In this entry, I am going to teach you how to talk a bit more about yourself. Like where you are from, how old you are and what you are doing. We will then go on to talking about your family and friends. I will divide it into different blog posts, so that you don't have to learn too much at the time.
You now know how to introduce yourself by saying "
mitt navn er Anna"(my name is Anna) or "
jeg heter Anna"(I'm called Anna). I have also vaguely mentioned how to tell others your age. But today we will take a closer look at that. To be able to say your age, you must know Norwegian numbers.
null - zero
en/ett - one (remember how male/female substantives get
en in front of it and neuters get
et? when talking about age, it is normal to say "
ett år gammel" rather than "
en år gammel". That is because "
år" is a neuter)
to - two
tre - three
fire - four
fem - five
seks - six
sju/syv - seven (you can choose the one you prefer the most, both are correct and will be understood)
åtte - eight
ni - nine
ti -
ten
That's easy enough? Some of the numbers are quite similar to the English ones.
Now, if you are older than ten, then obviously you need to know other numbers as well(but keep reading, becausenumbers are used in so many situations, not only age) I will do the teens, and then mention how to say 20, 30, 40 etc.
elleve - eleven
tolv - twelve
tretten -thirteen
fjorten - fourteen
femten - fifteen
seksten - sixteen
sytten - seventeen
atten - eighteen
nitten - nineteen
Like in English, all the teens get "
ten" at the end. TEENager is called TENåring. Do you see the connection?
The stem of some of the numbers has changed, like for instance
atten. Eight is
åtte, but you would never say åtten.
Sytten; Seven is
sju/syv, but you would never say sjutten/syvten. Many Norwegians pronounce it "søtten" rather than "sytten", but you can do what you think is better.
Fjorten; Four is
fire, but you would never say fireten.
Next, lets talk about higher numbers.
tjue/tyve - twenty (like with seven, this depends on what you prefer)
tretti - thirty
førti - fourty
femti - fifty
seksti - sixty
sytti - seventy (pronounced either
"søtti" or
"sytti", which ever you prefer)
åtti - eighty
nitti - ninety
If you want numbers in between, just add them after. For eksample "tjueen" "trettito". etc. It is just like you would do it in English. Simple? All of them follow the same patterns, apart from
førti. This one is different, you would never say fireti.
Åtti has gone back to its stem
åtte, rather than calling it atti.
So this is how you say your age:
"Jeg er tjue/tyve år gammel" - I am twenty years old (swap 20 for your age)