# Norwegian: behøve eller trenge



## Grefsen

If I want to write in Norwegian "If you *need* help with Norwegian" would I use 'behøve' or 'trenge' for 'need.?'  My guess is that I would use 'trenge' and could perhaps write the phrase as follows:

Hvis du trenge hjelp med norsk


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> Hvis du trenger hjelp med norsk



In the present tense  But I agree, while both choices are definitely possible, *trenge* sounds better and more natural in this sentence. If you had used *behøve*, it wouldn't sound particularly strange; I probably wouldn't have noticed.


----------



## jonquiliser

This is interesting. In Swedish we have the term "trängande behov" for pressing needs, with the obvious similarities between tränga(nde)-trenge and behov (behöva)-behøve (the verb we'd use for "to need", though, is att behöva; trängande is, I believe, only used in this set phrase and possible some other, marginal use). What would "pressing need" be in Norwegian?


----------



## Grefsen

'Tusen takk!'



Lemminkäinen said:


> In the present tense



I just got a nasty flashback from my days at "Universitetet i Oslo internasjonale sommerskolen" when I used make these types of mistakes and received the comment  *"El**elementær Feil!!"*


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> I just got a nasty flashback from my days at "Universitetet i Oslo internasjonale sommerskolen" when I used make these types of mistakes and received the comment  *"El**elementær Feil!!"*



Sorry about that 



jonquiliser said:


> What would "pressing need" be in Norwegian?



*Trengende behov* is possible in Norwegian too, actually; I can't think of any other alternatives right now, but I'm sure there is one.


----------



## Aleco

*Å trenge* høres mye bedre ut på folkemunne enn *å behøve*. Så jeg ville anbefalt det første


----------



## kirsitn

jonquiliser said:


> What would "pressing need" be in Norwegian?



I would say _pressende behov_ or _akutt behov_.

Ooops, that should be presserende, not pressende!


----------



## Grefsen

This is actually the full sentence that I originally wanted to write 'på norsk:'

"If you need help with Norwegian, you can *check out* the Word Reference website."  

I'm not really sure what would be the best expression to use 'på norsk' for "going to" or "checking out" a website.  In any event, here is my attempt at writing this 'på norsk' using *'eksaminere'* for 'check' or 'examine.'

 Hvis du trenger hjelp med norsk du kan *eksaminere*  Word Reference websider.


----------



## Lemminkäinen

No, using *eksaminere* in this context won't work  It's a (fairly) false friend with 'examine', so I can see why you'd think so, though. It means to question somebody at an exam (verbally. *Læreren eksaminerte eleven i biologi*), or simply to ask a lot of scrutinising questions (*Jeg ble eksaminert av politiet*; though here *avhørt* (interrogated) would be a better choice).

I think I would've said something like:

*Trenger du hjelp med norsken kan du gå til WordReference-forumet.*

Using *norsken*, in the definite form, indicates that the person you're addressing is learning Norwegian, while using the indefinite *norsk* will be more general - 'if you happen to need help with Norwegian'.

Oh, and I personally prefer using *nettside* instead of *webside* (and then you have Språkrådet who recommends *vevside* ). 

One more thing; in your clause "you can check out", remember that Norwegian is a V2 language.

Du kan gå til WordReference-forumet hvis du trenger hjelp med norsken.
Hvis du trenger hjelp med norsken kan du gå til WordReference-forumet.

That blue part is the first constituent in both those sentences.


----------



## kirsitn

Go to a website -> _Gå til en webside/nettside_
Check out a website -> _Sjekke ut/kikke på/se på en webside/nettside_

Eksaminere means to ask questions or give exercises during an (oral) examination, so it has a much narrower meaning in Norwegian than in English.

If you want to say "examine closely", you can use _studere nøye/se godt etter_.

The first part of your translation is fine, but _du kan_ must be changed to _kan du_ because it's the beginning of a partial sentence (subordinate clause?). We then have:

Hvis du trenger hjelp med norsk, (så) kan du gå til/sjekke ut Word References websider.


----------



## Grefsen

kirsitn said:


> Go to a website -> _Gå til en webside/nettside_
> Check out a website -> _Sjekke ut/kikke på/se på en webside/nettside_
> 
> Eksaminere means to ask questions or give exercises during an (oral) examination, so it has a much narrower meaning in Norwegian than in English.
> 
> If you want to say "examine closely", you can use _studere nøye/se godt etter_.
> 
> The first part of your translation is fine, but _du kan_ must be changed to _kan du_ because it's the beginning of a partial sentence (subordinate clause?). We then have:
> 
> Hvis du trenger hjelp med norsk, (så) kan du gå til/sjekke ut Word References websider.



'Tusen takk igjen' for another very thorough explanation. 

Do you think 'gå til' is currently used more often in Norway or are both  'gå til' and  'sjekke ut' both commonly used?


----------



## Lemminkäinen

Grefsen said:


> Do you think 'gå til' is currently used more often in Norway or are both  'gå til' and  'sjekke ut' both commonly used?



It depends on what you want to say. If you're saying something like "you really should check out this site", then *sjekke ut* will be the best choice. *Gå til* is used pretty much the same as 'go to' in English.

Interestingly, the terminology for use of internet isn't completely cut in stone. You'll often hear commercials saying things like *klikk deg inn / logg inn på våre nettsider*, so I'd say there's some linguistic confusion of what verbs to use. 
It's also possible to say *gå inn*, as in *gå inn på aftenposten.no for å lese nyheter*.

Not easy, in other words


----------

