Love It When I Win At Linguistic Tic-tac-toe! Just Texted

Love it when I win at linguistic tic-tac-toe! Just texted

Er det det det heter? (“Is that what it’s called?”)

and had to reread it three times to make sure it was, in fact, a legitimate sentence. It is<3

Hallo! Hvordan har du det? Do you know of any good beginner resources for learning norsk? I've been using Duolingo, but I want to get more practice in. Like trying to translate basic sentences and stuff. Takk og ha en god dag!!!

Hei! Jeg har det fint, takk! Hvordan har du det? :)

Here are some resources you might find helpful!

Memrise is another good app/website for learning Norwegian (I've linked you to level 1 of the main course, but there are loads of other courses and vocab lists too).

Lingohut has a ton of lessons.

Sissel Ofstad has texts for levels A1-B2 (I've linked you to the A1 texts. If translating simple sentences is what you're after, this is probably the link you're looking for!)

You can try following some of the instagram accounts I've linked here.

Norskkurset on Youtube is great. The teacher speaks slowly and you can add autogenerated subtitles (which as far as I'm aware are pretty accurate). There are both grammar videos and vlog posts.

I also recommend Norsklærer Karense's YT channel. Here's a link to her beginner videos (she speaks 100% in Norwegian, but she does speak slowly and clearly). She also has a podcast (again, it's entirely in Norwegian so it might be difficult if you're still very new to the language)

This post has a ton of resources you can try out.

CALST is good for working on spoken Norwegian (especially if there's a dialect you want to try out).

If you're willing to pay for a textbook, I recommend The Mystery of Nils. If you're not, the company that makes the book has a number of free resources, and you can access the audio files of each chapter for free as well. They also run a language café every Sunday, which I've yet to actually go to, but it's free! I think you have to sign up to their mailing list if you want to join in. You can also get a free preview of the book if you're not sure it's for you.

Norwegian's also available on the apps Drops and uTalk. I'm not really big on either - they only teach vocab and functional phrases without really explaining anything, and while they're both theoretically free they limit how much you can use them without paying - but you might find them useful as a little extra something.

Jeg håper det hjelper deg! Lykke til! <3

hello again! — langblr playlists pt. II 🗺🎶

My last post lost a bit of traction so i remade it.

A while ago I shared my Spotify langblr playlists, and a lot of you seemed to like them, so i’m giving you a little update! I have since added more playlists, go and check them out if you want to!

Under the cut you will find an alphabetical list of playlists sorted by language.

As usual, note that these playlists are sorted by language, not by country, so you might notice different accents!

Keep reading

hi! could you explain when do you use “jo” in a sentence in norwegian?

Hi there! I'll certainly do my best :D

There are a couple of different ways "jo" is used in Norwegian:

1. On the contrary

One of the major failures of the English language is that it doesn't have a proper response to negative questions. For example:

"Aren't you hungry?"

If you answer "yes" to this question, technically this means "yes, I am not hungry". But we actually mean "on the contrary, yes I am hungry." And if we answer "no", it technically means "no, I am hungry". But what we actually mean is "no, I'm not hungry". It's confusing af to non-natives.

Norwegian doesn't have this problem. If someone asked this question, and I wanted to say "on the contrary, I am hungry", I would answer "jo":

"Er du ikke sulten?" "Jo, det er jeg."

It's also used in contexts such as:

"Kanskje han ikke forsto helt hva han drev med." = Maybe he didn't understand exactly what he was doing "Jo, det gjorde han." = On the contrary, he did.

2. The more you know...

"Jo" is also used in a construct "the more/less ____, the more/less ____".

"Jo eldre jeg blir, jo mindre jeg husker" = The older I get, the less I remember (#mood)

3. Emphasis

In Norwegian, there are a number of small words that are used to add emphasis to other words, such as jo, vel and nok. "Jo" is often used to indicate something that everyone knows or should know, or that the listener really should know:

"Hun er en rar person" = She's a strange person. "Hun er jo det" = She really is (and everyone knows)

"Selvfølgelig kan du be meg om hjelp. Herregud, vi er jo venner!" = Of course you can ask for help. Gosh, we are friends (and you should know that!)

Hope that helps! Feel free to send me another ask/message if you're still unsure :)

do you have any tips for learning Norwegian? I'm a beginner.

hello there! :)

i’ll try my best to tell you what i do to learn the language and what i think is important. if anyone has something else to add, please feel free to do it! 

first, it’s really important that you focus on grammar, vocab and your listening and speaking skills. try to find a balance! people will argue that it’s more important to do grammar than vocab or the other way around, but i never thought i had to choose between the two.. i just study grammar one day and vocab the next one. it’s just really important to do both. listening and speaking skills are also super important because they will let you communicate with natives in real life. now i’ll just tell you what i use and how i tend to study!

What I Use:

(or i should say, resources i have saved)

Duolingo: [grammar and vocab] great way to start!!! it sometimes feel like the sentences are useless but they teach you vocabulary and basic grammar, which i think is great.

Memrise: [vocab] so good for vocab! easy to use on the go.

