1. Norwegian for Genealogy and Everyday Use
Tre Lag Stevne
Austin, MN
2018 August 10
John Reindl

2. Is this relevant?
No - We now have Google translate and better scanners
Yes- Still useful: while Google translate is good with some Bokmål, it is not perfect
Yes - Genealogy has own jargon – some are ‘old’ words
Yes -There are lots of dialects
Yes - Scanning and translating cumbersome
But, obiously, it is not possible to teach – or learn – a foreign language in a single seminar session.

3. Three Really Helpful Web Pages
offers a variety of very useful resources, all for free.
free interactive site to learn Bokmål
Super site for genealogical terms including causes of death
Also You Tube – one in 3 minutes ! Another – learn 1000 words while you sleep (5 hours+), or phrases (8 hours!)

4. And, Now, the Boring Part – Grammar
I have studied 10 foreign languages. For Norwegian, this was about 3 years in community college and 1 summer in Norway
Grammar sets up the framework. Then, is just a matter of filling in the vocabulary
I can send you an eight page write up and these overheads.

5. Norwegian is SIMPLE!! Comparatively, that is.
Very similar sentence structure to English
Many similar words to English
NO conjugating of verbs – ever!!
Most verbs follow regular forms
Noun forms are generally regular
NO noun cases!!

6. Some exceptions to simple
Nouns have gender – masculine, feminine, neuter
there are 3 letters not in English – å, æ and ø
spelling is not a constant, both with some consonants and some vowels
Togstad = Tokstad
Bækken = Bekken
Håkon = Haakon

7. Some exceptions to simple (cont’d)
There are also two offical forms of Norwegian – Bokmål and Nynorsk – and at least 2-3 dozen dialects

8. Nouns - Singular Indefinite forms (“a”) masculine an automobile en bil
neuter
a window
et vindu
feminine
a door
ei dør

9. Nouns - Singular Definite forms (“the”) the automobile bilen
the window
vinduet
the door
døra

10. Nouns - Plural Indefinite Definite automobiles biler windows vinduer
doors
dører
Definite
the automobiles
bilene
the windows
vinduene
the doors
dørene

11. Nouns – Last page
To make possessive, add an ‘s’ unless it already ends in ‘s’
There are a few irregular plurals
bok  bøker
mann  menn
Bottom line – nouns have regular forms and, as seen, many are similar to English

12. Verbs – No Conjugation! Most are regular Great web page is Infinitive
Present
English
komme
kommer
come ha
har
have se
ser
see
like
liker
Great web page is

13. Verbs - Irregular Common exceptions Infinitive Present English være er
am, are, is
vite
vet
know si
sier
say
gjøre
gjør
do or make
It seems that every language I have studied has an irregular for the verb ‘to be’. Spanish has two forms! (estar and ser; ser is the irregular – soy, eres, es, somos, sois, son)

14. Verbs – past regular
Like English, Norwegian has the past and present perfect
Time
English
Norwegian
Present
I speak
jeg snakker
Past
I spoke
jeg snakket
Present Perfect
I have spoken
jeg har snakket
The verb form in the present perfect is known as the past participle.
Other weak verbs and te / t endings and dde/dd endings. Strong verbs are irregular and must be memorized
For ‘weak’ verbs, the stem stays the same.

15. Verbs – past irregular
There’s no regular form – they just must be memorized. Important in genealogy include:
become
became
blir
ble
receive
received
får
fikk
give
gave
gir
gav
write
wrote
skriv
skrev
be, am, is
was, were er
var

16. Verbs – Modal or Helping
English
infinitive
present
past
past participle
can
kunne
kan
kunnet
must
måtte må
måttet
should
skulle
skal
skullet
want, will
ville
vil
villet
allowed to få
får
fikk
fått
ought to
burde
bør
burdet
dare to
tore/turde
tør
torde /turde
tort /turdet

17. Verbs – last page
Norwegian also uses the passive form a lot. ‘The house was sold’
Past participle with “bli/ble” or infinitive with “s” ending 
Example – “Bilen blir vasket” or “Bilen vaskes”

18. Pronouns – The Subject Singular Plural jeg I vi we du you (informal)
dere De
you (formal)
han he de
they
hun
she
den/det it

19. Pronoun Forms Subject (last slide) Possessive (example: your house
Direct object (example: ...was sold to her)
Reflexive (example: I brushed my teeth)
See web pages or get electronic handout for forms

20. Adjectives They can have endings, but don’t usually change form
Example: rød bok - røde bøker
red book – red books
Comparatives and superlatives are generally end in –ere and –est
Example: kald, kaldere and kaldest
Let’s be glad that this isn’t German!!

21. Adjectives - irregular
Like English, Norwegian has a few irregulars in the comparative and superlative:
mange, flere, flest (many, more, most)
gammel, eldre, eldest (old, older, oldest)
ung, yngre, yngst (young, younger, youngest)

22. Prepositions
Probably the hardest to wrap one’s mind around in a new language.
They have have multiple meanings and be part of numerous idioms
We will see some in the last slide

23. Time Expressions
Tricky, but important in genealogy. Three common forms are modeled:
for tre år siden three years ago
om tre år in three years (in the future)
i tre år for three years
BUT!
ikke på tre år not for three years

24. 30 Most Common Words i in, at og and det it, the, that som which er is
til to en
a, one av of på
to, at
for at
that å to
med
with de
they, the
har
has
den
it, the
ikke
not et
a, one om
about
fra
from
var
was
han he
men
but
seg
him or her self
vil
will or want vi we
ble
became
ved
by means of
kan
can
man
one (person)
A study of Norwegian newspapers from the 1960s and 1970s found that about 160 different words (with their various forms) comprised about 50% of the vocabulary.