# Norwegian: I hope you are having an extremely good weekend



## Grefsen

I would like to write "I hope you are having an extremely good weekend"   *på norsk, *but am not sure how to write "are having."

Here is my attempt:

J*eg håper at du er "having" en kjempegod helg.*


----------



## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> I would like to write "I hope you are having an extremely good weekend" *på norsk, *but am not sure how to write "are having."
> 
> Here is my attempt:
> 
> J*eg håper at du er "having" en kjempegod helg.*


 
You simply use *har*. So then it's *Jeg håper at du har en kjempegod helg.* I would use *kjempefin* instead of *kjempegod*, though.


----------



## simdal

"are having" translates to "har"

"er" is generally used when talking about something that *is* (as in a fact or an object) and not something you *have* (as in having a good weekend, having a job, having a good time etc) (The last one of course excludes claiming ownership of an object, as in: "I have a book" or "I have a car")

For instance..
You see a pencil on the table and you say:_
Eng_: "There is a pencil on the table" (This is a fact. And the pencil is an object, so you use "er")
_Nor_: "Det *er* en blyant på bordet"

And you say:
_Eng_: "I hope you have a nice job" (A job is something you have, as with a good weekend)
_Nor_: "Jeg håper du *har* en fin jobb"

And then it would be:
_Eng_: "I hope you are having an extremely good weekend"
_Nor_: "Jeg håper du har en kjempefin helg"

In this case you can skip the "at"

"Jeg håper at du har en kjempefin helg"
"Jeg håper du har en kjempefin helg"

The two means exactly the same and they are both ok to use.


----------



## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> J*eg håper at du er "having" en kjempegod helg.*


 
Present participle - like *having *(or kicking, walking, hitting, etc) - is very little used in Norwegian, and normal present is for the most part used instead. The present participle of the word *ha *(have) would be *havende*, but I'm not even sure if we're allowed to write that nowadays. There are of course cases when it would be good Norwegian to use this form of a word, but I think that you, as a learner of the language, should have this rule of thumb: don't use it. At least not until your Norwegian gets fairly sophisticated.

Edit: A notable exception is the word *rasende*. Literally, it means "raging", but is used as an adjective, best translated as "furious".


----------



## Grefsen

oskhen said:


> You simply use *har*. So then it's *Jeg håper at du har en kjempegod helg.* I would use *kjempefin* instead of *kjempegod*, though.



Would the following be a correct translation for "I hope you will have an extremely good weekend."

*Jeg håper at du skal ha en kjempefin helg.*


----------



## aaspraak

Grefsen said:


> Would the following be a correct translation for "I hope you will have an extremely good weekend."
> 
> *Jeg håper at du skal ha en kjempefin helg.*



It feels more natural for me to use the verb *få* here. I'd write:

*Jeg håper at du får en kjempefin helg.*

Sometimes I may leave out the word *at*.


----------



## Grefsen

simdal said:


> "are having" translates to "har"
> 
> "er" is generally used when talking about something that *is* (as in a fact or an object) and not something you *have* (as in having a good weekend, having a job, having a good time etc) (The last one of course excludes claiming ownership of an object, as in: "I have a book" or "I have a car")
> 
> For instance..
> You see a pencil on the table and you say:_
> Eng_: "There is a pencil on the table" (This is a fact. And the pencil is an object, so you use "er")
> _Nor_: "Det *er* en blyant på bordet"
> 
> And you say:
> _Eng_: "I hope you have a nice job" (A job is something you have, as with a good weekend)
> _Nor_: "Jeg håper du *har* en fin jobb"
> 
> And then it would be:
> _Eng_: "I hope you are having an extremely good weekend"
> _Nor_: "Jeg håper du har en kjempefin helg"
> 
> In this case you can skip the "at"
> 
> "Jeg håper at du har en kjempefin helg"
> "Jeg håper du har en kjempefin helg"
> 
> The two means exactly the same and they are both ok to use.



*Jeg vil gjerne å skrive på norsk* "I am having an extremely good vacation in San Francisco." 

*Her er mitt forsøk: 

Jeg har en kjempefin ferie i San Francisco.  
*


----------



## Obil Tu

Grefsen said:


> *Jeg vil gjerne å skrive på norsk* "I am having an extremely good vacation in San Francisco" på norsk.
> 
> *Her er mitt forsøk: *
> 
> *Jeg har en kjempefin ferie i San Francisco. *


 
Your sentence is fine! You could also say "Jeg har det kjempefint (her) i San Francisco" (provided the person you're telling knows you're on holiday).

Careful about the things I pointed out, though. I don't know if it's an absolute rule, but the "infinitive marker" "å" is never used with monosyllabic (in the present tense) auxiliary verbs ("vil", "kan", må", "skal", etc.) The only exception I can think of is "tør" (dares). And I would put "på norsk" at the end of the sentence, as indicated. Alternatively, you could say: "Jeg vil gjerne si dette/det følgende på norsk:".

