# Norwegian: Make it up to you



## Absu

Hello,

I was wondering how to form the phrase "make it up to you" in Norwegian.

Say someone missed something important, they would tell the person, "I will attempt to make it up to you by..."

I've looked in my Norwegian dictionary and it has many entries for "make", but the closest I could find was "make up", as in making up excuses or stories.

My preliminary attempt (using the "make up" from my dictionary):

_Jeg skal forsøker å gjøre godt igjen til deg med..._

I suppose you could also do it literally and put the words " it up" in there, but for some reason that doesn't sound correct.

_Jeg skal forsøker å gjøre det opp til deg med..._

Neither seems to be correct to me, though. Also, should I be using "ved" or "med" in this case for "by"? My dictionary says med is used when referring to "method, manner or means", so I assume "med" would be the most appropriate in this context. The rest of the sentence will be "...writing you an extra-long letter."

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


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## eric489

I'd say :

_Jeg skal forsoeke aa gjoere det godt igjen ved aa ..._

note that after _skal_ the verb form is infinitive without _aa_

As in : Jeg skal spise, drikke, gaa, kjoere, hente, ...

"gjoere det opp til deg" sounds wrong to my ears. I use  "Opp til deg" in  Norwegian as in "Det er opp til deg" (it's up to you) in a situation where one leaves the decision-making to the other person.

As for the appropriate preposition, I'd say "ved".
"Jeg skal gjoere det godt igjen ved aa ... "
Why not "med" ?
That's just the preposition to keep in mind.

Maybe someone else could correct me if I wrote something wrong. It's past midnight and my brains aren't that athletical right now.


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## henbjo

eric489 said:


> I'd say :
> _Jeg skal forsøke å gjøre det godt igjen ved å ..._



This is the correct translation, although in everyday speech "å prøve" is more commonly used than "å forsøke" in this context - "jeg skal prøve å gjøre det godt igjen ved å ...".

"Gjøre det opp til deg" is not a good way to say this.


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## eric489

henbjo said:


> This is the correct translation, although in everyday speech "å prøve" is more commonly used than "å forsøke" in this context - "jeg skal prøve å gjøre det godt igjen ved å ...".
> 
> "Gjøre det opp til deg" is not a good way to say this.




True, I forgot to mention that.

I hope the question as been answered  .


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## Absu

Excellent, thank you guys so much!


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## Grefsen

Hei Eric! 


eric489 said:


> I'd say :
> 
> _Jeg skal forsoeke aa gjoere det godt igjen ved aa ..._
> 
> note that after _skal_ the verb form is infinitive without _aa_
> 
> As in : Jeg skal spise, drikke, gaa, kjoere, hente, ...


I just thought I'd let you know that WordReference has both the lower and upper cases of the Norwegian letters "æ," "ø," and "å" available for your use, located conveniently in the lower right hand corner of the space above where you compose your posts (the formatting area?). 



henbjo said:


> This is the correct translation, although in  everyday speech "å prøve" is more commonly used than "å forsøke" in this  context - "jeg skal prøve å gjøre det godt igjen ved å ...".


In this example would the translation of "å prøve" be "to try" and the translation of "å forsøke" be "to attempt"?


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## Zluim

It may be worth mentioning that the "to you" part in "make it up to you" is usually left out in Norwegian, as the answers above would suggest. But if you need to clarify to whom you'll make it up, I think the appropriate preposition would be "overfor". For example:

Jeg skal prøve å gjøre det godt igjen overfor vennen min ved å skrive et ekstra langt brev.

Regarding "prøve" and "forsøke", I guess they are often best translated "try" and "attempt" respectively.


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## Grefsen

Zluim said:


> Jeg skal prøve å gjøre det godt igjen overfor vennen min ved å skrive et ekstra langt brev.


Takk for denne godt eksempel. 



Zluim said:


> Regarding "prøve" and "forsøke", I guess they are often best translated "try" and "attempt" respectively.


Personally I avoid using "try" as much as I possibly can in English.  I'd rather have someone tell me that they "will attempt to make it up to me" or simply that they "will make it up to me."  I just don't feel the same level of commitment when someone says "they will try to make it up to me."


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## basslop

Grefsen said:


> Takk for denne godt eksempel.
> 
> Personally I avoid using "try" as much as I possibly can in English.  I'd rather have someone tell me that they "will attempt to make it up to me" or simply that they "will make it up to me."  I just don't feel the same level of commitment when someone says "they will try to make it up to me."



I wasn't aware of that there might be such a distinction in English. I would say that "forsøke" og "prøve" are interchangeable in Norwegian.


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## Dan2

basslop said:


> I wasn't aware of that there might be such a distinction in English. I would say that "forsøke" og "prøve" are interchangeable in Norwegian.


"attempt" is a more formal word than "try" but the basic meaning is the same.  If you listened to children playing, "I'm gonna try to ..." would be perfectly natural, while "attempt" would be highly unusual.  OTOH, in business correspondence, both words would be natural.

Another difference is that as verbs only "try" can be used without an object (noun or _to_-phrase):
- Can you be here by 10?
- I'll try.
- I'll attempt.

I had been curious about the difference between "forsøke" and "prøve", so thanks for the above comment.  (It's a concept I often need: "Jeg forsøke? prøve? å lære norsk...")


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## Absu

Thanks everyone for the discussion (and the distinction between "forsøke" and "prøve")!


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