# Norwegian: driv



## Kajeetah

Hi!

I don't know Norwegian. I have an English translation of the following lines but I'm not getting the "driv med" part.
A girl is doing stand-up comedy in a club, but nobody laughs.

"Det eneste jeg liksom spør etter, er ikke *driv med* de rareste tingene. Ikke liksom digg å gå tur i fjellet. Eller sykling, eller kappgang. Fordi at hvis du driver med kappgang, så er du jo voldtektsmann."

I don't undestand if she means "drive" as in "drive a car" or if it's an expression which means something else...

Thanks in advance! 

Edit: After re-reading it I guess it means something like "to get around", a way of getting from point A to point B...


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## Ben Jamin

It seems to me that this is an imperative form of the verb 'å drive med' (carry on with): 'ikke driv' = 'don't carry on with'


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## Kajeetah

Thank you very much! You've been a great help once again.


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## Ben Jamin

Ben Jamin said:


> It seems to me that this is an imperative form of the verb 'å drive med' (carry on with): 'ikke driv' = 'don't carry on with'


Sorry, I missed the word 'er' in the original Norwegian text, and suddenly the problem became more complicated. With the 'er' before 'driv' the expression changes meaning to a gerund form: "the only thing I ask for, is not carrying on with the most strange things....".
But then, the whole text becomes contradictory within itself.
I suspect, that the quotation is wrong, and should be "Det eneste jeg liksom spør etter er: ikke *driv med* de rareste tingene." The comma before 'er' should be removed, and  a colon placed *after *'er'. Then the sentences will agree with each other.


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## Kajeetah

Thank you! I don't think it's contradictory... I just needed the right meaning of the verb for the whole thing to make sense.


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## Ben Jamin

Kajeetah said:


> Thank you! I don't think it's contradictory... I just needed the right meaning of the verb for the whole thing to make sense.


If you read carefully the first three sentences you'll find that they don't match with the fourth one.


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## Kajeetah

I'm not sure what you mean, but she thinks that hiking, cycling and power walking are weird habits.


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## raumar

Her argument isn't logical, and she speaks a bit incoherently - just like people do in real life. I suppose that is what Ben means. But I think the meaning is clear: her only requirement (presumably when she is looking for a man) is that he isn't into any weird hobbies, such as mountain hiking, cycling or racewalking - because (in her opinion) racewalkers are rapists.

I think the translation of "kappgang" should be racewalking (as a sport), instead of power walking.

In any case, this is not especially funny, so it makes sense that nobody laughs!


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## Ben Jamin

raumar said:


> Her argument isn't logical, and she speaks a bit incoherently - just like people do in real life. I suppose that is what Ben means. But I think the meaning is clear: her only requirement (presumably when she is looking for a man) is that he isn't into any weird hobbies, such as mountain hiking, cycling or racewalking - because (in her opinion) racewalkers are rapists.
> 
> I think the translation of "kappgang" should be racewalking (as a sport), instead of power walking.
> 
> In any case, this is not especially funny, so it makes sense that nobody laughs!


I must admit that i have a problem with the first sentence:
"Det eneste jeg liksom spør etter, er ikke *driv med* de rareste tingene.
Does she mean: The only thing I ask is "don't do the strangest things" or
The only thing I ask is "not doing the strangest things". 
"Driv" as a noun or gerund is not standard Norwegian, but maybe some people say so.
The comma after 'etter' confuses me.


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## raumar

Ben Jamin said:


> I must admit that i have a problem with the first sentence:
> "Det eneste jeg liksom spør etter, er ikke *driv med* de rareste tingene.
> Does she mean: The only thing I ask is "don't do the strangest things" or
> The only thing I ask is "not doing the strangest things".
> "Driv" as a noun or gerund is not standard Norwegian, but maybe some people say so.
> The comma after 'etter' confuses me.



Your second option does not seem likely to me, Ben. I don't think "driv med" could be anything else than an imperative form. (It could have been dialect, but in that case, it wouldn't have been be "driver med" in the last sentence.) 

Your first option looks much more plausible, so I agree with your explanation in post #2 and 4. I agree that the punctuation is confusing and probably incorrect, but this still seems to be the most plausible explanation.


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## myšlenka

Ben Jamin said:


> The comma after 'etter' confuses me.





raumar said:


> I agree that the punctuation is confusing and probably incorrect [...]


The comma appears after an interposed relative clause and is thus according to standard punctuation rules.


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## raumar

You are right, Myšlenka, but I still think the punctuation is confusing - without a colon after "er" or quotation marks around "ikke driv med de rareste tingene".


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## Kajeetah

I'm sorry for the punctuation, the transcript may have been done in a rush, by an intern... 
Thank you all for your answers.
@raumar: As for "power walking", this is what the girl says when she does her stand-up show in the USA, this wasn't my translation!  Anyway later in a conversation she says how difficult it is to translate "power walking" into Norwegian. So you must be right!


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## Bokfinken

I think the confusion stems from the very oral style of the transcription, and the fact that punctuation rules are a little different in English and in Norwegian. "Ikke driv med" is definitely imperative here.

If someone spoke this phrase and I was tasked with turning it onto correct written language, I would have written something like:
"Det eneste jeg ber om, er at du ikke driver med de rareste tingene" (_er_ after the comma)
"The only thing I'm asking for, is that you're not into the strangest things." (_is_ before the comma)

"Å drive med" can have two different meanings.

It can refer to something someone is doing right at this moment: "Hva driver du med?"/"What are you up to?"). 

It can also mean to be in the habit of doing something, usually a hobby: "Jeg driver med langrenn"/"I do cross-country skiing". It could also refer to a professional occupation, but it would be a rather informal way to talk about your job: "Jeg driver med markedsføring"/"I'm a marketer".


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