12.1 Words for snow
12.2 Det (it)
12.3 Man (one)
12.4 Easter and 17 May
12.5 Fluency and rhythm

12.1 Words for snow

There are many words for snow in Norwegian, here are a few of the most commonly used:

12.2 Det (it)

A well-formed sentence always needs a subject in Norwegian. When there is no logical subject, we often use det.

This occurs for instance in impersonal constructions:

As shown in Chapter 10, det is also used in expressions about the weather:

12.3 Man (one)

Man is an indefinite pronoun. It is used to refer to people, but not to specific individuals:

En is also often used in the same way:

12.4 Easter and 17 May

Påske og 17. mai

Påske

Vi feirer påske til minne om at Jesus døde og sto opp igjen. Påsken begynner på palmesøndag. Torsdag og fredag har alle fri, og skoler og butikker holder stengt. Torsdagen kaller vi skjærtorsdag, og fredagen kaller vi langfredag. Lørdagen er påskeaften. Butikkene er åpne denne dagen, men ikke så lenge. Mandagen etter påskeaften er også en helligdag.

We celebrate Easter to commemorate Christ's death and resurrection. Easter starts on Palm Sunday. Thursday and Friday are days off and schools and shops are closed. Thursday is called «skjærtorsdag» (Maundy Thursday) and Friday is called «langfredag» (Good Friday). Saturday is «påskeaften» (Holy Saturday). The shops have limited opening hours that day. Monday after «påskeaften» is also a public holiday.

I påsken reiser mange nordmenn på ferie. Mange drar til hytta for å gå på ski og for å være sammen med familien sin. Noen reiser også til utlandet.

Many Norwegians go on holiday for Easter. Lots of people go to their cottages to go skiing and to be with their families. Some also go abroad.

17. mai

17. mai er Norges nasjonaldag. Vi feirer denne dagen fordi Norge fikk sin egen grunnlov (konstitusjon) den 17. mai i 1814.

17 May is Norway's national day. We celebrate this day because Norway got its own constitution on 17 May, 1814.

17. mai er barnas dag. Barna går i tog, korpsene spiller i gatene, og alle feirer og er glade. Barna spiser pølser og is og drikker brus.

17 May is the children's day. The children walk in parades, the marching bands play in the streets and everyone celebrates and is happy. The children eat sausages and ice cream and drink soda.

The eight following exercises (see 1, 2, 4 ... buttons below), picked from the book Flyt og rytme, will help you in obtaining more fluent speech and a more Norwegian-like speech rhythm. You will be working with speakers from various parts of Norway who all will be speaking Bokmål. Normally the exercises will be guided by a teacher. Unfortunately we are not able to give the detailed instructions to self-study students, but below you will find some simple guidelines.

How to do the exercises:

• Select an exercise below. Work with tab A first, then tab B.
• Click the button to the left and try to imitate the voice you are listening to.
• Try to connect all sounds together to one continuous chain.
• Try to make stressed syllables strong and dominant, and unstressed syllable light and short.

Each column contains 12 sentences reflecting the same speech rhythm pattern.
Number 1 to 3 have the following order. You are supposed to listen to the first sentences, and then repeat them:

1	2	3	4
SPEECH	SILENCE	SPEECH	SILENCE
LISTEN	SPEAK	LISTEN	SPEAK

We expect you to pick up the rhythmical pattern with the first three sentences.
In number 4 to 12 the order is changed to the following:

1	2	3
SILENCE SPEAK	SPEECH LISTEN	SILENCE SPEAK

If you feel the progress is too fast, we advise you to use the book Flyt og rytme and its complete set of exercises.