Introduction

Velkommen til Norwegian Lesson 102! As a warm up for each lesson it is good to practise the sounds of the alphabet a couple of times.  We will add new sound files at certain intervals of your learning.

Language changes all the time and often breaks all the rules.  When you think you have grammar down pat then comes along an irregular verb, phrase or sentence that just throws everything out the window.  In Norwegian (like English) there are general rules for grammar but then there are also many exceptions.  As we are learning the basics we don’t want to get caught up in all the exceptions – we will face them in natural progression, but for now we will delve into the ‘present’ with very simple ideas to grammar.  (But make sure you are ready to face a broken rule.  Sometimes it is a great benefit to be able to accept irregular grammar for what it is as most times there is no logic to it at all.)

Norwegian Lesson 102

Instruction:
The below are the Norwegian commands from Norwegian Lessons 101 plus some extra ones to signify active learning tasks.

Les (Read) – Skriv (Write) – Si (Say) – Lytt (Listen) – Øv (Practise) – Spørsmål (Questions) – Fortelling (Story)
new:
Finn (Find) – Øvelse (Exercise) – Lydøvelse (Sound Practise) –
Grammatikk (Grammar) – Uttale (Pronunciation)

Gloser

Lydøvelse
It is important to practise the sounds of the Alphabet.  Below is an audio for you to practise with.  There is space for you to repeat each sound.

a – b – c – d – e – f – g – h – i – j – k – l – m – n – o – p – q – r – s – t – u – v – w – x – y – z – æ – ø – å

102.1

Les
a. Reading the dialogue below.

Norsk Dialog
Nina:  Hei!  Hvordan går det?
Hans:  Fint, og du?
Nina:  Jeg har det bra.
Nina:  Jeg heter Nina.  Hva heter du?
Hans:  Jeg heter Hans.
Nina:  Hvor kommer du fra?
Hans:  Jeg kommer fra Alta.
Nina:  Jeg er fra Oslo.

Finn
b. What are the three types of personal pronouns used in the dialogue?  Can you find all ten?

Uttale – Jeg og Det
Usually in Norwegian you pronounce every letter.  Of course there are some exceptions and ‘jeg’ and ‘det’ are two of them.  ‘jeg’ has the special sound ‘jai’ (yai) – the ‘e’ has an ‘ai’ sound and the ‘g’ is silent.  This also applies to the other similar words ‘meg’, ‘seg’ and ‘deg’ (me, him/her/itself, and you).  With ‘det’ the ‘t’ is silent which turns the sound into ‘deh’.

Lytt
c. Listen for the ‘jeg’ and ‘det’ sounds in the dialogue:

Les
d. Read the above dialogue concentrating on the correct sound for ‘jeg’ and ‘det’.

Finn
e. Each complete sentence in the dialogue above has a verb.  There are eight in total – what are they?

102.2

Grammatikk – i sentinger

Basic Statement Sentences structure:

And…

The Subject in Sentences
The ‘subject’ can be a personal pronoun, nouns, or a collection of nouns that orientates the reader to who or what the sentence is about.  Notice where the subject is in the statement-sentences below.  The subject comes first in all basic statement-sentences.

Jeg har det bra.
Hans har det bra.
The Amazing Dog har det bra.
Jeg heter Hans.
The Amazing Dog heter Chuck.

Verbs in Sentences
Verbs are the ‘doing’ words in a sentence.  In the sentences below the verbs are highlighted.  Notice how the verbs in the sentences are second:  However verbs aren’t necessarily the second word but the second piece of information.  This is the grammar of all complete statement sentences, as below:

Jeg har det bra.
Hans har det bra.
The Amazing Dog har det bra.
Jeg heter Hans.
The Amazing Dog heter Chuck.
Mooses addition:
(The Amazing Dog with a broken leg chewing on a stick heter Chuck.)

In Question-word Sentences:

And…

Verbs in Question-word Sentences
Question-words are: Who, Where, What, How, When, Which and Why.  In question-word sentences the verb is also placed second in the sentence (and usually the second word too), as below:

Hva heter du?
Hvor kommer du fra?

Personal Pronouns in Question-word Sentences
Every question-word sentence has a personal pronoun or noun which always comes after the verb in the sentence, as below:

Hva heter du?
Hva heter Dan?
Hvor kommer du fra?
Hvor kommer The Amazing Dog fra?

102.3

Skriv
a. Write an introduction dialogue between two people named Anna and Eva.

Øvelse!
b. In the ‘comments’ section below help us start a ‘greeting chain’.  First greet the person in the comment above you, tell them how you are, introduce yourself, say where you are from,  ask how the next commenter is.