r/norsk • u/dwchandler • Feb 09 '14

Søndagsspørsmål #13 - Sunday Question Thread

This is a weekly (heh) post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

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Note: if it's been more than a day or two since this post then new questions might not be noticed here, and you should consider posting a separate thread.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '14

I started learning yesterday. Is the word order similar enough that I can, initially, assume it the same as English until I have a larger vocabulary? Or is it good to set that straight early on?

Takk!

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u/filleball Feb 10 '14

It seems like the word order is one of the most tricky things to get completely right in norwegian. It's a dead giveaway for natives like me that something's not written by a native. I guess the best way to learn is to read and listen to lots and lots of norwegian. (I don't mean to say that it's very hard to get it mostly right. It's those last few percentages that are so hard to get right.)

So, given that it's unrealistic to get it "straight" early on, and that the english word order will work and convey the meaning of what you say adequately in most cases, my advice would be to start with the vocabulary, and as soon as may be, start reading and let your subconciousness learn the correct word order.

Here's the first paragraph in of the featured article on the norwegian wikipedia, translated to english, but with the norwegian word order:

The matchgirls strike in London in 1888 was a strike which went on in juli 1888 among women and young girls who worked by (the) matchfactory Bryant and May in Bow. It found place in (the) city part Tower Hamlets, in the poor workingclassarea East End in the northeastern London.

Fyrstikkpikenes streik i London i 1888 var en streik som pågikk i juli 1888 blant kvinner og mindreårige piker som arbeidet ved fyrstikkfabrikken Bryant and May i Bow. Den fant sted i bydelen Tower Hamlets, i det fattige arbeiderklassestrøket East End i det nordøstlige London.

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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '14

Mange takk! Dette er [helpful] ... nytigg? I intend to start reading childrens books in the next couple weeks or so! Another question: there are no Norwegians that I know of in my area, however some of my friends are Danish. Would it be beneficial to practice writing and reading with them, or would it cause too much confusion?

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u/ParanoiAMA Feb 11 '14

Written danish and norwegian are very similar, while the spoken languages differ a lot in pronunciation. Also, the counting system is radically different above 40. So if you limit your practice to reading, writing and numbers below 40, you should be OK.