uke”

Note: Google translate often gets this wrong!

Examples:

• om sommeren – during/in the summer (any summer)
• i sommer – this summer (past or future depending on context)
• forriger sommer / i fjor sommer – last summer / summer last year
• i år – this year
• neste år – next year
• hele år – all year
• hvert år – every year
• for fire år siden – four years ago
• i forrige uke – last week
• fem dager seinere – five days later
• to minutter tidligere – two minutes earlier
• ved/i fem-tiden – around five o’clock (-tiden is like -ish when used here)
• om tre uker – in 3 weeks
• i tre uker – for/during 3 weeks
• i dag / i morges / i kveld – today, this morning, this evening
• i fjor – last year
• ikke på tre uker – not for 3 weeks

Some sentences using the expressions noted:

• Skal vi treffes om to timer? – Can we meet in 2 hours?
• Vi var på besøk hos han Daniel i tre timer – We were visiting Daniel for 3 hours
• Vi besøkte Daniel i tre timer – We visited Daniel for 3 hours
• Rambo har ikke blitt sett på fem år – Rambo has not been seen for five years
• Hun kan skrive hele boka på fem måneder – She can write the whole book in five months

Today’s word: livsfarlig

• English: perilous, dangerous
• Pronunciation: lishs-faa-li

First attempt:

I et par uker skal jeg
ta en tur til Kjellsås. Der
finner vi mange ting å klatre!
Det er noen som sier at klatring
er livsfarlig, men jeg synes at det
er jo mulig å ha en kjempe fin dag
uten problemmer hvis man er forsiktig

Errors/observations:

• First line, I should be om. Stupid mistake because I generally know these rules but it’s a good one to highlight. In these cases, using i is like saying “during a few weeks” rather than om which would mean “in a few weeks”.
• The next point is a little bit more to do with how the sentence sounds, since I am going to Kjellsås to climb, I want it to sound a bit less like a tourist brochure and more “natural” and human. Replacing “der finner vi mange ting å klatre” with “fordi der er det mange ting å klatre” achieves this.
• Klatre cannot be used alone in this context, so we replace it with klatre opp. There may be a better way in “climbing lingo” to say this, but this is the “correct way” for now.
• synes at det er jo mulig is too informal, and could only really be spoken or used as a Twitter or Facebook status (for example). Removing the “at” helps to formalise it for writing, and in this context the “jo” is also unnecessary.
• kjempe fin should be written and used as one word
• Problemmer is spelt problemer
• Some dialects may replace the final hvis with så lenge, but hvis is also fine

Final text:

Om et par uker skal jeg
ta en tur til Kjellsås, fordi
der er det mange ting å klatre opp!
Det er noen som sier at klatring
er livsfarlig, men jeg synes det
er mulig å ha en kjempefin dag
uten problemer hvis man er forsiktig.

English translation:

In a *few weeks I will
take a trip to Kjellsås because
there are many things to climb there!
There are some that say climbing
is dangerous, but I believe that
it's possible to have a really fine day
without problems if one is careful.

* “et par” is literally “a couple”, but generally not used literally in Norwegian

Summary

Noe is used in cases where the object is singular, or uncountable (like snow, or happiness) (something, anything) but never used when referring to people (so you would not use it do describe someone.

Noe is also used in questions and negative sentences when referring to neuter (et) nouns.

Noen is used in plural cases, and also when talking about people. In questions and negative sentences, noen is used when referring to common gender (en/ei) nouns

Examples

• Noe or Noen ting – Something/Anything
• Noe å spise – something to eat
• Jeg må spise noe – I must eat something
• Ikke noe problem – no problem (generally only spoken)
• Det gjør ikke noe – it doesn’t matter
• Har du noe håp om å finne dem? – Do you have any hope of finding them?
• Noen ganger – some times
• Noen – Someone
• Noen blomster – Some flowers
• Noen måneder – a few months (although many dialects will say “et par maneder” without literally meaning “2 months”
• Vil du har noen penger?

Today’s word: en persienne

• English: blind, shutter (as in window blinds)
• Pronunciation: pæ-shi-ehn-ner

First attempt:

Om sommeren solen skinner
så mye, derfor hvis jeg
vil sitte og jobbe ved
siden av vinduet må jeg
dra ned persiennen! Noe
ganger er det fint å ta den
opp og se på den pen utsikten.

Errors/observations:

• solen skinner should be skinner solen – one of the easy mistakes English speakers make with sentence ordering
• derfor does not “sound right” in this context, the sentence flows better replacing the comma and derfor with at
• ved siden av literally means “by the side of” but in Norwegian is a little more specific, so you really would have to be sat right next to the window for this to work. Simply using ved (by) is more appropriate here.
• noe should be noen – I’ll write an article about this later
• pen is refering to a definitive article (utsikten – the view) so should be pene

Corrected text:

Om sommeren skinner solen
så mye at hvis jeg
vil sitte og jobbe ved
vinduet må jeg
dra ned persiennen! Noen
ganger er det fint å ta den
opp og se på den pene utsikten.

Translation:

In the summer the sun shines
so much that if I want to sit and work
by the window I must take down
the blinds! Some times it is nice to
take them up and look at the beautiful view.