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!

• English translation: Fast, rapid, quick
• Pronunciation: hewt-ti

First attempt

Om sommeren i England
noe tid i August er det et veldig stort, og veldig
fint arrangement som heter "RIAT".
Når vi bodde i England, prøvde vi alltid
å besøke det fordi det var kjempe morsomt å
se på alle de hurtigefly som kom fra
mange land :o)

Errors/Observations:

• I wasn’t sure about the first sentence as I wanted to say “during the Summer, some time in August” but that does not really work the same way in Norwegian. Adding a few commas and changing it to “en helg i August” works in this case.
• Similarly in English, adding veldig before every adjective in a sentence is a little bit “over-emphasising”, so the latter one(s) can be skipped
• kjempe morsomt – this is one of those joining up word scenarios! Quite often with kjempe followed by an adjective, the words can be joined – in this case kjempemorsomt
• One last error, and it’s a bit of a noob mistake as we were doing so well… we are talking about a definitive collection of aircraft “de hurtige…” so we must add “ene” to form de hurtigeflyene
• Når changes to Da – see comments below

Final edit:

Om sommeren i England,
en helg i August, er det et veldig stort, fint arrangement 
som heter "RIAT".
Da vi bodde i England, prøvde vi alltid
å besøke det fordi det var kjempemorsomt å
se på alle de hurtige flyene som kom fra
mange land :o)

Translation:

During the Summer in England, one weekend in August,
there is a very big, fine show/arrangement called "RIAT".
When we lived in England, we always tried to visit it because
it was really fun to see all the fast planes that came
from many countries :o)

Link: RIAT – The Royal International Air Tattoo

• English Translation: superfluous, redundant
• Pronunciation: aw-verr-flur-di

Hver dag jeg prøver å lære
litt mer norsk, men jeg synes
det er veldig viktig å lære
nødvendig ord først!
Dagens ord er "overflødig"...
Kan du se hva jeg gjurde der? :o)

Errors/observations:

• Sentence order failure, jeg prøver should be prøver jeg. The verb should come “second” in the sentence, but this doesn’t mean that the first thing has to be a single word – it could also be a word group or sentence fragment.
• An interesting point – when written, using men in this sentence may be seen as too negative in relation to the first part of the sentence, and maybe it should be og. This provoked some discussion, and I’d appreciate comments on that! I believe that when spoken it’s no problem because the emphasis on the word men is what defines the tone of the sentence. When written, maybe the sentence could be reworded.
• Since we are generally talking about some specific necessary words, we should say de nødvendige ordene
• Nødvendig (necessary) is perhaps not the best word to use here, I would rather have said something else but couldn’t think of another word! Nyttig (useful) was offered up as an alternative.

Corrected text:

Hver dag prøver jeg å lære
litt mer norsk, men jeg synes
det er veldig viktig å lære de
nyttige ordene først!
Dagens ord er "overflødig"...
Kan du se hva jeg gjurde der? :o)

Translation:

Every day I try to learn a bit
more Norwegian, but I think it's
very important to learn the more useful
words first! Todays word is "superfluous"...
Can you see what I did there? :o)

• English translation: Movement, motion
• Pronunciation: beh-vay-gerl-ser

My attempt

I dag var jeg spurt å skrive om "bevegelse". 
Kan jeg stoppe nå? Nei... Jeg trodde det ikke!
Kanskje jeg kan fortelle dere om de
bevegelse i magen, eller alle bevegelse
i går på volleyball trening? Hmm... Hva om
den nye politisk bevegelsen som
skal ta over verden?! Ja, først Norge,
så verden.... hahaha!

