# Norwegian: Talking about the morning, Formiddag vs Morges?



## DonaldJWafer

What exactly is the difference?

If I'm talking about 'this morning' it should be 'i morges' correct?  And morgen means tomorrow.  So to say tomorrow morning would I say morgen morges?

And when would I use formiddag?

Thanks for your help.


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## Pteppic

Roughly:

Morgen: 6am (or whenever the sun rises before that) - 9am
Formiddag: 9am - noon

According to wikipedia. Some people feel "morgen" lasts all the way to noon, and divide the afternoon into "formiddag" and "ettermiddag". For me, "morgen" ends somewhere between 9 and 10am. 

"Morges" is idiomatic and can only be used with "today" or "yesterday" ("i (dag) morges", "i går morges"). "Tomorrow morning" would, for that reason, usually just be "i morgen". "I morgen morges" sounds weird and "i morgen morgen" sounds silly. A possible alternative is to say "tomorrow at [insert time] o'clock" ("i morgen kl. [...]"), at least for the "morgen" part of the day. "I morgen formiddag" is fine.


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## basslop

Yes, *i morges *means the morning today. Correspondingly You may say *i går morges*, yesterday morning and also *i forigårs morges*. However *i morgen morges* is wrong. Seems that *morges *only works for past tense. For future tense use *i dag tidlig*,*i morgen tidlig*, *i overimorgen tidlig*.

For days further away from today simply use *morgen*, *forrige tirsdag morgen, neste onsdag morgen*. Saying just *fredag morgen *implies the following Friday morning.


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## oskhen

basslop said:


> Saying just *fredag morgen *implies the following Friday morning.



Could also imply last friday, if it's not too long ago, couldn't it?

By the way: I would use "tidlig i overmorgen" instead of "i overmorgen tidlig" (and it's "overmorgen", not "overimorgen"). But yes, "i morgen tidlig".

It's also "forgårs", not "forigårs". Common mistakes, those, I've made them as well.


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## basslop

oskhen said:


> Could also imply last friday, if it's not too long ago, couldn't it?
> 
> By the way: I would use "tidlig i overmorgen" instead of "i overmorgen tidlig" (and it's "overmorgen", not "overimorgen"). But yes, "i morgen tidlig".
> 
> It's also "forgårs", not "forigårs". Common mistakes, those, I've made them as well.


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## Grefsen

Velkommen til nordiske språkforumet *Donald!  

*Welcome to the Nordic Language Forum. 



DonaldJWafer said:


> And when would I use formiddag?


This is a very good question that I hadn't given much thought to before reading this thread. ** 



Pteppic said:


> Roughly:
> 
> Morgen: 6am (or whenever the sun rises before that) - 9am
> Formiddag: 9am - noon
> 
> According to wikipedia. Some people feel "morgen" lasts all the way to noon, and divide the afternoon into "formiddag" and "ettermiddag". For me, "morgen" ends somewhere between 9 and 10am.


So between 9 AM - 10 AM can be either "morgen" or  "formiddag," depending on how you are feeling?


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## DonaldJWafer

Tusen Takk!

That makes more sense now.  Thank you everyone for helping!


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## oskhen

basslop said:


>



Why the sad face, basslop? Am I wrong?


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## Pteppic

Grefsen said:


> So between 9 AM - 10 AM can be either "morgen" or  "formiddag," depending on how you are feeling?



Well, it's a gradual shift (in my odd, little mind, anyway), so it's difficult to pinpoint, although it's probably closer to 9 am than 10. And like I said, that's just my personal perception


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## basslop

oskhen said:


> Why the sad face, basslop? Am I wrong?



No, you're right. Not sad, but embarrassed that I didn't know for(i)gårs and over(i)morgen.


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## hanne

Pteppic said:


> Well, it's a gradual shift (in my odd, little mind, anyway), so it's difficult to pinpoint, although it's probably closer to 9 am than 10. And like I said, that's just my personal perception



To me it's closer to 10 than to 9, so I think it _is_ very individual - exactly like the break between afternoon and evening that English also has. I thought back on this thread when I met a colleague today at 10.30, and she greeted me with a "godmorgen". I thought that was late, but I'm guessing she'd just arrived (we have very flexible hours), and just said it out of habit, as she usually comes in earlier.


