LESSON TRANSCRIPT

Lower Beginner S1 #1
Reviewing the Norwegian Basics

CONTENTS
2 INTRODUCTION
2 POST CONVERSATION BANTER
2 KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
3 LESSON FOCUS
4 OUTRO

# 1
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INTRODUCTION

Filip: Hi everyone, I am Filip.

Becky: And I’m Becky. Welcome to NorwegianClass101.com. This is Lower Beginner,
Season 1, Lesson 1 - Reviewing the Norwegian Basics. This series is aimed at
continuing slowly from the Absolute Beginner Series, and you will learn a little more
about the workings of Norwegian.
Filip: We will introduce a new main character in this series, Kjersti. We will follow her
as we proceed through the series.
Becky: This first lesson is aimed at being a more in-depth review of some of the
basics of introducing yourself. For those of you that have gone through the Absolute
Beginner series, you might remember some of what we cover here.
Filip: And for the new listeners - don’t worry! This will be easy to follow. In the
conversation, Kjersti is introducing herself to a stranger on the train. They are using
casual Norwegian.
Becky: Let’s listen to the conversation.

POST CONVERSATION BANTER

Becky: That wasn’t too hard to understand, I hope!

Filip: Not at all. But it’s nice to know, and you’ll learn all about it in this lesson. But
when Norwegians speak to each other we are not so concerned with how formal our
language is, but instead how our body language and tone would be perceived by the
other person.
Becky: Right, so what you’re saying is that in this conversation, there isn’t that much
formal language.
Filip: No, it’s quite casual, especially from Kjersti’s side. There are no really formal
phrases used in the dialogue, even though that would be natural in some other
languages.
Becky: So basically, it’s a lot like English, and the common ways of greeting each
other in native English-speaking countries. The emphasis lies more on body language
and tone, rather than on using formal phrases and words.
Filip: Exactly. Norwegians often observe the body language of the speaker, because it
is a better indication of the speaker’s mood and intentions than their language is.
Becky: So keep that in mind, listeners. Ok, now it’s time for the vocab.

KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES

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Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from
this lesson. Since this is the first lesson in this series, let’s go over some of the vocab
items with several meanings attached to them.
Filip: ‘Hyggelig’ is one of these. ‘Hyggelig’ is an adjective...
Becky: ... Which means “pleasant” or “nice”. But when used between people
introducing themselves, it takes on the meaning of the phrase...
Filip: ‘Hyggelig å møte deg.’
Becky: “Nice to meet you.” It’s a shorter and more casual way of saying this phrase.
Filip: As we mentioned, casual Norwegian doesn’t mean its rude. People tend to find it
a bit easier to use casual speech, and the receiver reads the tone and the body
language to figure out how to respond.
Becky: Our next word is...
Filip: Å være.
Becky: “To be”. The hard part about this verb is that it is irregular, and thus conjugated
in an unusual way.
Filip: ‘Å være’. Conjugates as ‘er’ in present tense and ‘var’ in past tense.
Becky: Let’s look at some of the examples here.
Filip: First we have the infinitive. ‘Kan du være her.’
Becky: Which means “can you stay/be here?”
Filip: Next is present tense. ‘Jeg er her.’
Becky: Which means “I am here”
Filip: Then finally we have past tense. ‘Jeg var her.’
Becky: I was here.
Filip: Alright, let’s move on to the grammar now.

LESSON FOCUS

Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn more about basic introductions. If you listened to our
Absolute Beginner series, you might remember some of the greetings we learned.
Filip: Don’t worry if you didn’t, though. In this lesson, we will give you a few common
greetings and explain them.
Becky: Greetings in Norwegian can be as simple as saying your name and shaking the
other person’s hand, or they can involve more and more elaborate phrases...
Filip: Like ‘Jeg er’
Becky: “I am”.
Filip: Jeg

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heter
Becky: “I am called”
Filip: or ‘Mitt navn er’
Becky: “My name is.”
Filip: The most common way Norwegians greet people is either by saying only our
names, or adding ‘Jeg heter’ in front of our names.
Becky: Of course, adding ‘Hei’ which means “Hi” first in the sentence is always good
manners.
Filip: After saying our name, we usually add ‘Hyggelig å møte deg’
Becky: Nice to meet you
Filip: Or just the short form ‘Hyggelig’.
Becky: Which could translate as “pleasant” or “pleased to meet you”.
Filip: To give you some examples we have...‘Hei, Filip, Hyggelig.’ This is saying only
the name and then ‘hyggelig’.
Becky: What’s another way?
Filip: ‘Hei, jeg er Filip.’ This is using the ‘jeg er’, but with no ending. It’s not strange to
leave out ‘hyggelig å møte deg’. We usually just say it when we feel like it.
Becky: And next?
Filip: ‘Hei, jeg heter Filip. Hyggelig å møte deg.’ This is one of the longer forms using
‘jeg heter’ and the full ‘hyggelig å møte deg’. It’s common to use this when you meet
someone you were looking forward to meeting.
Becky: What’s last?
Filip: Last is ‘Hei, mitt navn er B. Hyggelig.’ This uses the ‘mitt navn er’ version and a
short ‘hyggelig’. It’s common when you’re being introduced to a prospective business
partner, or at nice dinners.
Becky: How these greetings work is fairly easy - it’s mostly the same structure and
level of formality we would see in English. But don’t attempt to take any of the phrases
out of context, or switch some words and use them in other ways. These are mostly
incomplete sentences if you take them out of context, and they’d sound weird if they
weren’t being used as introductions.
Filip: Take for example this greeting that sounds a bit like Yoda introducing himself.
‘Hei, Filip heter jeg.’
Becky: (laughs) that would directly translate as something like “Hi, Filip called am I”.
Filip: Exactly. This sentence structure sounds completely weird if you substitute the
words with something else like, for example, ‘Bussjåfør er jeg.’
Becky: “Bus driver am I.” Yes, it definitely sounds like Yoda!

OUTRO
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Becky: Well, that’ll do it for this lesson.
Filip: Thanks for listening. Make sure to check the lesson notes, and we’ll see you for
the next lesson.
Becky: In the meantime, you can also leave us a comment on this lesson at
NorwegianClass101.com!
Filip: Please do! See you next time! Hade.
Becky: Bye!

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