Jo!
Lilu came home the other day saying ‘Jo!’, pronounced yoo. I had no clue what she was meaning. I had to look it up in my English-Norwegian dictionary. It said jo just means ‘yes’ but I was sure there was something more to it than that. Lilu was using joooo with a whinny or angry voice. She was using it all afternoon and I cottoned onto the fact that jo must be used to argue. No you can’t have another ice cream – jo! No you can’t play with my mobile phone – jo! No you can’t… – jo, jo, jo! Jo is like a denying yes. I’m sure I’ll be learning a lot of interesting and colourful words from all the barnehage (childcare) kids.
by in category Living, Quirks & Tickles
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Seriously one of my favorite Norwegian expressions! I think it sounds a lot better than the “yeah-huh!” I usually say in English.
That was one of the first Norwegian words I learned! Yes, No, and yes-no
I think it’s great cos in English it’s so confusing when you ask a negative question like “Aren’t you going to eat that?” and they answer “Yes”, and you’re thinking “Yes you will, or yes you won’t??”.. whereas in Norway you have a word for contradicting!
I hear “jo, da” a lot and I find it funny cos it always makes me think of Yoda
Yes, I had problem with this also, but I’m getting used to it and using it more and more now. Kids are the best to learn from
Interesting however that jo in my mother tongue (hungarian) means good.
This is what we just learn at norskkurs..at least tried to learn. It was hard for the teacher to tell us what “jo” exactly means. Somehow we confused her a lot.
But I hear my husband and his sister a lot saying eachother ‘nei’ ‘joo’ ‘nei’ ‘jo!’ it sounds fun
I guess it something I have to “learn by heart” as my norsk teacher explains for all non-rule stuff in norwegian language…”Oh theres actually no specific rule for how to make this sentence..you have to learn it by heart”!
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from L-Jay:
Norwegian is hard for me as I always want to use logic and patterns to help myself understand but a lot of the times there are none. I think Norskkursere are making things difficult because they teach standard and conversational Norwegian together. I find they add in phrases and words that aren’t generally used i daily life either. I think ‘well, this must be an important word to learn as it is in the course book’ but Moose would just laugh at some of the things they were trying to get me to learn.
Since moving to Alta I haven’t been back. I find that you need breaks so you can live the language before going onto the next level.
Happy learning
This was one of the hardest words for me to wrap my head around when I was learning Norwegian. But like Samantha said, once you get it, it makes so much fun and you wish there was an equivalent for English. Yoda! I love it!
I still use “jo” and I live in Amerika. Farmor is a pro at using “jo” I’m surprised you hadn’t encountered it before.
I asked my Norwegian husband about this and he said… “this must be an expression only used in the north”…. is this true!? or has he forgotten his norwegian!?!?
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from L-Jay:
No, Moose said it is used everywhere. As a reference, your husband might remember Kardemomme by? It is a children’s book/play and has ‘jo!’ in it as a feature. It was written by the author, Thor Bjørn Egner, who was from the South and is a reflection about a town he lived in. (In fact, the town is now part of a zoo themepark.)