# Norwegian: artig



## Grefsen

*Jeg fikk en melding fra en ny Facebook-venninne og her er et kort utdrag:*
(I received a message from a new Facebook friend (female) and here is a short excerpt:  )

*Så artig da. 

Mitt oversettelseforsøk:*
(My translation attempt:  )

So nice then.

To provide some context, this message was sent in response to my message telling her how I had met her sister four years ago.

After I looked up *"artig"* and saw that two possible English translations were "nice" and "funny," I started wondering how the meaning of *"artig"* differs from some of the other Norwegian words that can mean "nice" *på engelsk* such as  *deilig, fin, hyggelig, og snill.*

I'm guessing that *"artig"* means nice in sort of a funny sense and that might be the reason why my friend used *"artig"* instead of *"hyggelig" eller "snill." * I'd be curious to know what some of our native speaking Norwegian friends think about this.   

*På forhånd takk! *


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## vestfoldlilja

My dictionary translates artig as funny, odd. 

Vi hadde det artig – we had fun
Det var artig – it was fun/funny
Hu var artig – she was funny.  

In English, funny isn’t used in the same manner as we use artig, and I find it difficult to explain how the expression is used properly. It’s not a good translation in my opinion to just use funny, and nice doesn’t really work for me either. 

The way I understand it she means it was funny in an odd coincidence, accidental circumstance way that you happen to have met her sister before, and now you’re a friend of hers. 

I hope others will explain it to you better, and I apologize if it’s hard to understand what I meant. 

Da doesn’t really add any meaning to the sentence; it’s a word we kind of let tag along certain sentences, more so in spoken speak than in writing. 

From what you wrote snill could not have been used instead of artig, but you’re right, hyggelig would work.  If you rewrite the sentence with snill it would be snilt, and read ” that was kind”.


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## Foygl

På dansk betyder _at være artig_, at man opfører sig ordentligt, og det bruges derfor specielt om børn. Dets antonym er _uartig_. Er der nogen der kan bekræfte hvorvidt denne betydning også bruges på norsk? Jeg blev bare nysgerring, eftersom jeg syntes, at det virkede underligt hvis disse ord havde så forskellige betydninger på vores sprog - det er dog ikke usandsynligt, men det ville være rart at vide!


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## vestfoldlilja

Jeg har aldri hørt det bli brukt slik på norsk før, men det kan jo like fullt være det blir brukt som på dansk i noen dialekter. 

Hvis vi tar utgangspunkt i bokmål så er det nok en falsk venn i godt selskap med rar/rart og rask for og nevne noen andre falske venner mellom dansk og norsk (så vel som svensk).  Jeg har eller aldri hørt uartig brukt før.


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## Tech12

Foygl said:


> På dansk betyder _at være artig_, at man opfører sig ordentligt, og det bruges derfor specielt om børn. Dets antonym er _uartig_. Er der nogen der kan bekræfte hvorvidt denne betydning også bruges på norsk? Jeg blev bare nysgerring, eftersom jeg syntes, at det virkede underligt hvis disse ord havde så forskellige betydninger på vores sprog - det er dog ikke usandsynligt, men det ville være rart at vide!



Jeg har definitivt hørt "uartig" brukt på måten du nevner, men det slår meg som litt foreldet på norsk. "Artig" brukes imidlertid ikke i betydningen "oppføre seg ordentlig", men det har ganske sikkert blitt brukt sånn før. (I følge ordboken kommer ordet fra tysk "av god art", så det stemmer jo godt).

Når det gjelder moderne norsk har ordboken dette å si:

*artig* *1* hyggelig, morsom; interessant _en a- kar_ / _et a- forsøk_ / _så a-!_ *2* rar, snodig; uvanlig _en a- skapning

_Det er vel ett av de ordene det er vanskelig å finne en perfekt oversettelse til, men det virker som du har forstått meningen i hvert fall.


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## Foygl

Tak til jer begge! 

Så det lader til, at den danske betydning muligvis også har været at finde på norsk, men ikke mere. "artig" kan dog på ingen måde bruges i dansk, som I begge beskriver, at det bliver brugt i moderne norsk.


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## Pteppic

Sånn for ordens skyld søkte jeg opp "uartig" i ordboka og fant følgende:

*uartig* (også utt uar>ti; påvirket av ty. _unartig_) mest foreld: uforskammet, uoppdragen, uskikkelig

Google fant også denne DN-artikkelen fra 2006.