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## Grefsen

hanne said:


> To me it's closer to 10 than to 9, so I think it _is_ very individual - exactly like the break between afternoon and evening that English also has.


Do you mean teatime? 



hanne said:


> I thought back on this thread when I met a colleague today at 10.30, and she greeted me with a "godmorgen". I thought that was late, but I'm guessing she'd just arrived (we have very flexible hours), and just said it out of habit, as she usually comes in earlier.


So after you have been at work for awhile and it is between 10.00 - 12.00 would you greet your co-workers by saying "God formiddag"?


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> Do you mean teatime?
> 
> So after you have been at work for awhile and it is between 10.00 - 12.00 would you greet your co-workers by saying "God formiddag"?



You could. I don't think it's very common, though. "God morgen" (or, usually, short versions like "[god] morn") is fairly common. Even more common is "god natt" (or, short and more informal; "natta"), but that's mostly used when going to bed/going to rest for the night. "God dag", "god formiddag" and "god kveld" is not so much used. And definitely not "god formiddag". That's my experience, at least.


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## hanne

Well, to me afternoon is until around 18, which I think is a bit past teatime... - so this exactly shows my point of how individual usage of these terms are .

I agree with oskhen - when it's too late for "godmorgen" we usually just revert to "hej" the rest of the day. But "hej" in the morning would sound strange - as long as it still is "morgen", "godmorgen" is pretty much the only thing that sounds right. "God formiddag" is something we use a bit jokingly, by someone who's arriving a bit late and knows it.

As oskhen said "godnat" is the only other commonly used "god-" word (in Danish too), but is used when going to bed, so in practice it's mostly used within the family.


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## Grefsen

I just looked at several online Norwegian dictionaries and each of them translated "formiddag" as "morning" in English.  It seems clear from this thread that a better translation would be "mid-morning." 


hanne said:


> I agree with oskhen - when it's too late for "godmorgen" we usually just revert to "hej" the rest of the day. But "hej" in the morning would sound strange - as long as it still is "morgen", "godmorgen" is pretty much the only thing that sounds right. "God formiddag" is something we use a bit jokingly, by someone who's arriving a bit late and knows it.


I have never heard anyone say "good mid-morning" in English.  However, at one of the companies I worked at if someone arrived a bit late for work they would often be greeted with a sarcastic "good afternoon."


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## Havfruen

Thanks for the informative discussion. I had not realized the difference between formiddagen and morgenen, probably because we do not distinguish early and later morning in English.

How do I say tomorrow in the later morning?

"i morgen i formiddagen" or just " "i formiddagen"?


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## basslop

Havfruen said:


> Thanks for the informative discussion. I had not realized the difference between formiddagen and morgen, probably because we do not distinguish early and later morning in English.
> 
> How do I say tomorrow in the later morning?
> 
> "i morgen i formiddagen" or just " "i formiddagen"?


  I would say: *I morgen formiddag*.


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## Havfruen

Right. That sounds good. Same pattern as  "i morgen eftermiddag", "i morgen aften".


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## oskhen

Havfruen said:


> Right. That sounds good. Same pattern as  "i morgen eftermiddag", "i morgen aften".



Yes, but if it's Norwegian you want to write and not Danish, I would recommend using "ettermiddag" instead of "eftermiddag" and "kveld" instead of "aften".


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## hanne

Havfruen said:


> Thanks for the informative discussion. I had not realized the difference between formiddagen and morgen,


Watch out "formiddag and morgen" or "formiddagen and morgenen"


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## Havfruen

hanne said:


> Watch out "formiddag and morgen" or "formiddagen and morgenen"


 
Indeed. I didn't mean the difference between the indefinite and definite nouns, I meant the early  vs. late morning distinction found in Norwegian and Danish.

   Tak fordi du retter mine fejl


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## oskhen

Funny thing: one of my fellow students came in here shortly before 11 and greeted people with "god morgen"


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