- Forum >
- Topic: Norwegian (Bokmål) >
- "Det ligger en katt på puten …
22 Comments
Nope. Nope nope nope. I would burn it. I hate spiders. My friend is from Australia, and she once had to get a spider out of her shower with a plate and a pot because the thing was too big to put in a regular drinking glass.
How do you even get close to such a monster without burning the whole house down? You HAVE TO get high or drunk first, I would suggest!
I live in Australia and I've got a spider in my shower too. I didn't realise it was so common. I named him Edward and I talk to him when I'm in the shower.
This is legitimately the most useful sentence on duolingo for me. Det ligger en hund på puten min. Now I can complain about Loki in Norwegian!
Why isn't the cat the subject of the sentence? Wouldn't this be more natural: "En katt ligger på puten min"?
In this case, 'det' can be used as 'there'. As in, "There (points) lays a cat on my pillow".
1117
"There lies a cat upon pillow mine" is actually quite perfect, albeit archaic, English word order. Actually it could still be said today poetically. I love how studying foreign languages teaches us more and more about the historical similarities between our languages!
This sounds like "There is a cat lying on my computer", which happens much more often in my house!
Is there really a reason in Norwegian why "A cat is lying there on my pillow" should be regarded as an unsatisfactory translation?
I suspect because the Norwegian didn't include "der" in the sentence.
Hmm. Well, In this case "det" translates as "there" according to the "correct" translation, and in English "There is a cat lying on my pillow," "There lies a cat, on my pillow," and "A cat is lying there on my pillow," "there" has the same meaning in each version, and the sentences differ only in rhythm, with no significant difference in meaning.
But there is a difference between saying "there is something" which simply signifies that something exists and "something is there" which implies a location. It's a subtle distinction but it is there.
While your sentences mean more or less the same thing, the meaning of the word 'there' is not the same in each case.
In the first sentence, 'there' is used to indicate existence and is translated as 'det'.
In your last sentence, 'there' indicates position and is translated as 'der'.
In your middle sentence I think it could have either meaning and is probably only distinguishable by tone (ie, 'there lies a cat...' indicates existence; 'there lies a cat...' indicates position).
