AureliaeLacrimae

Possessive Pronouns

Referring to Singular Nouns

                                    Masculine    Feminine    Neuter

1st person Sg. my/mine        min            mi          mitt

2nd pers. Sg. your/yours    din/Deres    di/Deres    ditt/Deres

3rd pers. Sg. his/his            hans            hans        hans

                  her/hers        hennes        hennes      hennes

                  its/-            dens/dets    dens/dets  dens/dets

3rd pers. Sg.                        sin              si              sitt

1st pers. Pl.  our/ours          vår            vår            vårt

2nd. pers. Pl. your/yours    deres/Deres        same as Masc.

3rd. pers. Pl. their/theirs        deres              same as Masc.

3rd pers. Pl.                          sin            si              sitt

Referring to Plural Nouns:

1st pers. Sg.        mine

2nd pers. Sg.    dine/Deres

3rd. pers. Sing.  hans/hennes/dens/det (his/hers/its/its)

                      +sine

1st pers. Pl          våre

2nd pers Pl.        deres/Deres

3rd Pers. Pl        deres

                        +sine

This is from a Grammar book: Norwegian: An Essential Grammar, so it should be correct.

Personal Pronouns

                    Subject form/Nominative    Object form/Accusative

Singular

1st person                      jeg (I)                meg  (me)

2nd person                    du/De (you)        deg /Dem (you)

3rd person                    han (he)              ham (him)

                                  hun (she)              henne (her)

                                  den/det (it)          den/det (it)

Plural

1st person                      vi (we)                oss (us)

2nd person                    dere/De (you)      dere/Dem (you)

3rd person                    de (they)              dem (them)

As you can see, plural doesn't make difference in between gender of third person.

Note: The capital you (De/Dem) is the polite form.

Reflexive Pronouns

Singular

1st person                    meg  (myself)

2nd person                    deg /Dem (yourself)

3rd person                    seg (himself/herself/itself/oneself)

Plural

1st person                    oss (ourselves)

2nd person                    dere/Dem (yourselves)

3rd person                    seg (themselves)

As you see, the pattern is reminiscent of Latin - no distinction in 3rd person, either singular or plural.

Demonstrative pronouns

Norwegian has two main demonstrative pronouns which correspond to English this/these and that/those. They inflect for number and gender.

Masc/Fem:    den (that)              denne (this)

Neuter:        det (that)                dette (this)

Plural:          de (those)              disse (these)

Well, here you go cardinal numbers in Norwegian. I wrote all from 1 to 30. Then I noticed that the same pattern was repeating all the time, and so I only wrote down the tens. I had thought about putting this in a table, but I didn't know how to make it work, so...

Numbers!

0 null

1 en

2 to

3 tre

4 fire

5 fem

6 seks

7 syv

8 åtte

9 ni

10 ti

11 elleve

12 tolv

13 tretten

14 fjorten

15 femten

16 seksten

17 sytten

18 atten

19 nitten

20 tjue

21 tjueen

22 tjueto

23 tjuetre

24 tjuefire

25 tjuefem

26 tjueseks

27 tjuesyv

28 tjueåtte

29 tjueni

30 tretti

40 førti

50 femti

60 seksti

70 sytti

80 åtti

90 nitti

100 hundre

That is very good, it certainly makes the things easier. Sometimes it's difficult to adapt to the new language structure. One more question:

Is Norwegian a language which has strict word order or loose? Did it keep the cases from Old Norse or are they gone like in English?

I know that I am asking a lot of questions, but you will see that my interest is mostly in learning about the language rather than the language itself - I like knowing how it functions, what rules does the grammar follow et cetera; which is not necessarily a bad thing.

So, you must check the pronunciation of each word before you learn it? Well, this does make things a little more complicated. I was hoping it would be more of a standardised version which doesn't change, but oh, well, I guess I'll have to work on it if I decide to study Norwegian.

One question - are the words pronounced differently then in different instances or will jul always be jul no matter what?

This is also from an online website on Norwegian, so here it goes. Kaffi, please, be so kind to correct any mistakes you find:

What's your name? Hva heter du

My name is...  Jeg heter...

Nice to meet you! Hyggelig å treffe deg

Where are you from? Hvor er du fra

I'm from ... Jeg er fra

How old are you? Hvor gammel er du?

I'm ... years old. Jeg er ... år gammel

What do you do for a living? Hva jobber du med?

I'm a (teacher/ student...) Jeg er ( lærer/ student...) - you do not prefix in Norwegian with a student.  You just say student, teacher ect.

Do you speak English? Snakker du engelsk?

Just a little Bare litt

I like Norwegian Jeg liker norsk

Mr.../ Mrs. ... Herr.../Fru...

