# Norwegian: Fractions



## sjiraff

Hello everyone, 
I know we're not a maths forum _but_ I wanted to clear something up which might be useful for lots of people learning Norwegian.

I know "halvparten" is used for things like "Fra nå av skal jeg spise halvparten så mye mat". (from now on i'll eat half as much food)

But I'm wondering, if you want to say "a fourth of the food" or "a fourth as much", does it become fjerdedel så mye? The only times I've really seen halvdel/fjerdedel/tredjedel are with things like  "Filmen slippes ut i tredje fjerdedel 2014" (the third-quarter of 2014)

Another thing too is, if you want to say "a half-sized outfit" (or an outfit "half the size" do you say, "et halvparten så stort antrekk"? Or if it's a quarter of the size, do you say "kvart"?

Thanks!


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## Einherje

sjiraff said:


> But I'm wondering, if you want to say "a fourth of the food" or "a fourth as much", does it become fjerdedel så mye? The only times I've really seen halvdel/fjerdedel/tredjedel are with things like  "Filmen slippes ut i tredje fjerdedel 2014" (the third-quarter of 2014)


Yes, a fourth becomes "en fjerdedel" or "en firedel".

BTW for a quarter of a year we use "kvartal", so your last example should be "Filmen slippes (i) tredje kvartal 2014" which is no longer an example of use of fractions.
Also "å slippe ut" means to release from captivity.



sjiraff said:


> Another thing too is, if you want to say "a half-sized outfit" (or an outfit "half the size" do you say, "et halvparten så stort antrekk"? Or if it's a quarter of the size, do you say "kvart"?



Outfits are not a good example since we don't use half sizes for clothes in Norway. You could say "et halvparten så stort rom". We do not use "kvart så", here it would have to be "et fjerdedelen så stort rom". You could say something like "Rommet mitt er det kvarte av ditt." I think "kvart" is mostly used for measurement. i.e. en kvart pizza, tre kvart liter vann.

In Norwegian fractions are read like this: 3/5 = tre femdeler or tre femtedeler.

We have some fractions that often are read like this instead of the standard way:
1/4: en kvart
1/2: en halv
3/4: tre kvart
1 1/2: halvannen


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## sjiraff

Einherje said:


> Yes, a fourth becomes "en fjerdedel" or "en firedel".
> 
> BTW for a quarter of a year we use "kvartal", so your last example should be "Filmen slippes (i) tredje kvartal 2014" which is no longer an example of use of fractions.
> Also "å slippe ut" means to release from captivity.


Oh I was sure I had seen that used before for movies and stuff, but I guess I should have said lanseres or blir utgitt?




Einherje said:


> Outfits are not a good example since we don't use half sizes for clothes  in Norway. You could say "et halvparten så stort rom". We do not use  "kvart så", here it would have to be "et fjerdedelen så stort rom". You  could say something like "Rommet mitt er det kvarte av ditt." I think  "kvart" is mostly used for measurement. i.e. en kvart pizza, tre kvart  liter vann.


Got it, I wasn't sure and I had never seen "et fjerdedelen så stort..." before, but you would not say "et halvdelen så stort rom" then, it says "part" for halv- and anything else, -del?

About ". You  could say something like "Rommet mitt er det kvarte av ditt."" though, would you then say:

 "Rommet mitt er det halve av ditt"? (Meaning, it's half the size of yours!)




Einherje said:


> In Norwegian fractions are read like this: 3/5 = tre femdeler or tre femtedeler.


That's really good to know, thanks. One of those things you don't realise you don't know how to say until you come accross it and realise!