Hope this is useful!


----------



## Obil Tu

Grefsen said:


> *Jeg håper at du skal ha en kjempefin helg.*


 
"Skal" generally implies certainty or determinism. Almost by definition it's therefore illogical to use together with "hope". "Du skal ha en kjempefin helg" would mean something like "You're going to have a great weekend" and nobody would say this, I think...


----------



## Grefsen

Obil Tu said:


> Your sentence is fine! You could also say "Jeg har det kjempefint (her) i San Francisco" (provided the person you're telling knows you're on holiday).
> 
> Careful about the things I pointed out, though. I don't know if it's an absolute rule, but the "infinitive marker" "å" is never used with monosyllabic (in the present tense) auxiliary verbs ("vil", "kan", må", "skal", etc.) The only exception I can think of is "tør" (dares). And I would put "på norsk" at the end of the sentence, as indicated. Alternatively, you could say: "Jeg vil gjerne si dette/det følgende på norsk:".
> 
> Hope this is useful!



*Tusen takk!*  Your explanation is very helpful.  



Obil Tu said:


> "Skal" generally implies certainty or determinism. Almost by definition it's therefore illogical to use together with "hope". "Du skal ha en kjempefin helg" would mean something like "You're going to have a great weekend" and nobody would say this, I think...


Using *"**håper" *with* "skal" *has been a bad habit of mine.   Hopefully after reading this excellent reply, it will be a habit I will be breaking very soon. 

The only examples I can think of when it might be appropriate to use *"Du skal ha en kjempefin helg" *would be when someone is either feeling really down or perhaps when someone is lacking confidence about something that is going to happen during the coming weekend. In these cases would it be appropriate to use *"Du skal ha en kjempefin helg"* to help raise someone's spirits or to give their confidence a little boost?


----------



## Obil Tu

You're welcome! Nice to be of help!


Grefsen said:


> The only examples I can think of when it might be appropriate to use *"Du skal ha en kjempefin helg" *would be when someone is either feeling really down or perhaps when someone is lacking confidence about something that is going to happen during the coming weekend. In these cases would it be appropriate to use *"Du skal ha en kjempefin helg"* to help raise someone's spirits or to give their confidence a little boost?



This still sounds strange to me. I can't think of any situation where it wouldn't, even though it's grammatically correct. It would make more sense to say "jeg skal ha en kjempefin helg" (even though this sounds a little odd, too), implying that I intend to have a great weekend.

For the situations you describe, I'd rather say "du kommer (sikkert) til å ha/få en kjempefin helg" ("you'll (surely) have a great weekend") or just "(du må) ha en kjempefin helg" ("have a great weekend")...


----------



## Grefsen

Obil Tu said:


> For the situations you describe, I'd rather say "du kommer (sikkert) til å ha/få en kjempefin helg" ("you'll (surely) have a great weekend") or just "(du må) ha en kjempefin helg" ("have a great weekend")...


*Tusen takk for det!* 

If this situation ever does arise I think I'll go with the *"du kommer sikkert til å få en kjempefin helg"* option.   For me personally *"du må ha en kjempefin helg"* (you must have a nice weekend) sounds too much like an order.


----------



## Obil Tu

Grefsen said:


> If this situation ever does arise I think I'll go with the *"du kommer sikkert til å få en kjempefin helg"* option.   For me personally *"du må ha en kjempefin helg"*[/COLOR] (you must have a nice weekend) sounds too much like an order.



I see what you mean (and grammatically, it is, I suppose), but by I Norwegian I don't think it would be taken as one.


----------



## Grefsen

Obil Tu said:


> I see what you mean (and grammatically, it is, I suppose), but by I Norwegian I don't think it would be taken as one.


This is good to know.  At times I have felt a little uncomfortable about some Norwegians having the tendency to say "you must" quite a lot when they are speaking English.    One person in particular is a former school teacher and at times when I kept hearing her say "you must" I was starting to feel as though I was being treated like a small child.  

In any event,....during my next trip to Norway I will do my best to have a little more compassion and try to not assume that I am being ordered around whenever I hear someone say "you must" *på engelsk. *


----------



## Huffameg

Eg gjev norskkurs til nokre studentar og har kome over skal/kommer til å-problematikken. 

Finst det ein regel for bruken av desse to?


----------



## Grefsen

Huffameg said:


> Eg gjev norskkurs til nokre studentar og har kome over skal/kommer til å-problematikken.
> 
> Finst det ein regel for bruken av desse to?


*J**eg ikke forstår så godt.  

Vær så snill og gi meg engelsk oversettelsen når du har litt tid.  

