Innledning

Velkommen til norskleksjon 130! One of the hard things I find when learning to speak Norwegian is that I don’t know what gender I’m using until I get to the noun and then the beginning of my sentence is usually wrong.  It means that I have to think of the gender of the noun first before I can construct the sentence to say.  Meanwhile my talking companion is waiting for all this mental process to happen before they can get a reply from me.  This can be very frustrating and it often makes me want to stop speaking Norwegian because if I just say it in English everything happens much quicker.  I think this is one of the reasons I’m a better writer and reader of Norwegian rather than speaker and listener because I can do it at my own pace without someone waiting for me.  But how long does it really take you to learn Norwegian?  Don’t believe those who tell you they learnt Norwegian (or know somebody who learnt Norwegian) in just six months – unless they are Swedish or German, that is.  As far as I’ve seen it takes about 8 years of constantly living the language to be almost good as a Norwegian.

Becoming familiar with Norwegian is the key to learning more.  The more you get used to the look of the words, the sound of the words and how to say them, the more you can learn.  It took me about a year before I felt comfortable with the way things looked.  Now I’m used to seeing words with no (English) vowels and I don’t get so chocked up when I see ‘øy’ when reading.  The longer you keep at it the better you will be – but it sure helps a hec of a lot to be consistent with your learning.

So – let me now just burst your Norwegian learning mind by introducing verb tenses!  They are freaky and require a lot of effort but I guess in the end they are worth it.  (However, I find I don’t need to speak in past tense in daily life unless I want to tell a story.)  But anyways, see this lesson as an adventure.  Don’t worry, I’ll slowly ease you into the deep end so you will know how to swim before your head goes under ;D

Cheers!

Norwegian Lesson 130

Learn Norwegian Podcast! – Hello & Good-Bye

In this section we have a new feature to our Norwegian Lessons – a Learn Norwegian Podcast.  This is our first edition and we will be covering all the basics from our Learn Norwegian page on the blog.  This is our practise ground to hone and refine our podcasts.  Then we will be moving onto making podcasts to specifically balance the Norwegian Lesson series.

We’d like to thank George from Cyprus for giving us some good tips and ideas.  We hope we have done you proud ;D.

NOTE: To download our podcasts you will need to subscribe via email or RSS.  Cheers!

 

Number one thing to do from the beginning of this lesson is to keep a verb tense table.  Create one in a word or spreadsheet doc which can expand and be added to as you go – like this:

130.1

So far, throughout the Norwegian Lessons series we have been using present tense verbs,  such as:

leser

skriver

spiser

snakker

We have also learnt about the infinitive forms of verbs, such as:

å lese

å skrive

å spise

å snakke

And lastly we have leant these words as commands or in imperative form, such as:

les!

skriv!

spis!

snakk!

This week we will be learning the past tense and present perfect forms of verbs.

Presens/Present Tense
Present tense describes an action that is happening in present time.  Norwegian present tense is simpler than English, as three meanings in English match one in Norwegian, such as:

Hun leser.
- She is reading.
- She reads.
- She does read.

As you may have noticed, present tense verbs are patterned by adding ‘-r’ to the end of the infinitive form, as in the above example: leser – skriver – spiser – snakker.  However, we have also come across a few irregular present tense verbs:

å gjøre – gjør

å spørre – spør

å være – er

We have also learnt five other special verbs called ‘modalverb’ in Norwegian.  These modalverb are also irregular, as they do not follow the ‘-r’ ending pattern when in present tense: vil – kan – må – skal – bør

Oversett
a. Oversett disse setningene til norsk:

I’m reading a book.

I’m writing a letter now.

I’m eating an orange.

I’m talking with Sam.

I will read a book.

I should write a letter now.

I will eat an orange.

I must talk with Sam.

