"Norwegian is easy!"
Translation:Norsk er enkelt!
42 CommentsThis discussion is locked.
Norwegian is not a simple language, if only for the fact that I momentarily forgot the word for "simple" in Norwegian and thus had to hover over the word to see what it was again.
All except for trying to figure out which adjective to use, such as kald kalde and kaldt
Agreed! You really have to immerse yourself in the language. I have two Norwegian friends, but since they live in Norway and I live in California and they are 9 hours ahead, I rarely get a chance to speak with them. When we do chat, it's typically through FB messenger. What I've started doing is watching Norwegian TV shows/movies and I purchased a couple of Norwegian e-books with the audio file. I then play it slightly slower so I can follow along the book as they read. It helps to keep replaying parts and when you're able to follow along at the slower speed, move it back up to normal speed and start again. It can be tedious, but it's helpful even if you don't understand everything yet.
I got it like this -
Enkel - easy/simple/ not difficult.
Lett - easy/light/ not heavy.
Why there is a neuter form of "enkel"? I checked the ordbok.uib.no and it says that the noun "norsk" is masculine.
I think it is used as an adverb here. It describes the process of learning the language. Could also be Norsk er enkelt å lære
Sorry guys, but I have to argue that "easy" is not an adverb. The adverb is "easily", so you could say "I learn Norwegian easily". But you can't say "Norwegian is easily". So I for one am not satisfied that anyone has given a reasonable explanation for why it is "enkelt" here. From everything I read, it should be "Norsk er enkel". Would some moderator or native speaker please explain why it is "enkelt" here? (and don't try to tell me it is an adverb here because, well... it's not.)
At ordbok.uib.no I found that both can be used... :
"norsk m1, subst. norsk språk
gammelnorsk, nynorsk / han snakket et prikkfritt norsk / skrive god(t) og grei(t) norsk / jeg sa dem hva jeg mente på godt norsk med rene ord / ha problemer med norsken på skolen norskfaget"
In the example both "god norsk" and "godt norsk" fit the sentence.
Though i can't explain the reason behind this, I thought it would be good to share with you all.
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I believe I tried 'enkel' here and it was not accepted. Has someone newer experience, since I haven't gotten this sentence for a long time?
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I agree. According to the rules that Duo teaches, If you were just saying "It is easy" you would say det er enkelt as the gender of "it" is not known and therefore neuter but if norsk is a masculine word it should be norsk er enkel.
When they translate to 'easy' they're interchangeable, but not always. 'enkel' can translate to 'simple', 'single', 'easy', 'basic' while 'lett' can translate to 'light', 'easy', 'easily'.
I would translate 'lett' into either 'light' or 'easy', but 'enkelt' into simple. Which means that in many cases, they will not be interchangeable. Example: "Telling the truth can be simple, but hard." Here the simple thing becomes the difficult. In the sentence "Norsk er enkelt", they become somewhat interchangeable, since the simplicity of the language makes it easy. I would still prefer the answer to be 'lett', though, since it is more precise.
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I used google translate for" It is very easy" and in reply to "Is it difficult?" for No, it is very easy. It gave "Det er veldig lett" and "Nei det er veldig enkelt." Why the change from lett to enkel? if both mean simple or not difficult?
As a native English speaker it certainly is easy. If you find Norwegian difficult I challenge you to try Russian, Mandarin, Hungarian or Icelandic. Good luck!
I am a Slovak native speaker, I challenge you to try Slovak language! :) translated to slovak: Ja som rodený slovenský hovorca, vyzývam ťa skúsiť si slovenčinu!
Yup, German native speaker here, learned English in school early on, and I also grew up in an area where "Low German" (old Germanic language-dialect with a lot of Norse influence) is still quite alive. If you know these two/three languages, Norwegian seems pretty easy. I am indeed learning Hungarian with Duo as well, and it totally cooks my brain...
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I learned German first at school and lived in Germany. Compared to German Grammar, Norwegian is really easy.
Ja. I'm also learning Japanese. Norsk is easy. But not easy enough for me to actually say much after 10 months. ;)
Points for honesty. And the interesting thing is that, in an exam on it, you may well score higher than those who say it's easy. With languages, it's all relative I think, and it also depends upon the way the course is set up and other factors. I don't think one can generalise to saying it's easy for English speakers in general without surveying all English speakers about it. I've found some other language courses harder, but Norwegian is still challenging.
Yeah... Norwegian is so easy that I sit on the floor eating bread while crying a lot of the time... :')
