Søndagsspørsmål #231 - Sunday Question Thread

[u/dwchandler]

This is a weekly 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!

Previous søndagsspørsmål

[u/matt_ryanb1358]

I am currently using Memrise as an introduction to Norwegian and I am still in the very early stages of the course. I am currently learning the verbs å tro og å synes. Now, I disagree with one of the examples they give: "Jeg tror den er for stor" which translates to "I think it is too big". The reason I disagree with this example is because I have been told that å synes is used to convey an opinion, whereas å tro is more of a belief. Isn't the phrase "I think it is too big" an opinion? And therefore in Norwegian it should be "Jeg syns den er for stor"?

[u/tobiasvl → u/matt_ryanb1358]

You're not mistaken in your understanding of the difference between the words. However, they can still both be used in this example, with different connotations. This is common if you're telling someone else your opinion but don't want to be too assertive, because you might not want to hurt their feelings, or just want to seem open-minded.

Here are my personal and non-literal translations:

• "Jeg synes den er for stor" = "It is my honest opinion that it is too big, and it is also my opinion that you should take my opinion into consideration."
• "Jeg tror den er for stor" = "It is my humble and personal opinion that it is too big, but think of that opinion as you will and make up your own mind."

[u/matt_ryanb1358 → u/tobiasvl]

This is a great explanation. I see that in both replies to my comment the spelling "jeg synes" was used instead of "jeg syns", is either acceptable (in Bokmål)? Takk skal du ha!

[u/tobiasvl → u/matt_ryanb1358]

You can apparently choose between the two, but only in present tense. "Synes" is the only valid infinite. I think.

[u/matt_ryanb1358 → u/tobiasvl]

Ok, tusen takk for hjelpen!