Happy New Year

With the new year coming, I thought it would be appropriate to write about it in Norwegian. In my family, we have usually had Turkey for dinner on new years eve. You can serve it with whatever you want, but a personal classic is creamed potatoes (dauphinoise potatoes). Not very Norwegian, I guess.

nyttårsaften - new years eve
første nyttårsdag - new years day
en kalkun - a turkey
fyrverkeri - fireworks
nyttårsfest/party - new years party
totusen og tretten - twothousand and thirteen

nyttårsforsetter - new years resolutions
"Jeg skal trene mer" - I shall work out more
"Jeg skal spise sunnere" - I shall eat healthier
"Jeg skal spare mer penger" - I shall save more money
"Jeg skal ringe mamma oftere" - I shall call mom more often
"Jeg skal ikke glemme noen bursdager" - I shall not forget any birthdays
"Jeg skal bli flinkere til å lese til eksamen" - I shall get better at reading for the exams

Do you have any resolutions you'd like to say in Norwegian? What do you do on new years eve?

Christmas is coming

With the holidays coming up, I thought it would be appropriate to do a Norwegian Christmas entry. In Norway, we celebrate on Chrismas eve - 24. December. In my family, the tradition has been to eat pork belly, sausages and meatballs, served with potatoes, various vegetables and sauerkraut....and off course cranberry sauce. This is one tradition. Some families have lamb on Chrismas eve, and some families even have fish. After dinner we have dessert...we usually have homemade rice pudding and a fruity red sauce. When we were younger, we would then walk around the christmas tree, singing songs. After we open presents while eating cakes and drinking coffee.
 
Here are some words you might want to learn...

en jul (julen) - a Christmas (the Chrismas)
et juletre (juletreet) - a Chrismas tree (the Chrismas tree)
juletrepynt - Christmas tree decoration
en adventskalender (adventskalenderen) - an advent calender (the advent calender)
gløgg - mulled wine
en pepperkake - a gingerbread
et pepperkakehus - a gingerbread house
en julegave/presang - a Christmas gift/present
en julestrømpe - a Christmas stocking
julenisse - Santa Claus

...

I have tried to add the gender on all the words. As you may have noticed, some of the words are constructed by two or even three words, like 'juletre'. 'Jul' is technically female, but as I've said before, to make it easier it is perfectly fine to apply the rules for male words on it. So it will then be 'en jul'. The word 'tre'(tree) is neuter, therefore 'et tre'. With words like 'juletre', the last words gives you the gender. Therefore 'et juletre'.In english this would be "a Christmas tree". When you want to say "the Christmas tree", siply just move "et" to the end of the word... "juletreet".