One thing I think I know is that you say "Det er min halvdel!" in that kind of case, but it made me wonder about using it to describe something as being "half the size"

Thanks and welcome to the forums Einherje


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## raumar

sjiraff said:


> But I'm wondering, if you want to say "a fourth of the food" or "a fourth as much", does it become fjerdedel så mye? The only times I've really seen halvdel/fjerdedel/tredjedel are with things like "Filmen slippes ut i tredje fjerdedel 2014" (the third-quarter of 2014)



It is a bit surprising if you haven't heard or seen "fjerdedel", "tredjedel", etc together with "av", for example "halvparten av" something, "en tredjedel/tredel av" something, and so on. A Google search will give you many examples.



sjiraff said:


> , but you would not say "et halvdelen så stort rom" then, it says "part" for halv- and anything else, -del?



Yes and no. In this context, I think this is the usual way to say it. But in general, you can also use "halvdel", "tredjepart", "fjerdepart" and so on. My dictionary even accepts "trepart" and "firepart", but these are very unusual. 



sjiraff said:


> About ". You  could say something like "Rommet mitt er det kvarte av ditt."" though, would you then say:
> 
> "Rommet mitt er det halve av ditt"? (Meaning, it's half the size of yours!)



That's right. But I think I prefer "Rommet mitt er halvparten så stort som ditt", even if it is a bit longer.



sjiraff said:


> Oh I was sure I had seen that used before for movies and stuff, but I guess I should have said lanseres or blir utgitt?



Yes, you can say "Filmen lanseres", eller "Filmen har premiere". "Utgitt" is not used when we talk about movies shown at the cinema, but you can say that "Filmen ble utgitt på DVD".


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## sjiraff

Thanks Raumar

I think some of the confusion comes from the endings with -en, sometimes to me it reads like "a-the-quarter so big room" rather than "a quarter so big" or why halvparten så... is said over just "en halvpart så..." or "en fjerdedel så..." etc

Thanks!


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## Einherje

sjiraff said:


> I think some of the confusion comes from the endings with -en, sometimes to me it reads like "a-the-quarter so big room" rather than "a quarter so big" or why halvparten så... is said over just "en halvpart så..." or "en fjerdedel så..." etc



I think I see what you mean, but I believe there is slight misunderstanding here. The indefinite article goes with room not "the-quarter so big". 

A different way of saying it would be: et rom, som er fjerdedelen/en fjerdedel så stort. There might also be more than one room. i.e. To fjerdelen så store rom.

You can actually use both "en halvpart så.." or "halvparten så..." in most cases. I don't know if there are any rules for this. I think that I would use the definite form most often.

"Det er en en tredjedel så stor fisk" is correct, but sounds a little bit strange for me.


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## sjiraff

Hmm I see what you mean now but



Einherje said:


> There might also be more than one room. i.e. To fjerdelen så store rom.



You wouldn't say "to fjerdedeler så store rom" here?


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## Einherje

sjiraff said:


> You wouldn't say "to fjerdedeler så store rom" here?



No, then it sounds like the fraction 2/4. Each room is just ONE quarter the size of another room, but we would say "To tre fjerdedeler så store rom" if they were 3/4 the size.


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## sjiraff

Einherje said:


> No, then it sounds like the fraction 2/4. Each room is just ONE quarter the size of another room, but we would say "To tre fjerdedeler så store rom" if they were 3/4 the size.



Ahh right, I just realised how backwards I had it there. It's two, quarter sized, rooms. Not two quarter - sized rooms. But then again, am I right in saying you can also say "to "to fjerdedel så store rom" (two quarter-so-large rooms) instead of "to fjerdedelen så stor rom"?

Thanks!


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## Einherje

sjiraff said:


> But then again, am I right in saying you can also say "to fjerdedel så store rom" (two quarter-so-large rooms) instead of "to fjerdedelen så stor rom"?



That doesn't sound quite right to me. I think it is better with "en fjerdedel" or "fjerdedelen".


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## sjiraff

Einherje said:


> That doesn't sound quite right to me. I think it is better with "en fjerdedel" or "fjerdedelen".



Oh like, "to én fjerdedel så store rom" (two one-quarter sized rooms)

Thanks :>


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