And just like my previous post, I'd like Kaffi to check this one as well, make sure it's alright... as I'd found this information online, but I thought I may help out with some basic things, so here it goes:

Good luck! / Best wishes! Lykke til

Happy birthday! Gratulerer med dagen!

Happy new year! Godt nytt år!

Merry Christmas! God jul!

Happy Easter! God påske!

Congratulations! Gratulerer

Enjoy! (Bon appetit) Vær så god!

Bless you Prosit!

Cheers! Skål

Well I'd found this online, so I'll ask Kaffi to check it out first:

Hi! Hei

Good morning! God morgen

Good afternoon! God ettermiddag

Good evening! God kveld

Welcome! Velkommen

How are you? (friendly) Hvordan går det

How are you? (polite) Hvordan har du det

I'm fine, thank you! Jeg har det bra!

And you? (friendly) Og med deg?

And you? (polite) Og hvordan har du det?

Good Bra

Not so good Ikke så bra

Long time no see Lenge siden sist

Thank you (very much)! Takk skal du ha!

You're welcome! Ingen årsak

My pleasure Bare hyggelig

Come in! (Enter!) Kom inn!

Have a nice day! Ha en fin dag

Good night! God natt!

See you later! Ser deg senere!

See you soon! Sees snart!

See you tomorrow! Sees i morgen!

Good bye! Ha det!

This reminds me of Livemocha. It's a website where you can study languages and I bet you could have a lot of fun learning some of these phrases there.

Well, I've noticed that this hasn't yet been mentioned, so here it is. I'd found several websites which I believe could be useful. First of all, there's Wikipedia. People usually don't like Wikipedia as a source, but it must be admitted that they have a very good overview of grammar, phonology and such, so here it goes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norwegian_language

Then there's ''NorwegianClass101'' : http://www.norwegianclass101.com/norwegian-language/

You can find a lot of valuable particulars about grammar. A dictionary is also provided: http://www.norwegianclass101.com/norwegian-dictionary/

I liked it. I typed in ''air'' in English and I got a list consisting of ALL words which have ''air'' in them (hair, hairpin, chair, airplane...), and their translations. This may be very useful. Sometimes you may want a bigger overview.

And then, there's Omniglot:

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/norwegian.htm

They also have a lot of various links - from dictionaries to vocabulary, grammar... even Norwegian news and radio stations, so at least something will prove to be useful.

Is there a phonetic chart somewhere? I wish to try pronouncing these words. I wonder which vowels are long, which short, which open, which closed... is j more of a German or English undertone.... are both l heard in a word or only one? Is it the dark l or clear one?

Maybe you could try writing the translation of the surface structure when you write in Norwegian. I did it with Latin sentences - I write the exact order of words in English, so for example:

puella pulchra est

the girl - beautiful - is

This may enable people to try and work things out on their own and see the structure of Norwegian as a language -which words go where, which phrases occur together and such. I believe it could be very useful.

Also, which type of pattern does it follow? Subject - Verb - Object or a different one? This can help a lot.

What do you mean pronounced differently? Is there a rule or is it more arbitrary? How many combinations are there? Is it more like German - phonology equals pronunciation or? Are å and a pronounced differently (to a great deal) or is it only the length in question? Is one front and the other back vowel?

It's time to see how we're doing. As we've covered quite a portion of grammar, I decided to write down some sentences with their translations, and also a few for your work at home...

The sections included: Adjectives and nouns 1st/2nd declension, Colours and Possessive Pronouns, Sum, esse, fui, 1st verb conjugation, Cases

I will be making sentences up, so... here it goes (Don't think this way of translation strange - I am only writing the surface structure and the words as they are so that you can figure out the meanings on your own):

Parvos pueros videmus.                      - small boys - we see

Marcus puer est.                                - Marcus - boy - is

Mea bona amica hodie venit.                - my good friend - today - comes

Aqua flava est.                                  - water - blue - is

Magnus dominus non est laetus.            - big master - not is - happy

Flavus caelus ater est. Procella venit.    - blue sky - dark - is. storm - comes

Ad meam amicam ambulo.                  - to the friend - I walk

Ad tuos filios amicus venit.                  - to your sons - friend - comes

Pulchra puella coronam auream habet.  - pretty girl - crown golden - has

New words I'd not mentioned before:

hodie - adverb of time: today

ager, agri, m - field

ad - preposition: to

ad agros - to the fields (Acc. plural)

procella, ae, f - storm

ambulo, ambulare - to walk

Now sentences for you:

1. Lacus ater est.    - lacus, us, m - lake (this word is 4h declension but nominative is the same, so it's alright)

2. Nostras filias coronas aureas et purpureas habent.

3. Parvus puer ad tuum bonum amicum venit.

4. Pulchram puellam vides.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

Sure, why not. I will add a Norwegian section today or tomorrow! Please promise me to write some interesting posts in there, so that we can get this section going!

kind regards

Lingua

Well, I'm sure we'll have a lot of work to do and I'll also try to join in with some facts and such, so hopefully, we'll manage to keep it going! Thank you, Lingua. More languages mean more enjoyment, more opportunities and more people - maybe someone had wished to learn Norwegian...

