Another question is about the use of igjennom and hverken…eller in Norwegian 7.
Usually, ‘gjennom’ means through and ‘igjennom’ is used for more abstract uses for ‘through’.
In addition, hverken…eller is usually ‘verken…eller’ (neither …nor).
Norwegian 3:
- The audio of the phrase “ah herregud” only says “ah gud”
- The audio of the phrase “kan du snakke saktere, vaer sa snill?” says “kan du snakke saktere, er du snill?”
- The audio of the vocab “Bagasjen min er for tung” says “Min bagasje er for tung”
- For the word “en dato” you have to choose between two translations “a date” of which one belongs to “en date”. If you choose this one (which can’t be distinguished from the other) you have a wrong answer.
- The audio of the phrase “å gjøre en avtale” says “å lage en avtale”
- The audio of the phrase “jeg fant ut av det” only says something like “jeg fante ut”
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I didn’t say that they were wrong, merely that using the ei article is uncommon. Of course, it is completely optional whether to use en or ei with feminine words, regardless of whether you use feminine or masculine conjugation. (I believe it is even “correct” to use ei and masculine conjugation - even if in practice this is obviously not done.)
Now the issue is really that as the course is currently made, the learners are marked as being incorrect if they write en ku or en høne - despite this actually more common than saying ei ku or ei høne.* In general however, it is good that the course teaches the existence of ei/feminine conjugations so people don’t get stumped if they come across it, but using it definitely shouldn’t be the only acceptable answer.
- You can do a google search yourself. En ku brings back about twice as many results as ei ku - the difference is much bigger for en høne/ei høne.
I’m an English speaker learning Norwegian, and I’ve noticed something odd in In Norwegian 6, Level 5.
The English terms “for the record…” and “this is off the record” are translated to “sånn helt uoffisielt” and “dette er uoffisielt”. Surely “for the record…” should translate to “sånn helt offisielt”?
That’s not a great example though as “en ku” brings back results for things other than “a cow”, and “en høne” includes Danish results. If you add “site:.no” as a modifier in the Google search, “ei ku” and “ei høne” both bring back more hits.
To honest, both those translations sound unnatural. I don’t think there’s any good direct Norwegian translation for that example.
I did some more reviewing, picked up where @Bergeton stopped.
Course 3
Level 2
Et kredittkort - A credit card:
We have two words meaning “credit card”: Bankkort (debit-credit card) and kredittkort (credit card). In most cases, we use “bankkort”, and not “kredittkort”.
kan jeg få regningen, vær så snill?
can I have the check please?
As mentioned earlier, we don’t use “vær så snill” like this. In Norwegian for “please” we either use “takk” or simply leave it out all together.But in this case this would be the most natural way to say it: “Unnskyld, kan jeg få regningen?” - “Excuse me, can I have the check?”
Level 4
kan jeg spørre deg et spørsmål?
can I ask you a question?
It sounds more natural like this: “Kan jeg stille deg et spørsmål?”
kan du snakke saktere, vær så snill?
can you speak slower please?
Again “vær så snill” is not natural. Beginning to wonder if the people that made this course used Google Translate.
The correct phrase would be: “Kan du vennligst snakke saktere?” or “Kan du snakke saktere, er du snill?”
Level 9
du burde se en lege
you should see a doctor
“Å se en lege” isn’t even grammatical, let alone natural. The translation should be: “Du burde dra til legen” - “You should go to the doctor”. If you’re going to use “se”, it should be like this: “Du burde få en lege til å se på det” - “You should have a doctor look at it”.
Level 10
gang
time
This is very misleading. The general term for “time” is “tid”. “Gang” only applies in certain situations, like: “Den gangen var jeg ganske ung” - “At that time, I was very young”. “Jeg har gjort the flere ganger” - “I have done it several times”.
“Gang” can also mean “hallway”.
Those subtleties are lost when you simply translate it like that,
farsken!
damn!
