聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 聽 Uffda is a well-known Norwegian explicit word, but is often applied wrongly, depending on the situation. Short of swearing, there are many interesting phrases uttered by frustrated Norwegians. I recall back in 1994 when a Canadian TV journalist reported from the Lillehammer Olympics, that a popular Norwegian swear was morra di sk酶yter som ei ku! It translates to your mother skates like a cow! Being born and raised in Norway I must admit that I had not heard this expression 鈥� ever! My twin brother and I frequented many unsavory places in Oslo including the docks, but never heard any stevedore using those words either.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The following is a quick insight into colloquial Norwegian:
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Norwegian mild explicit 101; our mother was a devout Lutheran and we were not allowed to swear, but there were other exclamations that were in use in our house, depending on the situation. For example, my twin brother and I would make a statement that was obviously not true; our mother would look at us sternly and say,鈥�tull ball,鈥� which is directly translated to nonsense ball! Or equal to our English expression of 鈥渘onsense.鈥� Believe me, between my twin brother and I, there was a lot of tull ball going on in our household!
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Another Norwegian mild explicit phrase often used when receiving some surprise scuttlebutt would be g氓 ta banen. It means get off the field. We wouldn鈥檛 say that in English, but it would be similar to 鈥済et out of here!鈥� A perfectly safe expression, it will not offend or upset anybody. This was our older brother Moritz鈥檚 favourite expression, at least at home. My twin brother and I would conjure up some tull ball about Moritz鈥檚 current girlfriend, and he would look at us with an astonished expression, and when he figured us out, which wasn鈥檛 often, he would say g氓 ta banen; questioning the validity of our tull ball.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 The Norwegian explicit phrase most often used by women is fy flate! Directly translated to 鈥渇ie flat鈥� but 鈥渇ie鈥� is old English and not in use in these modern days, so after some online research I found the meaning to be the same as our English expression of 鈥渘elly!鈥� It was often used by our female grade school teacher who we had to address as Fr酶ken (Miss), the proper salutation to a female teacher, even though she was married. That confused us twins a bit so sometimes we addressed her as Fru Fr酶ken (Mrs. Miss). In any event, some times when either my twin brother or I would be requested to present our homework, which we had neglected to do, we would tell her some tull ball explaining why it wasn鈥檛 done. She would shake her head and say fy flate! And we had to promise her that any outstanding homework would be properly done and presented to her first thing the next day.
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A real interesting Norwegian explicit phrase is h忙ren fl酶tte meg! This expression is just one step below swearing, and it translates to 鈥渢he army move me!鈥� It is normally used to express anger at somebody or something, like our English 鈥渇riggin.鈥� For example, n氓 m氓 du h忙ren fl酶tte meg ta deg sammen, which would be like our English expression of 鈥渘ow get a friggin grip!鈥澛� This expression was often used by our high school teachers. One teacher was a retired Lutheran pastor who taught religion, because at the time the Lutheran Church was governed by the Norwegian Parliament, and religion was part of the curriculum and not an optional course. This particular teacher would always sit down at the start of the class and bang his hands on the desk, while kicking the inside of the foot well. On one occasion I had taken some of the framed glass covered prints off the classroom walls, and placed them inside the foot well. Of course the glass broke and we all laughed, causing the teacher to roar, n氓 m氓 dere h忙ren fl酶tte meg ta dere sammen! 聽鈥淣ow get a friggin grip, all of you!鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 I recall our dad using the same expression one time when he picked us twins up from Sunday school. We had placed thumb tacks and small water puddles on alternate chairs, creating a great commotion and disturbance when the other kids sat down, causing the lady in charge to cry in frustration and call our dad. When he got us seated in the back seat of the car, he lowered his bushy eyebrows, glowering at us and sternly said, 鈥�n氓 m氓 dere h忙ren fl酶tte meg ta dere sammen!鈥� 聽鈥淣ow get a friggin grip! Both of you!鈥�
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 An 鈥渁pproved鈥� Sons of Norway explicit is yumpin lutefisk! Following are a few examples on the use of it:
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A Swedish doctor told his patient: "It's very important that you take this medicine exactly 30 minutes before you feel the pain." Yumpin lutefisk!
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 A Norwegian brought his binoculars to a funeral where they were going to bury a distant relative of his. Yumpin lutefisk!
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 Did you ever hear about the Norwegian who was asked if he had lived in Bergen all his life? "Not yet," he answered. Yumpin lutefisk!
聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽聽 N氓 tuller du! translates to 鈥測ou鈥檙e kidding!鈥�聽 The following is a true story about a nice young Norwegian girl applying for a job as a secretary at the Norwegian Consulate in Vancouver. She was interviewed by the office manager who asked her: "Do you have any religious views?" "No," said the girl, "but I've got some nice pictures of Norway!" N氓 tuller du!