På forhånd takk! *


----------



## Grefsen

Obil Tu said:


> Your sentence is fine! You could also say "Jeg har det kjempefint (her) i San Francisco" (provided the person you're telling knows you're on holiday).
> 
> Careful about the things I pointed out, though. I don't know if it's an absolute rule, but the "infinitive marker" "å" is never used with monosyllabic (in the present tense) auxiliary verbs ("vil", "kan", må", "skal", etc.) The only exception I can think of is "tør" (dares). And I would put "på norsk" at the end of the sentence, as indicated. Alternatively, you could say: "Jeg vil gjerne si dette/det følgende på norsk:".
> 
> Hope this is useful!


For my* norske venner* who aren't taking any extra time off from work for Easter could I write the following?

*Jeg håper du har en kjempfin påskehelg.*


----------



## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> For my* norske venner* who aren't taking any extra time off from work for Easter could I write the following?
> 
> *Jeg håper du har en kjempfin påskehelg.*


 

If it's "påskehelg" at the time they receive the message, your sentence is very fine. If you want to say that you hope they are going to have one such, you should write "Jeg håper du får en kjempefin påskehelg" (or, of course, "dere", if it's plural).


----------



## Huffameg

Grefsen said:


> *J**eg ikke forstår så godt.
> 
> Vær så snill og gi meg engelsk oversettelsen når du har litt tid.
> 
> På forhånd takk! *



I'm sorry. 
I was just asking if anyone knew a rule of when to apply "skal" and when to apply "kommer til å". I know this intuitively but when I tried to explain it to my students I realised that I'm not sure how to reconstruct such a rule. 
I guess "kommer til å" would be used in a more objective way as describing an effect to a cause or the like, whereas "skal" is something that I imagine myself (or anyone else) doing in the future. 

Jeg skal reise til Normandie i påska. 
Jeg kommer til å reise til Normandie i påska. 

I would say that the second is me taking "a step back from myself" trying to describe what's probably going to happen. But this would be an awful rule.


----------



## Zadrien

simdal said:


> [...] _Eng_: "There is a pencil on the table" (This is a fact. And the pencil is an object, so you use "er")
> _Nor_: "Det *er* en blyant på bordet" [...]


 
Hi! I was just wondering if you would use "det finnes" in this case instead of "det er".

Thanks!


----------



## Huffameg

Zadrien said:


> Hi! I was just wondering if you would use "det finnes" in this case instead of "det er".
> 
> Thanks!



No. Those are not synonyms. 
"Å finnes" is more like to exist. 
If I say "det finnes en blyant" I'm saying that there exists (at least) one pencil.

You could use "_der_ er" as well as "_det_ er".

That said, there are several other alternative terms you can use. The verb "å ligge" means "to lie" (as in being in an horizontal position) and can be used in this context: "det ligger en blyant på bordet".


----------



## oskhen

Zadrien said:


> Hi! I was just wondering if you would use "det finnes" in this case instead of "det er".
> 
> Thanks!


 
It's not wrong, but in most circumstances "det er" would be better.


----------



## Grefsen

Grefsen said:


> *J**eg ikke forstår så godt.
> 
> Vær så snill og gi meg engelsk oversettelsen når du har litt tid.
> 
> På forhånd takk! *


Was it correct for me to use *engelsk oversettelsen* in the above sentence or should I have perhaps used *engelsk oversettelse* instead?

*På forhånd takk!*


----------



## vestfoldlilja

Vær så snill og gi meg en engelsk oversettelse når du har litt tid.

Oversettelsen means the translation, as oppose to a translation. 

And, the sentence above should read "Jeg forstår ikke så godt hva du mener" - I don't rightly understand what you mean.


----------



## hanne

I think "*den* engelsk*e* oversettelsen" would have worked just as fine.
Both "Could you please give me an English translation?" and "Could you please give me the English translation?" seem perfectly valid to me.


----------



## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> Vær så snill og gi meg en engelsk oversettelse når du har litt tid.
> 
> Oversettelsen means the translation, as oppose to a translation.
> 
> And, the sentence above should read "Jeg forstår ikke så godt hva du mener" - I don't rightly understand what you mean.


*
Tusen takk for hjelpen.   

"Jeg forstår ikke så godt hva du mener" er perfekt for denne situasjonen. 
*


----------



## Grefsen

hanne said:


> I think "*den* engelsk*e* oversettelsen" would have worked just as fine.
> Both "Could you please give me an English translation?" and "Could you please give me the English translation?" seem perfectly valid to me.


I think you are right that both replies are perfectly valid.  However for this type of an example I tend to like saying "Could you please give me an English translation?" better since there are usually several ways to translate a couple of sentences from Norwegian to English.


----------



## vestfoldlilja

You're welcome.

And Hanne is right, one could use "den engelske oversettelsen" as well, but to me it sounds like a translation is already available and doesn’t need to be made first.


----------

