# Norwegian: 'From the silly girl who loves you'



## lorinelise

I'm having a bit of trouble phrasing this correctly. I'm addressing a birthday present to my grandfather and want to sign it with "from the silly girl who loves you" but I'm not sure exactly how this would work. Any help would be appreciated!

My best guess is 'fra den tullete jenta som elsker deg' but I'm not sure that the adjective is correct for the meaning. Maybe 'rare' instead of 'tullete'?


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## Zluim

"Fra den tullete jenta som elsker deg" sounds good to me, and perhaps even better if you _add_ "rare": "fra den tullete og rare jenta som elsker deg".


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## henbjo

"Tøysete" is another alternative, that in my opinion is as close as you get to "silly" in Norwegian. These are tiny nuances, though.

Another point is that "å elske" is not necessarily used in the same way as "to love" in English. "Å elske" has traditionally been most commonly used when describing romantic feelings of love. The use is probably moving towards being more like the use of "to love" in English, but it's definitely not there yet.

For instance, the translation of "I love you as a friend" is _not_ "Jeg elsker deg som venn", but rather "Jeg er (veldig) glad i deg (som venn)". So when talking about love in a not-romantic way in Norwegian "å være glad i" is the phrase to use.

So my suggestion is this: "Fra den tøysete jenta som er veldig glad i deg."


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## Tech12

henbjo said:


> So my suggestion is this: "Fra den tøysete jenta som er veldig glad i deg."



I like this suggestion. Definitely stay away from "elske".


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## hanne

This is interesting. In Danish "elske" would definitely be the right verb to use for family members. Anything else (that I can think of right now) would sound odd.

Zluim, do you agree with the others? Could this be dialectal? Perhaps in the usual "xyz sounds odd because it sounds like Danish" way?


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## Tech12

hanne said:


> Zluim, do you agree with the others? Could this be dialectal? Perhaps in the usual "xyz sounds odd because it sounds like Danish" way?



I speak Standard Eastern Norwegian, so I doubt it's dialectical.

To be clear, I have seen/heard family members use "elske" to each other, so it definitely occurs in Norwegian, but I always find it quite strange when I come across it. To me "elske" has clear erotic undertones, and "erotic" and "family members" don't go hand in hand, to put it mildly.

Doing a quick google search I discovered that there are actually numerous places on the Internet where Norwegians (heatedly) discuss this very thing, so I guess there is no clear consensus.


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## henbjo

Like all spoken Norwegian there will be differences depending on dialect. However, I don't know of any dialects using "å elske" as extensive as in Danish or the same way as "to love" in English. Some places, particularly in western Norway, "å elske" is rarely used at all, even in a romantic context. In those places, "Jeg liker deg" (literally "I like you") is more common and just as powerful as "Jeg elsker deg".

I speak pretty standard eastern Norwegian too, by the way, which in many ways probably is the dialect closest too and most influenced by Danish.

I'd also like to add that "å elske" is used much in the same way as "to love" in English when describing that one likes something or someone for a certain quality very much. "I absolutely love French food" or "I love Leonardo DiCaprio (as an actor)". (Who doesn't? ) I'd guess that this is the case in Danish too?


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## Tech12

hanne said:


> Perhaps in the usual "xyz sounds odd because it sounds like Danish" way?



Just one more thing about this. I don't think it has anything to do with it sounding too Danish, considering "elske" is derivative of an Old Norse word.


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## Grefsen

henbjo said:


> I'd also like to add that "å elske" is used much in the same way as "to love" in English when describing that one likes something or someone for a certain quality very much. "I absolutely love French food" or "I love Leonardo DiCaprio (as an actor)". (Who doesn't? ) I'd guess that this is the case in Danish too?


This evening I played a CD for some American friends, that was by Norwegian musician Unni Wilhelmsen, and they absolutely loved it. Could I write the following *på norsk* or would using "elsker" be too strong a word in this example?

Flere av mine amerikanske venner elsker musikken til Unni Wilhelmsen.


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## henbjo

That's perfectly fine. 

It's worth noting, though, that "å elske" in any context is describing an immensely powerful emotion. I guess this is the case in English too, but I have a feeling that the use of "to love" is a bit more inflated. Keep this in mind when reading the quoted section above.


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