Søndagsspørsmål #361 - 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/arajunal]

*lmao I asked this in last weeks thread literal minutes after this one was made so I moved it here*

Hi there, Im really new to Norwegian. I've been listening to music as a way to get my foot in the door, but I've got a few questions about some lyrics.

I've been listening to this song by Kari Bremnes and I'm having trouble understanding the line "fløgge med dæ over land og by". I understand most of it, mostly I just don't know what "fløgge" means and I haven't been able to find any good translation for it. The rest of the lyrics are in the description of the video linked if that helps.

The next two are songs by Siri Nilsen. The first one is Denne gangen. I'm having trouble with what the "jo" in the line "Du har jo lært så mye mere nå" means. The rest of the lyrics can be found here

The next one is Jeg lover. There are two lines "Og du vil bare reise" and "Og jeg vil heller bli" But the translation translates heller and bare as the same word ("You just want to leave" and "I just want to stay"). So what's the difference between the two words heller/bare?

Thanks!

[u/arajunal → u/[deleted]]

Thank you!

[u/[deleted] → u/arajunal]

Not a native, but I want to try to chime in anyway. If my explanation is wrong, I hope I will get corrected. :)

About "jo": that word is untranslatable into English. It can be used as a way to give a positive answer to a negative question. For example "Vil du ikke bli med?" - "Jo." -> "Don't you want to come along?" - "Well, yes I want to". It can also be used as an intensifier for a positive question: "Kan du hjelp oss? Jo, det kan jeg.", "Can you help us? Why yes, I can." And it can also be used to "soften" a sentence a bit, or to give an explanation of why someone can't do something: "Han vet ingenting om datamaskiner, han er jo over 80 år gammel". "He doesn't know anything about computers, he's already over 80 years old, after all". Likewise, it can also act to intensify a statement: "Du kan løpe dit, du er jo fortsatt ung" (not really sure if that sentence is correct...) "You can walk there, you are still young after all".

As you can see, "jo" has many different uses, and it's really a shame that the English language doesn't have an equivalent.

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

Thanks for your input. We have a very similar word on German (namely "doch"), but there are a few subtle differences between "jo" and "doch". I am still trying to figure out those subtle differences. :)

[u/Nemsilid → u/[deleted]]

Haha, I am norwegian learning german, and I am in this exact same postion.

[u/[deleted] → u/Nemsilid]

Das ist doch ein toller Zufall. ;)