Babbel: [grammar, vocab, speaking, listening] i think it’s one of my favourite apps/websites. it is not free but it’s very well made and it explains grammar much better than duolingo does.

Readlang: [reading] (i don’t use it that much) but you can find many texts written in norwegian to practice reading. it can be really useful, especially if you have a bit of a hard time finding books

Forvo: [listening and speaking] this website lets people record themselves say words so you can listen to them. it shows you the real pronunciation of words (i mean when compared to google translate) and tells you where the speaker is from (which is important with norwegian and its dialects)

NTNU’s Norwegian on the Web: [grammar, vocab, listening] haven’t actually used this one yet, but it’s made by a university in trondheim so i guess it’s not bad!

UiO’s Future Learn Introduction to Norwegian: [grammar, vocab, listening] i took this free online class a couple of months ago and i don’t know when it will be available again, but it was so great! they have videos and grammar lessons, so you have a good balance between grammar and real life use of norwegian.

Get Started in Norwegian / Complete Norwegian / Enjoy Norwegian: [grammar, vocab, listening] i absolutely love these books! i put links to buy them, but maybe you can find a way to download them online. they explain grammar really well and they have exercises to practice what you learn.

Assimil’s Le Norvégien: [grammar, reading, listening] don’t know if available in another language than french. also really great! a good mix of reading, listening and writing!

På Vei (A1-A2) / Stein På Stein (B1) / Her På Berget (B2): [grammar, vocab] my favourite at the moment, i downloaded all the textbooks and exercise books on Scribd and you can find download links here too. i absolutely love them! the first one is kind of childish but the grammar rules are well explained and the textbooks let you read more.

Klar Tale: [reading] news (from norway and around the world) written in simple words. that’s how i first started reading in norwegian and it’s helped me a lot!

How I Study:

Taking notes: after i’m done with a duolingo or memrise lesson or after i learned something new in my grammar books, i like to write down the new words, grammar concepts and other things like that down in my notebook. it helps me remember stuff more easily and helps me review!

Flashcards: helps me learn verbs and vocab. also super easy to bring with you when you want to study on the bus or when you’re waiting somewhere!

Watching TV Shows/Movies: there are quite a lot of norwegian tv shows on netflix, like Nobel, Okkupert, Lillehammer or Øyevitne. and obviously Skam (not on netflix though). when i can, i like to watch the episode with norwegian subtitles to see the words as i’m hearing them. then i watch the episode again with english subs to see what i understood (or didn’t understand).

Listening to music/podcasts: you can find a bunch of norwegian playlist on spotify and it helps so much with your listening skills! I like to read the lyrics while i listen to songs because i can associate the sounds with the written words (and the other way around). i also like the nrk-skampod, because it’s fun and the people on the podcasts speak a variety of dialects.

Reading the news: i like to read the articles, sum them up and write down the words i don’t know. Look up the words and then read the article again to see if i understand it better.

Writing: keep a journal or write to natives (or other learners), because even if you memorize 100 grammar rules by heart, if you never apply them in real context, you won’t learn/remember them. believe me, the natives on this website are really nice and they want to help us learn!

Speaking: i speak to myself (and my cat) a lot, when doing my lessons or when i’m getting ready in the morning. i’m too shy to speak to natives so that’s the best way i found to actually practice my speaking! it’s weird, yes, but effective.

In the End, What Is Important:

obviously you might not have time to study everyday, but i believe it’s important to be around the language at least 20 to 30 minutes a day. sometimes i’m able to sit down and write notes and be really productive. other days, all i can do is listen to music on the way to school/work. i’m rarely able to do grammar, learn vocab, practice my listening or speaking skills all in one day, but i try my best to do everything in the course of a week! it’s better to do a bit every day, than to study 5 hours straight once a week!

That’s it!!

I’m sorry that got so long and i really hope that answers your question. If somehow it didn’t, send me another message and i’ll try my best to answer it :)

Norwegian 

Pronunciation Notes

Hi guys! Recently I watched a video about the pronunciation of Norwegian letters that was very helpful and I took some notes so here they are! this will be divided into the sections presented in the video :)

Here is the youtube video

basics:

there are 20 consonants 

there are 9 vowels: a, e, i, o, u, y, æ, ø, å

stress of a word is usually on the first syllable

rarely used letters

mostly used in loan words

q pronounced like k or kv

w pronounced like v

x pronounced like s or ks

z pronounced like s

silent letters

d

ld: kald -> kal

nd: hånd -> hån

rd: bord -> bor

silent at end of word after vowel; med -> me

g

gj: gjøre -> jøre

ig: hyggelig -> hyggeli

h

h and a consonant 

hjeple -> jelpe

hvor -> vor

t

after definite singular*

bordet -> borde

*I am not quite sure what a definite singular is, if you know feel free to share

when is o pronounced like å?

o is o when it’s sound is long, ex. oo sound

before 0 or 1 consonant

ex. mor, to

o is å when it’s sound is short, ex. o sound

before 2 or more consonants

ex. kommer, norge

before g or v

ex. tog, sov

that is all I have for today! I hope this helps someone as it helped me! if you would like further clarification or think something could be worded better go ahead and let me know!

remember to spread positivity and love :)

April 2, 2021