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- Topic: Norwegian (Bokmål) >
- "Ulven tar en rein."
35 Comments
It is definitely an acceptable sentence in norwegian, but it really means kill when used like this . It might have something to do with the phrase "ta ... av dage" (take ... off days, kill), which is a bit weird sounding (I suspect it has somethingto do with those damn danes). It is actually used in more formal publications, but we don't really have a formal way to write norwegian though. http://www.nrk.no/ho/ulver-tok-hund-rett-ved-huset-1.12085803
It could also be influenced by French. Like in English, we also use the metaphor "prendre la vie de quelqu'un" ("to take someone's life").
At first, I didn't see the phrase like this, I kinda saw it litterally ("damn, that wolf is strong!"), but now that you mention it, that also makes sense!
The phrase is often used in English when referring to hunting or fishing - at least in my neck of the woods
Watch a nature documentary and you'll realise that this is the verb used of predators.
In English you could say "take down", as in "the lion takes down the gazelle".
Exactly what I was thinking. "Uhhh, I'll have a medium reindeer to go, please? And I don't need a drink, I have water near the den."
It would be, except you used the past tense of the verb; "tar" is the present.
Well thats what it means but they may not accept is because take is the verb not kill.
I was thinking The Farmer in the Dell,
"The farmer takes a wife,
The farmer takes a wife,
Hi-ho the merry-oh,
The farmer takes a wife"
Becomes:
"The wolf takes a deer,
The wolf takes a deer,
Hi-ho the merry-oh,
The wolf takes a deer."
753
"Do you, Wolf, take this reindeer to be your lawfully-wedded wife? You may now eat the bride."
No, rain is 'regn'.
However, some people will pronounce 'rein' and 'regn' identically.
Is there another way of pronouncing it? (I actually written "regn" with a bif of a confusion, "rein" didn't come to my mind at all)
Because that's not the right translation (or really close to it). We aren't saying that the wolf is catching it, just that it "takes it" (killed it). The wolf might have been nice and let the reindeer go after it caught it, but here we say that the reindeer died.
I put "The wolf is taking the reindeer" and it told me i was wrong because i used the definite "the" instead of the indefinite "one". So my "correct" translation is "The wolf is taking one reindeer."
I'm confused as to how I can differentiate the word "one" and "the", considering it's the same word. Was my answer technically correct?
No. "The wolf is taking A reindeer." would have been accepted. But for your answer to be correct the original text would have had to be "Ulven tar reinen"
As I can see that you speak Spanish as well you could translate the definite to 'el/la' and the indefinite 'en/et/ei' to 'un/una' or in English definite 'the' or indefinite 'a/an', one is just a Number, in other words there are two variations of un/una, one is an indefinite articel and one a number word.
So I guess 'The wolf is taking a reindeer' could be correct.
Don't know how to write this question properly without a Norwegian keyboard, but is the word "tar" pronounced with the "a" of "father", or is it more like the "a" sound in "pa" or "apne"? I hear her saying the latter.