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## Foygl

Ah, det passer jo fint til den danske betydning!


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## oskhen

"Vær så artig"/"du får være så artig", er vel noe man kan bruke omtrent som "vennligst" eller "vær så god" når man tilbyr noen å ta seg til rette eller oppfordrer en gjest til å forsyne seg av maten, eller liknende. Det er mulig denne bruken kan være beslektet med den danske? Noe gammeldags er det vel riktignok.


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## oskhen

vestfoldlilja said:


> The way I understand it she means it was funny in an odd coincidence, accidental circumstance way that you happen to have met her sister before, and now you’re a friend of hers.
> 
> I hope others will explain it to you better, and I apologize if it’s hard to understand what I meant.



I don't think it's possible to translate it better. It's one of those words it might be a real pain trying to explain to foreigners.


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## Huffameg

oskhen said:


> "Vær så artig"/"du får være så artig", er vel noe man kan bruke omtrent som "vennligst" eller "vær så god" når man tilbyr noen å ta seg til rette eller oppfordrer en gjest til å forsyne seg av maten, eller liknende. Det er mulig denne bruken kan være beslektet med den danske? Noe gammeldags er det vel riktignok.



Det har eg aldri høyrt før.


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## hanne

"Vær så artig" kan også bruges på dansk som alternativ til "vær så god", men det lyder noget gammeldags, og jeg bruger det kun med et glimt i øjet.

Og når nu vi er i gang med falske venner som "artig" og "rar", vil jeg også lige nævne "flink" (venlig på dansk, dygtig på norsk).


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## oskhen

Huffameg said:


> Det har eg aldri høyrt før.



Det kommer vel inn i den gruppen uttrykk som man gjerne forstår hvis man først hører/ser det, men som nesten aldri brukes


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## solregn

hanne said:


> Og når nu vi er i gang med falske venner som "artig" og "rar", vil jeg også lige nævne "flink" (venlig på dansk, dygtig på norsk).



Som svensk vill jag bara lägga till att *artig* på svenska uteslutande (skulle jag säga?) används i betydelsen "väluppfostrad, som beter sig väl".

*Flink* närmar sig mer den norska betydelsen, och betyder närmast "skicklig, habil, kompetent", främst vad gäller manuellt arbete (t. ex. hantverkare).

Det är roligt (där har vi en annan klassiker...) att upptäcka skillnader och likheter!


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## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> From what you wrote snill could not have been used instead of artig, but you’re right, hyggelig would work.  If you rewrite the sentence with snill it would be snilt, and read ” that was kind”.


I just wanted to thank you and the others belately for your help.  

Unfortunately, I found it too difficult to follow _*diskusjonen på skandinavisk*_ (the discussion in Scandinavian)  that developed in this thread and really didn't have enough time during the past week to attempt translating any of the other replies into English.


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## oskhen

Grefsen said:


> I just wanted to thank you and the others belately for your help.
> 
> Unfortunately, I found it too difficult to follow _*diskusjonen på skandinavisk*_ (the discussion in Scandinavian)  that developed in this thread and really didn't have enough time during the past week to attempt translating any of the other replies into English.


 

Sorry, should perhaps have written in English, but it became a very Scandinavian discussion. 

"diskusjonen på skandinavisk" is correct, if your wondering about that was the cause of the confused smiley (can you call it a smiley if it doesn't smile?).


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## Grefsen

oskhen said:


> Sorry, should perhaps have written in English, but it became a very Scandinavian discussion.


Det er ikke nødvendig å si unnskyld. (There is no need to apologize.)  Since I was the one who started this thread, it probably would have been appropriate for me to request a translation or at least an English summary after the first 2-3 replies that were completely in Danish and Norwegian.



oskhen said:


> "diskusjonen på skandinavisk" is correct, if your wondering about that was the cause of the confused smiley (can you call it a smiley if it doesn't smile?).


Tusen takk for det!  

Yes, I was wondering if "diskusjonen på skandinavisk" was correct, but the main reason for the confused "smiley" (you can also call them emoticons  ) was because I wasn't able to follow the discussion.  I don't think it was intentionally done, but the end result was that even though my question was answered quite well by vestfoldlilja, I was still left quite confused by the subsequent posts to the thread.


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## Wilma_Sweden

Grefsen said:


> the end result was that even though my question was answered quite well by vestfoldlilja, I was still left quite confused by the subsequent posts to the thread.