130.2

Preteritum/Past Tense
There are two types of past tense verbs in Norwegian – regular and irregular.  The regular tense verbs are put into four groups of different endings:

Group 1: ‘-et’

Group 2: ‘-te’

Group 3: ‘-de’

Group 4: ‘-dde’

There is a rough pattern to these groups and most often the major vowel in the word stays the same through out the tenses – however, there are always exceptions.  In most cases the ending gets added to the imperative form of the verb.

Group 1
In this group ‘-et’ is added to the end of the imperative form to make it into past tense.  As a rough guide, verbs that have a double consonant at the end when in imperative form are put into this group:

snakker – snakket

vasker – vasket

lager – laget

Group 2
In this group ‘-te’ is added to the end of the imperative form to make it into past tense.  As a rough guide, verbs that have one consonant at the end when in imperative form fit into this category:

leser – leste

spiser – spiste

forteller – fortalte

Group 3
In this group ‘-de’ is added to the end of the verb to make it into past tense.  This group is a little smaller than the other two and doesn’t have a good enough rough guide – memory is best:

bygger – bygde

prøver – prøvde

bør – burde

Group 4
In this group ‘-dde’ is added to the end of the imperative form to make it into past tense.  Memory is the key to knowing which verbs fall into this group:

bor – bodde

har – hadde

betyr – betydde

Uregelmessige verb/Irregular Verb
Irregular verbs are verbs that don’t fit into the past tense groups.  This is often because their major verb changes when in another tense:

går – gikk

skriver – skrev

gjør – gjorde

So… How do you know which verb goes into what group?  Memory and practise.  Because there are so many exceptions to the rules the best way is by study, memorising and constant reminders by your fellow Norwegians.  Practise and practise and practise is the only way you will get the correct grammar.  Norwegians have lived with these words, so they are second nature, but to a Norwegian learner sweat and perseverance is the only way – and maybe a photographic memory, if you’re lucky.

Skriv
a. Skriv disse setningene i preteritum form.  Svar er under.

Jeg spiser pizza.
Jeg drikker kaffe.
James kommer fra Norge.
Sally leser ei bok.
Jon og Ian snakker.
Don skriver på papir.
Julie går.
Tom og Kevin ser på tv.

130.3

Perfektum/Present Perfect
Present perfect is when the present tense ‘have’ is used with a past tense verb.  Using this tense, each verb group including irregular verbs change.

Gruppe 1
In this group the preteritum form and perfektum form are the same:

snakker – snakket – har snakket

vasker – vasket – har vasket

lager – laget – har laget

Gruppe 2
In this group the verb drops the ‘e’ on the preteritum form:

leser – leste – har lest

spiser – spiste – har spist

forteller – fortalte – har fortalt

Gruppe 3
In this group the ‘e’ is dropped from the preteritum form:

bygger – bygde – har bygd

prøver – prøvde – har prøvd

krever – krevde – har krevd

Gruppe 4
In this group the ‘e’ is dropped from the preteritum form:

bor – bodde – har bodd

har – hadde – har hatt

betyr – betydde – har betydd

Notice the ‘tt’ on har hatt – you just can’t trust Norwegian…lol.

Uregelmessige/Irregular
This group adds a ‘tt’ to the end of the infinitive form but – of course, there are so many rule breakers:

går – har gått

skriver – har skrevet

gjør – gjorde – har gjort

Skriv
a. Skriv disse setningene i perfektum form.  Svar er under.

Jeg spiser pizza.
Jeg drikker kaffe.
James kommer fra Norge.
Sally leser ei bok.
Jon og Ian snakker.
Don skriver på papir.
Julie går.
Tom og Kevin ser på tv.

Svar

130.2

Jeg spiste pizza.
Jeg drakk kaffe.
James kom fra Norge.
Sally leste ei bok.
Jon og Ian snakket.
Don skrev på papir.
Julie gikk.
Tom og Kevin så på tv.

________________

130.3

Jeg har spist pizza.
Jeg har drukket kaffe.
James har kommet fra Norge.
Sally har lest ei bok.
Jon og Ian har snakket.
Don har skrevet på papir.
Julie har gått.
Tom og Kevin har sett på tv.

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