I har ikke skrevet anything for a while, so whilst I read the new edition of Pondus I figured I might as well note a few nice ord and phrases I stumble across. I’ll also mention a few day-to-day things that I’ve come across that may be nyttig. Oh, and of course be a bit forsiktig with the “Pondus ord” because many of them are of course quite “slangy”!

• Det står ingenting på denne lappen – There is nothing on this ticket
• Overbevist – Satisfied
• Vellykket – Successful
• Du er nødt til å… – You really have to…
• Ta en blund – Take a nap
• Kan jeg få en sånn – May I have one of those/these? (Whilst pointing at something)
• Kjempeflaks – Really lucky
• Kollisjonsputer – Airbags
• Jeg må tidlig opp – I have to be up early
• Litt skuffa – A bit disappointed
• Vidunderlig – Wonderful
• Jeg er lei av… – I’m sick of…
• Jeg vil du skal… – I would like you to…
• Åpenbart – Obviously
• Ødelegge – Destroy
• Takk og lov! – Thank goodness!

*vis words that I like:

• Sannsynligvis – Probably
  
• Tilfeldigvis – Accidentally
• Forhåpentligvis – Hopefully
• Heldigvis – Luckily

* P.s. When I write på engelsk I am borrowing a format that I really like, used by Kari in her Norwegian blog. I urge you to subscribe to that one too!

Why?

I haven’t been too active lately with the Norwegian blog, mostly because of the usal lame excuse regarding time and too much work and all that. One thing I have been doing lately is reading, or at least trying to read the Chris Ryan book “Blodpenger”, and during this reading several words crop up that are interesting – but which I forget way too quickly.

Hopefully by sharing some of them here, it will help me to remember, and also give me a quick reference point for when I inevitably forget again!

Some words – from prologue and chapter 1

• Sylige – visible
• Stram – tight (fingrene var stram)
• Forvridd – contorted, mangled, twisted (På ringfingeren satt en forvridd gullring)
• Dugg – dew
• Grundigere – thoughtfully
• Bøye – bend (han bøyde seg = he bent over)
• Tilhøre – belong to (måtte ha tilørt en kvinne)
• Halvannen – one and a half
• en Grop ( a ditch)
• Peste – panted (den peste mens den løp)
• Ryggsøyle – spine
• Mistanke – suspicion
• Nøyaktig – precisely
• Gjørmete – muddy
• Gned – rubbed
• Slør – veil
• Blikk – look, glance (hun løftet blikket)
• Lynraskt – very quickly, blazingly, “at light speed”
• Påføre – cause, bring upon
• Som ventet – as expected (den var som ventet)
• Ifølge – according to
• Somle – faff, dawdle, time waste
• Myke halsen – stiff neck
• Klesplagg – Garment, Item of clothing (et nytt klesplagg)
• Øreflippen – the earlobe
• Slikket – licked
• Åndsfraværende – vacantly (Han slikket øreflippen hennes åndsfraværende)
• Ånd – spirit, Fraværende – absent
• Bekymret – worried, concerned (det som bekymret ham)
• Fortjener – deserve
• Halvt fordervet – half to death (han slo henne halv fordervet)
• Tillatelse – permission

And that’s not even the whole chapter…

Background

The word Aker comes up a lot in and around Oslo, and after a brief discussion about it yesterday, it struck me that using familiar names can help us to learn less familiar vocabulary.

The word comes from old Norse for “acre” and was the name of an old farm, which helped to name a church (the old Aker church) which then went on to name the district and spawn the other things we know and love today. You can read more about that on the Wikipedia page.

