Month: June 2021

Scandinavian language challenge day 10

Today I worked through the third chapter of Danish in three months, covering: adjectivescommands and requestspossessionnames of days, months and seasons (and holidays)other words Adjectives The following suffixes are added to attributive adjectives modifying indefinite nouns: nothing (common gender); -t (neuter), -e (plural). For definite nouns, den (common) / det (neuter) / de (plural) precedes the…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 10

Representing you lazily

The pedantic old dinosaur in me gets grumpy when people use the verb ‘represent’ as a pretentious synonym for ‘be’. My inner dinosaur gets even grumpier when the literal meaning of this verb contradicts the intended sense. One striking example I saw: “women represent only 32 percent of lawyers”. Are these ladies really representing the…… Continue reading Representing you lazily

Scandinavian language challenge day 9

Today I worked through the second chapter of Norwegian in three months, which introduces: the genitive;adjective endings: indefiniteadjective endings: definiteinfinitive and present tensequestions and answersother words Genitive Nouns add the suffix -s to form the possessive (genitive). Examples: naboens hage (the neighbours garden)båtens eier (the owner of the boat)landets grenser (The borders of the country)myndighetenes ansvar…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 9

Scandinavian language challenge day 8

Today I worked through the second chapter of Swedish in three months, covering: object pronounsverbs: present tensesentence building: questions and answersnegativesquestion word: who, whatplural of the definitive articlethe preposition pånumbers 11-20other words Object pronouns MeYou (familiar)You (polite)HimHerIt (common)It (neuter)UsYou (pl. fam)You (pl. pol)They DanishmigdigDemhamhendedendetosjerDemdem SwedishmigdighonomhennedenDetosserdem Verbs: present tense There are 4 classes of verbs. Class…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 8

Scandinavian language challenge day 7

Today I worked through the second chapter of Danish in three months, covering: verbs: basic form and present tenseobject pronounssentence building: questions and answersquestion word: who, what Verbs: infinitive and present tense The infinitive of verbs ends in unstressed e or a stressed vowel. Examples: at høre (to hear); at stå (to stand). The present…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 7

Taletellers

Another entry for the big book of menu translations. Who guessed that the English for tagliatelle is taletellers? Hotel Lido – Torri Del Benaco. Lake Garda, Italy. August 2016

Scandinavian language challenge day 6

Today I worked through the first chapter of Norwegian in three months. This chapter introduces: articles and nounsplurals of nounssubject pronounsthe verbs to be and to haveeveryday expressionsother words Articles and nouns There are two genders: common and neuter, though sometimes common gender is split into masculine and feminine colloquially (and especially in Nynorsk). The…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 6

Scandinavian language challenge day 5

Today I worked through the first chapter of Swedish in three months. This chapter introduces: the verbs to be and to havesubject pronounsarticles and nounsplurals of nounsnumbers from zero to tenquestion formseveryday expressionsother words The verbs to be and to have The infinitive of the verb to be is att vara (Danish is at være)…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 5

Scandinavian language challenge day 4

Today I worked through the first chapter of Danish in three months. This chapter introduces: the verbs to be and to havesubject pronounsdefinite and indefinite articlesplurals of nounsdefinite pluralgreetingsother words The verbs to be and to have The infinitive of the verb to be is at være and its present tense is er. The infinitive…… Continue reading Scandinavian language challenge day 4