Professional Documents
Culture Documents
2015
Duolingo:Basics
Tipsandnotes
AHEARTFELTWELCOMETOTHENORWEGIANCOURSE!
NorwegianisalanguagewithsimplergrammarthanmanyotherEuropeanlanguages,butitisstilla
genderedlanguagewiththreegrammaticalgenders:masculine,feminineandneuter.
GrammaticalGender
Masculine
enmann
Feminine
eiORenkvinne
Neuter
etbarn
aman
awoman
achild
Allfemininegenderednounscanbeclassifiedasmasculinegenderaswell.
Intheory,onecouldtreatallfemininenounsasmasculineones,butmost
Norwegiansstillusethefeminineform,especiallyforcertainwords.
Thechoicereallyisuptoyou!Bothenkvinneandeikvinnearegrammaticallycorrect,andthe
tendencytousethefemininegenderdependsongeographyanddialect.Wehavedecidedtoteachit
whereitismostnaturaltouseit,withwordssuchasjentemeaninggirl,forexample.
Pronouns
NorwegianpronounsareverystraightforwardandcorrespondwelltoEnglishones:
Singular
jeg
Plural
vi
we
du
you
dere
you(plural)
han/hun/det
he/she/it
de
they
Verbs
Conjugationcouldn'tbesimpler.Allconjugatedverbshaveanrsteminthepresent,andverbsdon't
changeaccordingtothesubject!Howeasyisthat?
Singular
jeger
Iam
Plural
vier
weare
duer
youare
dereer
you(plural)are
han/hun/deter
he/she/itis
deer
theyare
Althoughnotascommonasdet,denisusedtomeanitorthatwhenreferringtoamasculineor
femininesubject,andnotaneuterone.
Pronunciation
Asageneralrule,wordsarespelledasthey'repronouncedinNorwegian.Oneexceptioniswords
beginningwithhv,suchashva,meaningwhat.Inthisword,thehissilent.
Inaddition,thereareseverallettersandlettercombinationsthatarepronounceddifferentlyfrom
English.
Norweg.
A
IPA,Notes
[],veryopen
[b]
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18.08.2015
Duolingo:Basics
[s]or[k]dependingonword,veryrare
[d],silentinconsonantclusters
[e]or[],[]beforer,[i]inde
[f]
[g],[j]beforeanisilentbeforeajsilentafteraniandsometimesanaoro
[h],silentbeforev
[i]liketheeinemailorebook,[]beforetwoconsonants
[j],liketheyinyesoryellow
[k]
kj,ki,ky
[],likethesharphinhuman
skj,ski,sky, [],liketheshinshiporshell
sl
L
[l]
[m]
[n]
[u]liketheooinsoon,butlonger,[]beforetwoconsonants
[p]
[],tap,likethettinNorthAmericanbuttersomeinNorwayuse[],theso
calledFrenchR
rs
[],r+scombinationsproduceshsound,evenbetweenwords
[s]
[t],silentafteranesometimes,ex.det
[],liketheewinnew,butmoreclosed
[v]
[y]or[],liketheeinemail,butmoreclosed
Norwegianalsohasthreespecialvowels,,and.
Letter SimilarTo
theainaddorapple
IPA
[]
norealequivalent,butnotfarfromthevowelsoundsinbirdorearth
[]or[]
theoinopenorold
[o]or[]
SpecialNotesonCommonWords
Norweg.
jeg
Meaning
I
Pronunciation
yai,rhymeswithEnglishguy
er
am,is,are
r,similartoEnglisharebutwithtappedr
det
it,that
deh,silentt
de
they
dee
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