Wait a minute, you speak the language of Hopi Indians? That's incredible... As a linguist, I am very interested in all languages and I'd never before encountered someone who speaks one of the Native American languages. I would love seeing how it functions, what the commonalities are, what differences...

Really incredible! I didn't even know we had such a variety here... it's impossible to pick just one language. It's sad that this one is still alive, but there aren't many speakers in the vicinity... so, you grew up bilingual?

This would be amazing! Norwegian here! Amazing idea. We have Finnish, I believe, but not Norwegian. This is such a lovely news. It would be amazing if you managed to make this happen. You have my full support! I would love to see Norwegian here. It may seem that you have little people interested... but you mustn't give up!

I am working on the Latin section, so I know what I'm talking about. Anyway, good luck with this! I vote for Norwegian!

Very true! Why not pile on Old Church Slavonic, too?

I like the idea. Old Church Slavonic was one of the key languages in forming the Slavic group, and definitely its first recorded.

I bet there could be a lot of other languages as well on this list - Sanskrit is a very important one. Many Indo-Europeists believe that it's the best preserved language and closest to the root. It's sad that something as precious is dying out.

Did you know about the Arcadian dialect in Greece? It goes back to BC 1200. How amazing!

And the list keeps getting longer...

We'd be delighted to have you! I hope you will enjoy our Latin section. It is still improving, so there are only a few lessons there, but I am trying to make them as comprehensible as possible (and interesting) and Linguaholic has been providing us with amazing lists of verbs and such.

I'd like to answer any questions you may have.

Well, I was wondering how many of you have heard about this.

Language is a wonder - we can never be sure how it really works. It's a psychological and cognitive property of humans. Brain activity is needed to comprehend and produce it. Noam Chomsky, who was among the firsts to think about this more seriously, called this the ability of humans to speak a particular language - Language is a part of the mind that allows people to speak. This theory had been called differently throughout history, so at was Transformational (Generative) Grammar, (Extended) Standard Theory, Government and Binding Theory...nowadays, its what we consider generative grammar.

The key assumption of generative grammar is that sentences are ''generated'' by the human mind by it using a subconscious set of rules - the syntax is in the mind. Which also means that the rules are as well - we know the pattern of our language because it is inborn. That's why native speakers know what's correct and what not even if they don't have a formal education - they know their language.

Well, any thoughts? How important is generative grammar to schools in your country? Have you learnt about it?

This one is very difficult. I don't think I can decide that easily. I like all of his tragedies and when I was young, Hamlet was my favourite. I was obsessed with Macbeth next - for about a year or so. Now I adore Richard III. And Coriolanus is excellent - you should definitely read that one.

I like his comedies as well, but it's not what I generally like - tragedies are... deeper in emotion somehow, at least for me. I always get a sense of something important if the characters (or one of them) don't survive... a little morbid, but true.

His sonnets... well, you can always try the most popular ones. I liked Sonnet 55 the most. It begins with ''Not marble, nor the gilded monuments''. This was where I first tried reading in metre. Sonnet 18 begins with ''Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?'' - you've probably read this one, it's so popular, especially for the Valentine's.  There's also 130, beginning with ''My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun''. Well... these are just some suggestions... enjoy reading them.

Sum, esse, fui - to be

This is one of the irregular verbs. All of the compounds of sum, esse, fui follow the same pattern like this verb.

Present Active Tense:

sum      I am

es        you are

est        he/she/it is

sumus  we are

estis      you are

sunt      they are

Here's a list of the compounds:

absum, abesse, afui                -  I am absent

adsum, adesse, adfui                -  I am present

desum, deesse, defui + D          -  I fail

insum, inesse, + D                  -  I am in

intersum, interesse, interfui      -  I am among/I am a part of

praesum, praesse, praefui        -  I am at the head of

prosum, prodesse, profui + D    -  I benefit

subsum, subesse                      -  I am under

supersum, superesse, superfui    -  I survive

It is very common that adfui is written as affui as well. It's not a mistake - that is the later form when the consonants became similar to each other. The same case is with a lot of other verbs, especially the prefix ad- in combination with f (it becomes aff), but more about this later.

