Continuous action, infinitive, imperative and genitive

Continuous Action

In English, to express that something is happening currently, we use the present continuous (also called “progressive”) form of the verb (i.e. adding -ing at the end; for example, “I am reading a book.”). Norwegian does not have this form so in order to express such a concept they either use the present tense (i.e. “Jeg leser en bok”), or they add “sitte,” “ligge,” and “stå” to add emphasis. Which verb is used is dependent on the position of the person performing the action. Let’s look at some examples:

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Adjectives (part 3)

This section on adjectives, we will cover a few challenging adjectives for learners, as well as adjectival nouns. You can find the previous lessons on adjectives here and here.

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Adjectives (part 2)

As we learned in the previous lesson, in Norwegian adjectives agree with the number and gender of the noun and that the plural form is the same across all genders. However, there are many irregular adjectives, which we’ll go over a few today. We’ll also go over comparatives and superlatives.

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Adjectives (part 1)

In Norwegian, adjectives must always agree with the number and gender of the noun. The plural form of the adjective is the same across all genders. The adjective also has two declensions: indefinite and definite. Unfortunately, there are many irregulars.

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Participles, Perfects, Conditionals

Present Participle

The present participle, in Norwegian, is the ending -ende. This is equivalent to the English -ing, however unlike in English, it is not used as frequently. In English, -ing can be used to denote a continuous action, however that is not the case in Norwegian (with a small exception you will see in this lesson). For information on continuous action, see this lesson.

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Present, past and future tense

Verb conjugation in Norwegian is fairly easy (and in my opinion, easier than many other languages). Unlike languages like Spanish, Norwegian only conjugates for time, not also for person. There are regular and irregular verbs, and unfortunately with irregular verbs, the only option is to simply memorize them.

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Geography

Norway is located in Northern Europe and is the western and northern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula (the geographical coordinates are 62°N 10°E). The population of Norway is 5.328.212. Norway is bordered by the North Sea to the southwest, the Skagerrak inlet to the south, the North Atlantic Ocean (aka Norwegian Sea) to the west, and the Barents Sea to the northeast. Norway shares a border with Sweden and with a small part of Finland (northeast), and even further northeast, a tiny part of Russia.

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Syttende mai and cooking vocabulary

Syttende Mai

In 1814, Norway’s Constitution was signed in Eidsvoll, declaring its independence from Denmark, although full independence wouldn’t happen until 1905, as it entered into a personal union with Sweden shortly after the signing. The first official celebration of 17. mai (Grunnlovsdagen) actually took place in Denmark. At the time, the former Norwegian interim king, Christian Frederik was exiled to Denmark to serve as General Governor of Fyn (he would later serve as the King of Denmark). While there, he organized the first celebration of 17. mai in 1815.

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Weather vocabulary

Norway’s Climate

Norway is a long country with different types of terrain features. The southeast area of Norway has a lot of forests and hills. The west has fjords, mountains, and glaciers; the middle of Norway has many glaciers, and the north has fjords, mountains, and glaciers also. The Scandinavian Mountain range stretches from the south to the north which has led to the formation of many valleys throughout the country.

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Dialects

One of the more challenging aspects of learning Norwegian is the varying dialects. While Norway has two written standards, bokmål and nynorsk, there is no spoken standard. For Norwegian learners, this can sometimes make listening comprehension a difficult thing to master. For the more advanced learner, they may want to pick a dialect to learn and use, so they sound more “natural” when speaking Norwegian.

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