# Norwegian: legge til rette for



## jette(DK)

I posted a request earlier today concerning the Norwegian expression "legge til rette for". The phase is found in a preface of a book in which the authors thank various participants for their contribution. My first post was in Danish - which didn't seem to be a good idea since no one has been able to help. I hereby give it another go in English ... and cross my fingers! This is the tricky sentence:

_Vi vil særlig takke xxxxxx, som i tillegg til å legge til rette for og inspirere kollegaerne sine har videreformidlet erfaringer fra projektet (på en konferanse).

_We especially want to thank xxxx who not only have (aranged/organized??? or rather engouraged???) and inspired their collegues but who have also passed on their experience from the project (at a conference).

A false friends translation to Danish (tilrettelægge for= organize/arrange) doens't seem to make sense. Can anyone explain to me in English or Norwegian what legge til rette for means exactly? Encourage, maybe?

Thank you!


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## JohanIII

Undskyld svenskan, but if perhaps _"legge til rette for og inspirere"_ can be "_legge til rette for at inspirere_" (the og/at mixup because they are both often pronunced as "å", based on Swedish here), i.e. it would mean "se till att inspirera"; they saw to it that the _kollegaerne_ were inspired.

Else they oversaw/guided/helped them, and inspired them, which seems a much better fit.

I see that tilrettelegge has another meaning also - bearbeide, as in "boka er dramatisert og tilrettelagt for radio" (nob-ordbok.uio.no).

I mainly googled(.no) "legge til rette for erfaringer".
So please wait for a native speaker to comment.


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## jette(DK)

Thanks Johan!

I don't think, however, that you have the key to the answer. I spent another 30 minutes googling this morning and gather from examples that it must mean something like ensure or make easier or such like. Finally I manage to find an Norwegian-English dictionary site that came up with this tranlation: facilitate. I guess that makes sense, so now my translation goes:

_... som ud over at støtte og inspirere deres kolleger også har formidlet erfaringer fra projektet videre ...

_I would still appreciate a confirmation from a native speaker, though ...


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## vestfoldlilja

It seems a strange sentence to me as I don’t get a clear idea of what it is they la til rette for, but the only thing that makes sense to me is that it means this: we want to thank xxxx, who in addition organizing the conference and inspiring their colleagues also shared their experience of the project. 

The sentence makes more sense written like this in Norwegian: Vi vil særlig takke xxxx, som i tillegg til å ha lagt til rette for konferansen og å ha inspirert kollegene sine også har videformidlet erfaringer fra prosjektet. Or, vi vil særlig takke xxxx, som i tillegg til å legge til rette for og for å inspirere kollegene sine også har videreformidlet erfaringer fra prosjektet.

Legge til rette for, means that you facilitate, or organize something so that it can happen. It doesn’t have to be something big like a conference or party, it can just be that you make sure there is room available for a meeting or that a child with special needs have everything the child needs in their learning environment.


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## jette(DK)

Between Johan's "oversaw/guided/helped" and your helpful explanation, Vestfoldlilja, I reach a meaningful conclusion: What they MEANT was that xxxx guided/supported/facilitated the interventions of project (not the conference, definitely, according to the context). Although that was not quite what they wrote! 

Translating is always tricky, but translations meaning that the writer didn't express quite well originally is even trickier! 

Thanks a lot both of you!


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## Nilsgunnar

jette(DK) said:


> Between Johan's "oversaw/guided/helped" and your helpful explanation, Vestfoldlilja, I reach a meaningful conclusion: What they MEANT was that xxxx guided/supported/facilitated the interventions of project (not the conference, definitely, according to the context). Although that was not quite what they wrote!
> 
> Translating is always tricky, but translations meaning that the writer didn't express quite well originally is even trickier!
> 
> Thanks a lot both of you!



To arrange for/make the arrangements for/prepare for


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## Ben Jamin

jette(DK) said:


> Between Johan's "oversaw/guided/helped" and your helpful explanation, Vestfoldlilja, I reach a meaningful conclusion: What they MEANT was that xxxx guided/supported/facilitated the interventions of project (not the conference, definitely, according to the context). Although that was not quite what they wrote!
> 
> Translating is always tricky, but translations meaning that the writer didn't express quite well originally is even trickier!
> 
> Thanks a lot both of you!



The corrected sentence is a good guess, but still a guess. The sentence lacks a vital part after "_i tillegg til å legge til rette for ".   It does not say either what he inspired his colleagues for._  ​


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## Segorian

jette(DK) said:


> _Vi vil særlig takke xxxxxx, som i tillegg til å legge til rette for og inspirere kollegaerne sine har videreformidlet erfaringer fra projektet (på en konferanse).
> _



I have no specialist knowledge of Norwegian, but I have come across this in texts written in institutional lingo where the meaning appears to be “helping [somebody] out”. Suggestion:

_“…__who in addition to *helping out* and inspiring [her/his] colleagues…”_


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## Ben Jamin

Segorian said:


> I have no specialist knowledge of Norwegian, but I have come across this in texts written in institutional lingo where the meaning appears to be “helping [somebody] out”. Suggestion:
> 
> _“…__who in addition to *helping out* and inspiring [her/his] colleagues…”_


What do you mean by "helping out"?


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## Segorian

Ben Jamin said:


> What do you mean by "helping out"?



The verb “help out” is defined as follows in Collins Dictionary of the English Language (first published 1979, my edition is from 1985 and I double-checked in the 2003 edition):


*1.* to assist or aid (someone), esp. by sharing the burden. *2.* to share the burden or cost of something with (another person).

I had in mind the former of these two meanings.


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## Ben Jamin

Segorian said:


> The verb “help out” is defined as follows in Collins Dictionary of the English Language (first published 1979, my edition is from 1985 and I double-checked in the 2003 edition):
> 
> 
> *1.* to assist or aid (someone), esp. by sharing the burden. *2.* to share the burden or cost of something with (another person).
> 
> I had in mind the former of these two meanings.


Thank you! 
None of those meanings matches "legge til rette for" well enough. It means "to arrange things, prepare, in a way that makes it easier to do something".


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## Segorian

Ben Jamin said:


> Thank you!
> None of those meanings matches "legge til rette for" well enough. It means "to arrange things, prepare, in a way that makes it easier to do something".



I'm not sure that I understand the difference. Going back to the original sentence, do you feel that the words _i tillegg til å legge til rette for og inspirere kollega(e)ne sine_ could then be adequately translated as “besides making things easier for [her/his] colleagues and inspiring them”?


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## Ben Jamin

Segorian said:


> I'm not sure that I understand the difference. Going back to the original sentence, do you feel that the words _i tillegg til å legge til rette for og inspirere kollega(e)ne sine_ could then be adequately translated as “besides making things easier for [her/his] colleagues and inspiring them”?


I'm not saying that it is impossible to translate it that way, but "å legge til rette" has a more specialized meaning than all the definitions given in the post #10.
In your last sentence you have used the expression "making things easier" that comes closer to the meaning, but stil not exactly "make *earlier *preparatory work for facilitation". The element of *making things before* is still lacking.


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