Errors/observations:

• var should be ble. This is a tough one to get used to, and I need to do some more research on that really
• spurt å skrive should be spurt om å skrive
• Kan jeg stoppe nå is a bit strange and needs context, since it implies stopping motion, so kan jeg stoppe å skrive nå works better
• trodde det ikke should be trodde ikke det – position of ikke in a sentence can sometimes be tricky and will be discussed in a later blog post
• i magen – left like this it could be any stomach, but I want to talk about my own stomach so should say magen min. This can be a bit confusing sometimes, since often you can leave that part out if it is obvious.
• de bevegelse – since I’m talking about the specific movements in my stomach, I should use bevegelsene here
• volleyball trenning – in Norwegian if words sound like they can “roll” together, they can probably be written together! volleyballtrening
• Also, since I’m talking about the specific volleyball training yesterday, it should be volleyballtreningen
• In Norwegian, when you are asking about something, you use hva med not hva om. It sounds strange to translate into English (what with) but it’s just one of those things!
• A common mistake that I make when I’m sloppy, since I am talking about a defnite political movement (THE new political movement) the adjective should take the definitive form by adding an “e” to the end, in this case politiske

Corrected text:

I dag ble jeg spurt om å skrive om "bevegelse". 
Kan jeg stoppe å skrive nå? Nei... Jeg trodde ikke det!
Kanskje jeg kan fortelle dere om
bevegelsene i magen min, eller alle bevegelsene
i går på volleyballtreningen? Hmm... Hva med
den nye politiske bevegelsen som
skal ta over verden?! Ja, først Norge,
så verden.... hahaha!

Translation:

Today I was asked to write about "motion".
Can I stop writing now? No I didn't think so!
Maybe I can tell you about the motions in my stomach,
or all the motion yesterday at volleyball training? Hmm...
What about the new political movement that shall take
over the world?! Yes, first Norway, then the world.... Hahaha!

• 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 :)

• 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

• 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.

I have lived in Norway for a year and a half now, and I really am not using the language enough. Recently I started doing “word of the day” where I’d flick through my small dictionary, find a word I didn’t know and write it on the whiteboard. All day I would glance at it and commit it to memory – thus slowly increasing my vocabluary.

The problems with this approach soon became apparent, progress was slow, I was forgetting some of the words a few days later, and crucially they were not helping me to progress with my grammar, or help me to structure sentences for talking, which is my weakest area at the moment

So “Phrase of the day” is born – somebody (normally a Norwegian colleague) will pick a word, I then (without help) have to make a phrase or sentence to put that word into context. We then discuss the mistakes and I am more likely to remember the word. I hope to bring a new phrase as often as possible, and if you are interested, you can subscribe to an rss feed: just the phrases, or everything I come across whilst learning Norwegain. Since I am learning this from an English perspective, these phrases may be useful to highlight “common pitfalls for English speakers”.

Today’s word: et rekkverk

• English: a railing
• Pronunciation: rehk-værk

First attempt:

I går var jeg på besøk
hos Trysil. Jeg lånt 
et snøbredd og var nesten
drept når jeg treffet
et rekkverk med hodet mitt!

Errors/observations:

• “hos Trysil” should be “i Trysil” – hos is a little bit like chez in French, it means “at” but really means “at the house of” or “at the place of”. When talking about a generic place we use “i” for “in” or “på” for on/at. Unfortunately these can sometimes be confusing, as with English. For example I live in Oslo but at Bjerke. (i Oslo men på Bjerke).
• lånt is past perfect, here we should use lånte which is past participle
• snøbredd is mis-spelled, and should be snøbrett (was a guess)
• var should be ble – In English we would say “I was almost killed” but in Norwegian you use “I became almost killed”
• når should be da – A slip here because I knew this. Når and da can cause confusion for English speakers who would use “when” in both situations. There is a good blog post about this here: http://www.transparent.com/norwegian/2009/02/22/da-da-da/
• å treffe is an irregular verb – past tense is traff
• hodet mitt is unnecessary because in this context, it is obvious you are talking about your own head!

So the correct (I think) text:

I går var jeg på besøk
i Trysil. Jeg lånte 
et snøbrett og ble nesten
drept da jeg traff
et rekkverk med hodet!

Translation:

Yesterday I was visiting
Trysil. I borrowed
a snowboard and was almost
killed when I met
a railing with my head!