# Norwegian: I just had the three most Norwegian days...



## Grefsen

During the past three days I've been with a lot of Norwegian friends and family in Seattle and had a lot of experiences similar to what I would have during a trip to Norway.  If I wrote the following, I think most of the native English speakers I know would understand what I mean: 

I just had the three most Norwegian days of my vacation.

I'd like to write something similar to this *på norsk *on some postcards that I'd like to send to friends in Norway.

Her er ett forsøk:

Jeg bare opplevde de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min.


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## NorwegianNYC

Grefsen said:


> During the past three days I've been with a lot of Norwegian friends and family in Seattle and had a lot of experiences similar to what I would have during a trip to Norway.  If I wrote the following, I think most of the native English speakers I know would understand what I mean:
> 
> I just had the three most Norwegian days of my vacation.
> 
> I'd like to write something similar to this *på norsk *on some postcards that I'd like to send to friends in Norway.
> 
> Her er ett forsøk:
> 
> Jeg bare opplevde de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min.



I Seattle hadde jeg de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min.


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## Grefsen

Tusen takk for ditt raske svar *NYC!*   Det var snilt av deg.  





NorwegianNYC said:


> I Seattle hadde jeg de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min.


I've spent a lot of time in Seattle during this vacation, but since most of the Norwegian experiences I've had were in the Ballard district of the city, would the following be correct?

I Seattle bydelen Ballard hadde jeg de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min.


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## NorwegianNYC

If you add another element (like Ballard) I suggest you rewrite the sentence: Jeg tilbrakte de tre mest norske dagene av ferien min i bydelen Ballard i Seattle


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## sendintheclowns

Many good examples of rewrites have been given, but I just wanted to focus on the word "just," implying that something happened very recently or immediately before the statement was made. This feeling was not conveyed in the examples given, I think.

The problem is that "Just" cannot be translated to "bare" in this context. "Bare" means "only," meaning a smaller amount of something.  

I think I would use the word "akkurat" or "nettopp", i.e. "Jeg opplevde akkurat/nettopp de tre mest norske dagene ..."


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## NorwegianNYC

I believe _nylig_​ is better.


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## sendintheclowns

I agree, it sounds better. I think there is a slight different in meaning, though: "Nylig" means recently, which could be yesterday or last week, perhaps, whereas "nettopp" would mean just a moment before the present.


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## Magb

Am I the only one who would prefer "norskeste" over "mest norske"? It sounds a little hokey, but I think it fits the context.


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## TomTrussel

Magb said:


> Am I the only one who would prefer "norskeste" over "mest norske"? It sounds a little hokey, but I think it fits the context.



No, I've been thinking the same, but I'm not sure its subtle change of meaning is picked up by Grefsens friends when coming from a non-native... no disrespect to Grefsen, but adding "poor" grammar to a sentence to make a subtle change of meaning is not something you do unless it's your native language, or you are really really fluent in it 

TT


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## NorwegianNYC

Hi! TT is absolutely correct. Nationality adjectives (among other) must have _periphrastic comparison_,(a construct with _mer/mest/meste_ + the adjective in _positive_) and the rule is the same in English (_Danish - more Danish - most Danish_, and not _Danish - *Danisher - *Danishest_)


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## Magb

NorwegianNYC said:


> Hi! TT is absolutely correct. Nationality adjectives (among other) must have _periphrastic comparison_,(a construct with _mer/mest/meste_ + the adjective in _positive_) and the rule is the same in English (_Danish - more Danish - most Danish_, and not _Danish - *Danisher - *Danishest_)


I disagree. "Bad grammar" or not, Norwegians use morphological comparatives and superlatives with nationalities and other adjectives where you aren't "supposed to" do it all the time. Take a look at this: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=norskeste. Most of the hits are duplicates, and as usual with Google you can't trust the alleged number of total hits at all, but there are still many legitimate examples. Many of them are no doubt in fairly informal contexts, but that doesn't mean they should be ignored.

Whether it's appropriate for someone speaking Norwegian as a second language to use such forms is a different question, and I won't disagree that "norskeste" might raise some eyebrows when written/spoken by someone whose Norwegian has some other imperfections. But it's still worth knowing that it's an available alternative. Like I said, I actually find it preferable to "mest norske" -- on a purely subjective basis of course -- in Grefsen's sentence.

By the way, I think the acceptability of adding -ere, -est, -este is not so much a question of semantic categories like nationalities as it's a question of prosody: "norskeste" is acceptable because "norsk" is monosyllabic. Norwegian mostly uses the adjective suffixes we're talking about with adjectives with short stems, so "norskeste" is okay, but *"amerikanskeste" is decidedly not. Same deal in English really; you'll probably never hear anyone say *"Indonesianest", but you might hear "Frenchest" or "Dutchest". Granted, "Frenchest" is certainly not a standard thing to say in English, but you can't say it's ungrammatical either.


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## NorwegianNYC

Hi Magb! Usage does not indicate correctness! I am not disputing the fact that people say all kinds of things, but in proper Norwegian grammar, as well as in proper English grammar, nationality adjectives are suppose to periphrastic. Norwegian do say (and write) _forhåndsvis, hverken - eller, fordeler og bakdeler, Mor's kro, hun røk korsbåndet_ osv. That fact it is being used does not make it right! I often use Google-searches for words in my line of work, but the number of hits on a Google search in terms of what is correct is comparable to the number of Facebook 'likes' as for what is a good move - i.e. it is indicative, not normative. 'Norskeste' is colloquial, and from a strictly grammatical point of view, the word is perfectly fine. However, in terms of computers, the word _nedlaster_ is also possible (and sometimes used), but the correct way of expressing a preposition-verb compound like that is _laster ned_​.


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