# Norwegian: klaffer



## Grefsen

I was attempting to read an article in Norwegian about the International Association of Ultrarunners' (IAU) 24-hour Run World Championship and am having difficulty translating the word *"klaffer."* 

Here is the link to the article:

http://www.kondis.no/spennende-vm-i-24-timers.4783317-127676.html

And here is the paragraph I am having trouble understanding:



> *De andre gutta
> *
> Per Audun Heskestad kan klare 225-230 km om alt *klaffer. *Petter Tubaas og Lars Chr. Dørum har begge gjort over 210 km, og kan sikkert gjøre det igjen.   I aller siste liten ble Norges lag utvidet med førstereserven Joar Flynn Jensen - også han bør kunne klare over 200 km en gang til. Årsaken til dette siste startet med en misforståelse siden han figurerte på IAUs startliste, og fortsatte med at han overtok en ledig hotellplass etter en leder som ikke fikk reist.



In one of the Norwegian-English dictionaries that I checked, the translation given for *"klaffer"* is "flaps."    What could be another possible translation for *"klaffer"* in the above sentence?

*På forhånd takk!
*


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## Vikingo

... "if everything works out". The colloquial verb "å klaffe" means to succeed or work out (and also to fit).


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## Grefsen

Vikingo said:


> ... "if everything works out". The colloquial verb "å klaffe" means to succeed or work out (and also to fit).


Takk for hjelpen *Vikingo**.* 

Here is my attempt at a English translation of the first two sentences of the paragraph I was quoting:

Per Audun Heskestad can do 225-230 km if everything works out. Petter  Tubaas and Lars Chr Dørum have both done more than 210 km, and can  certainly do it again.


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## Grefsen

When I first did a forum search for the word *"klaffer"* I found this thread from a few years ago:

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=878047&highlight=klaffer



> Hey, har et spørsmål jeg, hva betyr dette ord? jeg ser det allesteds men jeg kan ikke finne hva det betyr. Kanskje bare det engelske ordet om det *klaffer.*


This attempt at a translation doesn't quite sound correct:

Hey, I have a question, what does this word mean? I see it everywhere but I can not find what it means. Perhaps only the English word that works/fits. 

Does anyone have another suggestion for an English translation of *"klaffer"* in the above example.


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## Cerb

> Kanskje bare det engelske ordet om det klaffer.


I wouldn't worry about it. No offense to the original poster, but the use of "klaffer" doesn't really make much sense here. Your translation means the same as the Norwegian quoted.


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## hanne

Grefsen said:


> Hey, I have a question, what does this word mean? I see it everywhere but I can not find what it means. Perhaps only the English word *if* that works/fits.


If I'm reading this right, you're missing the word "om"="if" - that should at least make your sentence more coherent.


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## Grefsen

hanne said:


> If I'm reading this right, you're missing the word "om"="if" - that should at least make your sentence more coherent.


Thanks for pointing this out *Hanne.*  The sentence still doesn't sound correct to me so perhaps as *Cerb* suggests, a word other than *"klaffer" *needed to be used to make the sentence easier to understand.


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## Cerb

You're both right. There should be an "if" there and "klaffer" isn't the right word to use here. "Om alt klaffer"/"alt klaffet" is an idiomatic expression. "With any luck" or even "God willing" are somewhat similar, but "if everything works out" is probably the closest in your first example from the IAU WC. "Om alt klaffer" does imply a bit of luck in my book, but I guess that could be said of "if everything works out" as well. 

I don't think simply replacing "klaffer" with another word will help the sentence. It needs to be rewritten completely to convey the intended meaning. "Klaffer" is closer to "succeeds" than "fits" here.


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## anOther

Allthough 'sikker' can mean 'certain', *sikkert* in this context means probably.


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## Grefsen

anOther said:


> Al*l*though 'sikker' can mean 'certain', *sikkert* in this context means probably.


Tusen takk for det og velkommen til nordiske språkforumet!


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