This only applies if you are from Northern Norway. It should be “faen”.
Level 12
jeg må kjøpe en gave til min mor
I have to buy a present for my mom
min mor vil også ha en klokke
my mom also wants a watch
mine barn trenger ikke flere spill
my children don’t need another video game_
While it is perfectly OK to say, it might come across as somewhat old fashioned. Younger people would probably say it like this:
- “Jeg må kjøpe en gave til moren/mora min/mi”
- “Moren/mora min/mi vil også ha en/ei klokke”
- “Barna mine trenger ikke flere spill”
Level 14
kan du gjenta det vær så snill?
can you repeat that please?
kan du kjøre meg til dette hotellet vær så snill?
can you drive me to this hotel please?
Again “vær så snill” is not used. Either drop it, or add “vennligst” after “kan du”.
Level 16
en videregående skole
a college
The English translation should be “a high school”
Level 20
fett!
sick!
A little “risky” translation, as “sick” can mean “syk”, and “fett” also can mean “fat”. In this case “fett” can also mean “awesome”, “cool” and similar expressions.
bare glem det
just forget that
"Never mind" should be the translation, unless people use “just forget that” in the same way as they use “neve mind”.
Level 31
jeg tror de vil gå og handle i stedet
I think they’ll go shopping instead
It would sound more natural with “shoppe” instead of “handle”. Usually when people use “handle”, they mean “shopping groceries”.
Level 34
ingen har
no one
I suspect you’ve tried to give word for word translation of the expressions in the end of each level, but it is really not a good way to do it. And in this case, it is plain wrong. “No one” should be “ingen”. “Ingen har” ,means “no one has”, but “no one has” does not fit with the English translation of the expression.
Level 37
ikke forlat bagasjen uten oppsyn
don’t leave your luggage unattended
"Tilsyn" is more commonly used in this case.
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Course 4
Level 1
han skal dra på museumet i ettermiddag
he’s going to go to a museum this afternoon
This is plain wrong. It should be “Han skal på museet i dag”
Level 2
vil din datter ha en utdannelse?
does your daughter want an education?
It sounds more natural (to younger people) with: “Vil datteren/dattera din/di ta en utdannelse?”.
The same goes for similar sentences, so I will not spend more time repeating myself.
Course 5
Level 1
å stå på ski
to go skiing
While this is accurate, you should also include “gå på ski”. “Stå på ski” means “alpine skiing”, while “gå på ski” means cross country skiing".
mine foreldre går fortsatt på ski
my grandparents still go skiing
The translation is wrong. Is should either be EN:“parents” or NO:“besteforeldre”
Level 3
hvorfor dro dere til Europa?
why did you go to Europe?
If travelling from Norway, we don’t say that. Norway is a part of Europe.
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Thank you.
I do not see how to post a message, so I shall reply to the welcome message.
Norwegian 3-20. Fett is “sick” in the lesson. My dictionaries give “sjuk”. Fett is always “fat”.
I have seen a few errors, this is the first one I have tried to report.
I think you are posting in the right place, actually.
Fett means awesome, too - like an English idiom “this is totally sick, dude.”
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I did some reviewing. The course has a lot of inaccuracies, so I think it would be good to read it (I’m Norwegian btw).
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I’m actually having the opposite issue. For Canadian English, we use the two terms interchangeably - underwear and underpants are the same thing.
Norwegian 3-26, spoken versus displayed:
å gjøre en avtale
å lage en avtale (spoken)
Norwegian 3-21, spoken versus displayed:
bagasjen min er for tung
min bagasje er for tung (spoken)
Dear Memrise,
There is a mistake in the translation is Norwegian 5 Lesson 1.
“we usually go abroad in the winter” is translated into Norwegian as
“vi drar som regel til utlandet” but this fails to mention the winter (om vinteren).
Kind regards,
Belphinius
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This has still not been rectified.
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