Words to learn that “Aker” can help us to remember

• Hus = House – You should be familiar with Akershus (county), literally “the House of Aker” but don’t read too much into that without reading the following reference also:
• Festning = Fortress – Akershus Festning is the fortress overlooking the Oslo Fjord. It’s name fully expanded means something like “The fortified house of Aker”. The district of Akershus was named after the fortress, not the other way around!
• Elv = River (feminine so “the river” is “elva”) – Akerselva is the river that runs through Oslo, literally “the river of Aker”
• Østre = Eastern – one of the main roads running in an Easterly direction out of Oslo parallel to the E6 is Østre Aker Vei, literally “Eastern Aker road”. We may already know that “Øst” means “East” so this helps us to remember the method to convert to “Eastern”.
• Brygge = Jetty – You need to be in the marine industry to know exactly how this would translate in English (wharf, quay, mooring, dock, etc), but jetty is probably closest. Situated in the Oslo habour is the trendy district of Aker Brygge where you will find shops, restaurants, apartments and more. (You should also be aware that Brygge can be a verb – to brew).
• Sykehus = Hospital – “Aker Sykehus” and “Akershus sykehus” (Known as A-hus) are 2 of the hospitals serving Akershus.
• Gamle Kirke = Old church – Gamle Aker kirke is one of the reasons for the name, and is the oldest existing building in Oslo.
• Bakke = Hill – Akersbakken is the hill that Gamle Aker Kirke resides on, and also the name of the adjacent road

Summary

Hopefully reading some interesting facts and making some connections in your brain between vocabulary and real world situations will help to improve your (and my) Norwegian. I have certainly learned a few things from producing this blog post, and I hope you do from reading it

Preface

It has been a while since the last one, sorry about that! I have been orienteering in England and dealing with a bout of conjunctivitis but I’m back in the office now and raring to go. Today’s phrase got a bit messy because I’m still a bit tired and out of practice – so forgive me, but also be thankful there are a few points to discuss

Today’s word: Oversvømmelse

• Translation: Flood
• Pronunciation: aw-ver-shvur-merl-ser

First attempt

Det har vært så lenge
siden jeg har skrivet
noen ting, derfor trenger jeg
en oversvømmelse av inspirasjon!
Siden jeg er ikke helt sikker om
setningen opp der, skal jeg også
sier at oversvømmelse i fjor
i England var kjempedårlig og
mange folk måtte dro fra husene deres.
Det var bra vær for ender!

Errors/Observations:

• There is not really a Norwegian equivalent for “it has been so long since” so we should stick with “it is so long since”, det er så lenge siden
• å skrive, skrev, har skrevet
• derfor does not really work here, we can replace it with at jeg trenger
• Ikke placement can be tricky, in this sentence (a subordinate clause) ikke must precede the finite verb: Siden jeg ikke er helt sikker
• Om and På can also be tricky for English speakers – here we should use sikker på
• The next sentence is a bit messy, and is better written as forige setning, or sentingen over
• “Skal jeg også sier at” is better written as vil jeg også si at. Vil and Skal can also cause some difficulties, since skal generally means “will, shall” and vil generally means “would like to, want to”. Sier should also have been in the infinitive, å si.
• kjempedårlig does not really work in this context, so we can introduce a new word: forferdelig (terrible)
• dro should be dra, as in English you would say “had to leave” not “had to left”.
• Since we are talking about their own houses, we should say husene sine, otherwise we could be referring to “their” as in anybodies houses.

Final edit:

Det er så lenge
siden jeg har skrevet
noen ting at jeg trenger
en oversvømmelse av inspirasjon!
Siden jeg ikke er helt sikker på
forrige setning, vil jeg også
si at oversvømmelse i fjor
i England var forferdelig, og
mange folk måtte dra fra husene sine.
Det var bra vær for ender!

Translation:

It has been so long since
I have written anything that
I need a flood of inspiration!
Since I'm not totally sure about
the previous sentence, I will also
say that the floods last year
in England were terrible and many
people had to leave their houses.
It was nice weather for ducks!

Even before I came to Norway, I knew that I would have problems with my name because in recent years I’ve decided to use the shortened version (Russ) rather than it’s true form (Russell). Every time people ask my name, it takes a few tries to convince them that yes, I am named after the end of year student celebrations that take place every year in Norway!

In fact, I applied for a job for the Norwegian “Russ service” web service (russ.no) which would have been pretty cool, as then I would have been russ@russ.no

Anyway, the reason I started writing this was because of the Russ is not short for Russell blog post which I’ve just read, do take a look and think of how it is for me and my name during this time of celebration and chaos.