# Norwegian: Received an update



## Grefsen

If someone is a musician or a writer and they are working on a long term project such as writing songs for an album or writing a book, I would like to know how one could express it *på norsk* when they have received a message from this musician or writer letting them know how much progress has been made?  In English I might write a sentence such as the following:

I "received an update" from the musician that she has finished writing four of the songs for her new album.  

Here is my attempt at writing this *på norsk:*

 Jeg fått en oppdatering fra musiker at hun er ferdig skrevet fire av sangene på hennes nye album.


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> I "received an update" from the musician that she has finished writing four of the songs for her new album.
> 
> Here is my attempt at writing this *på norsk:*
> 
> Jeg fått en oppdatering fra musiker at hun er ferdig skrevet fire av sangene på hennes nye album.


 
I think "oppdatering" should work. But it have to be either "har fått" or "fikk". If the "musiker" is in definite form, it's "musikeren". And the "at" can't stand alone. You could write "om at...", I suppose. "er" doesn't work, it's got to be "har". "hennes" must be replaced with "sitt" because of some rules it's difficult to grasp.  If you let "ferdig" og "skrevet" swap places (can you say that?), it should be an okay sentence, I think, although there's still something odd about it, I feel. 

Anyway, then we have: "Jeg har fått en oppdatering fra musikeren om at hun har skrevet ferdig fire av sangene på sitt nye album."


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## hanne

How about "ferdigskrevet" as a verb? (would work in Danish, so I'm just curious, and it sounds a bit less heavy to me)
And I'd use "til" (till?) instead of "på", because the songs aren't _on_ the album yet (since the album doesn't exist), but they're _for_ it.


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## Grefsen

oskhen said:


> I think "oppdatering" should work. But it have to be either "har fått" or "fikk".


*Tusen takk for det!*

I thought *"oppdatering"* was the correct word to use, but I wasn't able to find it in any of the five *ordbøker* I typically use.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Sadly, some dictionaries only contain the most common words.  If it's anything like the Swedish equivalent (uppdatering), it has probably been imported from English as a verb (oppdatere/uppdatera) in relation to computers. We conveniently add the suffix -ing to some verbs, and get a noun that is the result of a verb's action. If in doubt, look for a related verb! 

I would like to know if Norwegians, like the Swedes, used it initially mainly in computer-related contexts, and only recently started using it in other contexts as well? I may be wrong, of course, but I'm pretty sure I rarely saw it before Microsoft got into the habit of launching regular updates! 

/Wilma


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## oskhen

hanne said:


> How about "ferdigskrevet" as a verb? (would work in Danish, so I'm just curious, and it sounds a bit less heavy to me)
> And I'd use "til" (till?) instead of "på", because the songs aren't _on_ the album yet (since the album doesn't exist), but they're _for_ it.


 
I personally wouldn't use "ferdigskrevet" here, but others may disagree with me.

And I agree: "til" is better.


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> I thought *"oppdatering"* was the correct word to use, but I wasn't able to find it in any of the five *ordbøker* I typically use.


 
That is strange. But that's _ordbøker_ for you...


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## Grefsen

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Sadly, some dictionaries only contain the most common words.  If it's anything like the Swedish equivalent (uppdatering), it has probably been imported from English as a verb (oppdatere/uppdatera) in relation to computers.


Two of the *norske* *ordbøker* that I have are over 20 years old and neither of them even have entries for *"oppdatere." *  When I checked the etymonline.com site to learn more about the etymology (history) of the English word "update" I discovered that  "update" was first used as a verb in 1948 and first used as a noun in 1967.  Does anyone know if there is a Norwegian equivalent of etymonline.com that I could use to find out when *"oppdatere"* and *"oppdatering"* were adopted into the Norwegian language?



Wilma_Sweden said:


> We conveniently add the suffix -ing to some verbs, and get a noun that is the result of a verb's action. If in doubt, look for a related verb!


*Tusen takk for det! *This is really good advice.  

Ironically enough the only online reference I checked that had *"oppdatering" *in it was *caplex.no. * I wasn't even sure how to use this site, but when I went to the home page I noticed *"Siste oppdateringer"* in the right corner followed by a list of names.


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## Grefsen

If I wanted to make reference to the regular updates that websites like *"rb.no/fotball/live/"* and* "vglive.no"* post during football matches, could I refer to them as *"fotball kampoppdateringer"* (football match updates)?

*På forhånd takk!*


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> If I wanted to make reference to the regular updates that websites like *"rb.no/fotball/live/"* and* "vglive.no"* post during football matches, could I refer to them as *"fotball kampoppdateringer"* (football match updates)?
> 
> *På forhånd takk!*


 
It had to be in one word - "fotballkampoppdateringer". It would be understood, but it's not word that feels very natural. Could one make it shorter, like "fotballoppdateringer"? "Oppdateringer om fotballkamper" would be the best choice if I should play linguist, I guess, but it's not as short and refined?


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## hanne

Or "kampoppdateringer" if it's clear from the context that it's about football.


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