Your charts are always a blessing! Keep them coming! I have no idea where you find them, but I like them very much. Saves me the trouble of typing out all of those verbs...

You're a savour!

Addendum to this:

There are some verbs which have only a few forms, such as inquio and aio.

In present simple tense, aio (''I claim'' or ''I say''), has only:

1st person sg.  aio

2nd person sg  ais

3rd person sg  ait

3rd person pl    aiunt

There are no forms for 1st and 2nd person in plural!

Inquio is exactly the same:

1st person sg.  inquio

2nd person sg  insuis

3rd person sg  inquit

3rd person pl    inquiunt

I saw these verbs on the list and thought of adding them... well, thanks

I must admit that this was one of the reasons why I'd started learning Latin - more seriously, I mean. I was simply amazed. All of these names... they meant something. By knowing someone's name, you could know their basic character. And the spells... well, the spells were something special. I used to leaf through the dictionary for hours, trying to find the equivalents.

Nox is an easy one. But what about Vipera evanesca? It isn't even entirely correct. I know how frustrated I was about this one, simply because I knew that evanesco, evanescere, evanui can't possibly have a form in ablative similar to that one: it would either evanescente in present, so the ''vanishing serpent'' or nothing at all. I was thinking about this one for a very long time.

You brought some very sweet memories back...

I've already shown the simple pattern of sentence with various verb forms used, but I had not yet presented them properly. I have also enclosed a table you can use showing these two conjugations in present active tense.

I or a-conjugation got the name because of the vowel -a which is present in the base, e.g. laudo, laudare. That's also why II conjugation is also called e-conjugation: the verb has in its base vowel -e: deleo, delere. Also: laudare and delere are infinitive forms.

Present simple tense is formed by taking away the infinitive suffix -re and adding these suffixes:

Sg:

1st person - always o

2nd person - s

3rd person - t

Pl:

1st person - mus

2nd person - tis

3rd person - nt

This rule is applicable to all four conjugations. (it differs a little for third person plural)

              1st conjugation                      2nd conjugation

            Sg                  Pl                  Sg                  Pl

1st      laudo          laudamus          deleo              delemus

2nd    laudas          laudatis            deles              deletis

3rd    laudat          laudant              delet              delent

Infinitive: laudare (praise)                delere (destroy)

And, as usually, here is a small list of frequent verbs belonging to these categories:

1st conjugation:

iuvo, iuvare, iuvi, iutum - please, help

narro, narrare, narravi, narratum - tell a story

opto, optare, optavi, optatum - wish

orno, ornare, ornavi, ornatum - decorate

puto putare, putavi, putatum - think

rogo, rogare, rogavi, rogatum - ask

sto, stare, steti, statum - stand

voco, vocare, vocavi, vocatum - call

2nd conjugation:

fleo, flere, flevi, fletum - cry

habeo, habere, habui, habitum - have

moneo, monere, monui, monitum - warn

placeo, placere, placui, placitum - like

iubeo, iubere, iussi, iussum - order

suadeo, suadere, suasi, suasum - advise

video, videre, vidi, visum - see

You can also find full list of 1st conjugation verbs here: http://linguaholic.com/study-latin/verb-conjugation-in-latin/

Linguaholic had found them all, so enjoy.

In order to understand the possessive pronouns in Latin, you need to have knowledge about adjectives (check out the declension of bonus, bona, bonum and miser, misera, miserum) of the 1st and 2nd declension. They follow the exactly same pattern.

So, here they are:

meus, mea, meum - my

tuus, tua, tuum - your

noster, nostra, nostrum - our

vester, vestra, vestrum - your (plural)

Exception: The only difference is in Vocative of masculine pronoun meus, which isn't me, but mi.

When it comes to her, his, its - Latin uses a different pronoun and is a little specific about it: you have eius in singular in all forms! (no declension!) and eorum for masculinum in plural (no declension!) and earum for femininum in plural (no declension!)

So here's how you decline his father  and    their father:

N  eius pater                            eorum/earum pater

G  eius patri                            eorum/earum patri

D  eius patro                            eorum/earum patro

Ac  eius patrem                        eorum/earum patrem

V  eius pater                            eorum/earum pater

Ab eius patro                            eorum/earum patro

You will notice that pater is in singular. That's because there's only one father! You'd have plural if they had two fathers, for example, but as there's only one - you only use singular form. (I won't talk about multiple fathers...)

These were possessive pronouns. You use them when you wish to say what belongs to you: my book - meum librum, your book - tuum librum, our books - nostri libri, et cetera.

Here are some examples for exercise:

my daughter, her daughter, their daughter, your son, his friend, our master, my country, his war