# Norwegian: Thanks for your kind words



## Grefsen

I received a very nice email from a good friend in Norway and wanted to *skriv på norsk* "thanks for your kind words" in my reply.  Would it be grammatically correct if I wrote the following?

*Tusen takk for snille ordene dine.
*


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## vestfoldlilja

You must add de, in the sentence; tusen takk for de snille ordene dine, and you might want to change snille with vennlige. I think it sounds better with vennlige, but it's not wrong with snille, you can also use gode.


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## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> You must add de, in the sentence; tusen takk for de snille ordene dine, and you might want to change snille with vennlige. I think it sounds better with vennlige, but it's not wrong with snille, you can also use gode.


*Tusen takk for det!  *

The other option I was considering was *"tusen takk for de ordene dine." 
*Would it be implied in this sentence that I am thanking the person for the nice words that they wrote in their previous message?


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## hanne

Grefsen said:


> *Tusen takk for det!  *
> 
> The other option I was considering was *"tusen takk for de ordene dine."
> *Would it be implied in this sentence that I am thanking the person for the nice words that they wrote in their previous message?



Surely that would then be "tusen takk for ordene dine" - you only need the "de" when there's an adjective.
"Thanks a lot for your words" - you're as good as judge as we are, as to what that implies in your context.

And in your first message:


> and wanted to *skrive på norsk*


you need an infinitive, not an imperative.


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## vestfoldlilja

Hanne is correct, the d is not needed. 

I’ve tried to explain it here, but I’m not used to do so in English, and I hope I haven’t made any glaring mistakes, if I have, I hope people will correct me. 

Tusen takk for de vennlige ordene dine – Thank you for your kind words; vennlige + ordene, makes up a noun compound (adjective + noun), and the pronoun, de, is directly tied to it. Pronouns are only tied to nouns/ nouns compounds. The last pronoun is needed to show whose words it is. 

Tusen takk for ordene dine – Thank you for your words; here the, de, is not needed, and it is grammatically incorrect to add it in.  

If the dine at the end of the sentence were left out, then one would need a pronoun; tusen takk for de ordene – thank (you) for those words. This is a sentence best used in dialogue and when it is a given who you are thanking, this is because in Norwegian that sentence lacks a pronoun that address who it is that is speaking.


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## Huffameg

Grefsen said:


> The other option I was considering was *"tusen takk for de ordene dine."
> *Would it be implied in this sentence that I am thanking the person for the nice words that they wrote in their previous message?



I don't know about every one else but "tusen takk for orda dine" doesn't say much. You should add an adjective here. Unnless that fact that someone pronounced/wrote some words rather than none and that you would like to thank them for "speaking up".. But I guess this wasn't the context.


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## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> Hanne is correct, the d*e* is not needed.
> 
> I’ve tried to explain it here, but I’m not used to do*ing* so in English, and I hope I haven’t made any glaring mistakes, if I have, I hope people will correct me.



Your English is very good *vestfoldlilja* and I can understand everything you have written quite clearly.  My only minor suggestion would be for you to use "doing" instead of "do" in the above sentence. 
 


vestfoldlilja said:


> Tusen takk for de vennlige ordene dine – Thank you for your kind words; vennlige + ordene, makes up a noun compound (adjective + noun), and the pronoun, de, is directly tied to it. Pronouns are only tied to nouns/ nouns compounds. The last pronoun is needed to show whose words it is.
> 
> Tusen takk for ordene dine – Thank you for your words; here the, de, is not needed, and it is grammatically incorrect to add it in.
> 
> If the dine at the end of the sentence were left out, then one would need a pronoun; tusen takk for de ordene – thank (you) for those words. This is a sentence best used in dialogue and when it is a given who you are thanking, this is because in Norwegian that sentence lacks a pronoun that address who it is that is speaking.



*Tusen takk for utmerket forklaring din.  *

(I hope I got it right.    )


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## vestfoldlilja

Thanks for the correction! 

And I'm glad what I wrote made sense, I was afraid it wouldn't. 

You almost got it right, just some minor corrections; tusen takk for *den* *utmerkede* forklaringen din. 

I wrote utmerkede with a d and not a t, because that's how I would spell and pronounce it (with its Danish letter), but if you like t better, it's like this; utmerkete. They are both correct. If it's written with a t, people would most likely, at least where I live pronounce is as if it's written like *utmerkte*. That is easier and faster to pronounce.


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## Huffameg

Grefsen said:


> *Tusen takk for utmerket forklaring din. *



Again, when there's an adjective, you should add a "de/den/det" (according to the noun). In any case there should be one determined explanation. However, you can adjust it to be in a general, undetermined sense. That makes three possibilities: 

Tusen takk for *den* utmerkete forklaringa(en) di/din.
Tusen takk for forklaringa(en) din.
Tusen takk for utmerket forklaring.


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