Oh dear! You might want to remind people in the future to kindly reply in English. I know we have a wild mixture of languages here, and I think that if a user opens a thread asking a question in English, those who reply should answer in that language, too, just in case... If you PM those users whose answers you didn't understand, they might be kind enough to PM back their English translations... 

/Wilma


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## Grefsen

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Oh dear! You might want to remind people in the future to kindly reply in English. I know we have a wild mixture of languages here, and I think that if a user opens a thread asking a question in English, those who reply should answer in that language, too, just in case... If you PM those users whose answers you didn't understand, they might be kind enough to PM back their English translations...
> 
> /Wilma


Det er et godt forslag.   Tusen takk for det!  

That is a good suggestion.  Thanks for that.


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## Grefsen

Her er mitt forsøk på en engelsk oversettelse av vestfoldliljas post:
 


vestfoldlilja said:


> Jeg har aldri hørt det bli brukt slik på norsk før, men det kan jo like fullt være det blir brukt som på dansk i noen dialekter.


I have never heard it used as such in Norwegian before, but it could nevertheless be used in Danish in some dialects.
 


vestfoldlilja said:


> Hvis vi tar utgangspunkt i bokmål så er det nok en falsk venn i godt selskap med rar/rart og rask for og nevne noen andre falske venner mellom dansk og norsk (så vel som svensk).  Jeg har eller aldri hørt uartig brukt før.



If we take *bokmål* as a starting point so it is enough a false friend in good company with strange  and quick and mention any other false friends between Danish and Norwegian (as well as in Swedish). I have never heard *"uartig"* or used (it) before.


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## vestfoldlilja

Sorry for making you feel lost and confused. 

Here is my translation of some of what I have said.  Hope you don’t mind me stealing some of your words in the later translation 

-	Jeg har aldri hørt det bli brukt slik på norsk før, men det kan jo like fullt være det blir brukt som på dansk i noen dialekter.  

– I’ve never before heard it used that way in Norwegian, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be used as in Danish in some (Norwegian) dialects. 

-	Hvis vi tar utgangspunkt i bokmål så er det nok en falsk venn i godt selskap med rar/rart og rask for og nevne noen andre falske venner mellom dansk og norsk (så vel som svensk). Jeg har heller aldri hørt uartig brukt før. 

– If we use bokmål as a starting point artig is a false friend, in good company with rar/rart and rask, to mention a few other false friends between Danish and Norwegian. I have never ever heard uartig used before. 

This was said as a reply to Foygl who said that in Danish artig means to behave properly, politely, and asked if this meaning could also be found in Norwegian. 

We’ve been talking of how artig is a false friend between Danish and Norwegian, (as well as Swedish, but I’ll leave that out to make it less confusing), and how it is used differently in modern Norwegian than how it was used earlier when the meaning of the word most likely meant the same as it still does in modern Danish.

Some other things mentioned

•	The expression “vær så artig” can mean the same as when we say “vær så god” (directly translated as “be so kind”) in a setting where we ask guests to help themselves with food or to feel at home.  (In both Norwegian and Danish, though it feels outdated and is not much used anymore)

•	Uartig still holds the same meaning in Norwegian as in Danish (as an antonym to artig); to behave poorly, misbehave, be rude. (In Norwegian this feels outdated as well)

•	We also mention other false friends between the Scandinavian languages. I can post them with a translation of what they mean if you want to. 

I hope that cleared any confusion.


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## Grefsen

vestfoldlilja said:


> Sorry for making you feel lost and confused.


*Ingen trenger å si unnskyld.*

No need to apologize.  

You did an excellent job answering my main question in your very first reply to this thread. 




vestfoldlilja said:


> Here is my translation of some of what I have said.  Hope you don’t mind me stealing some of your words in the later translation


*Tusen takk for det!* 



vestfoldlilja said:


> I hope that cleared any confusion.


*Ja, takk!  Nå forstår jeg.  *


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## Aase

*@Grefsen *
Regarding your first post:

*"Jeg fikk en melding fra en ny Facebook-venninne og her er et kort utdrag:*
(I received a message from a new Facebook friend (female) and here is a short excerpt: )
*Så artig da.
Mitt oversettelseforsøk:*
(My translation attempt: )
So nice then."

My suggestion is using the word amusing instead. 
Imo "How amusing" would cover the meaning of "Så artig,da"


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