Many years ago I taught Norwegian language evening classes for the Edmonton School Board.
The course was designed to teach simple Norwegian phrases to enable the students to ask for directions if they travelled to Norway, or they could engage distant relatives to correspond in simple Norwegian.
Most of my students were past 50 years of age, and some of them had specific requests for me to either translate a Norwegian phrase or teach them some swear words.
I refused to translate the swears, but I got tricked into translating English words to Norwegian, that resulted in pronunciations that became very amusing to the students. Swearing in Norwegian is totally different than our Canadian swears.
There are three groups of Norwegian swear words, 鈥渁lmost swear, light swear, and heavy swear.鈥�
Norwegian swears revolve around the devil for the most part, where he lives and what you want him to do to you or others, depending on the situation.
However, I would like to teach you some interesting Norwegian phrases instead and when to use them:
鈥� G氓 ta banen!
This is often used to express excitement. It literary means 鈥淲alk off the field!鈥� (Playing field that is). In Canada we would simply say: Wow! That鈥檚 exciting! But what fun is that?
鈥� Fyfl ate!
An expression used when one is slightly disgusted with an individual or a situation. It means 鈥淔ie to the level!鈥� It is similar to the Canadian expression: 鈥淯gh!鈥�
鈥� Klinkokos!
It is used to describe a person that is a dare devil or slightly crazy.
It translates to 鈥渘utty as a coconut.鈥�
I guess in Canada we would describe that person to be 鈥渟lightly off the bubble!鈥�
鈥� H忙rend酶ttemeg!
This is a Norwegian almost swear. It is used in mixed company when you want to emphasize something, but don鈥檛 want to swear. It means 鈥淭he army push me!鈥�
What can I say, Norwegians knows how to be polite!
鈥� Kokkelimonke!
It is used to describe the dirty tricks done by a politician.
I have no translation for this expression, and I鈥檓 at a loss for what the Canadian expression would be other than 鈥渁ttack ads鈥� at election time.
鈥� Hentesveis.
It is used to describe Donald Trump鈥檚 hair style. The translation would be 鈥渇etch a hairstyle.鈥� In Canada we call it a 鈥渃omb over.鈥�
鈥� Ola Dunk.
This phrase is descriptive of low class behaviour. If the behaviour deteriorated further, it would be called Swedish.
It is similar to our hillbilly or red neck description.
鈥� D酶genikt.
This label describes a lazy or useless person. The word does not translate to English, but in Canada I guess he would be called a 鈥渟louch.鈥�
鈥� Rosinenip酶lsa.
This phrase is used to describe a happy ending. It translates to 鈥渢he raisin in the sausage 鈥� a delightful and sweet surprise at the end.
鈥� Full.
This word describes a person that has loaded up on too much alcohol, and has achieved the status of being drunk.
I made a mistake while visiting Norway many years ago. My older brother drove us to visit relatives in the southern part of Norway, and we were invited for supper.
It was a non-alcoholic event, so all we had to drink was a glass of water.
When I was offered a second serving of the main course, I politely declined by saying in Norse English, 鈥淣eitakkjeger full!鈥�
The conversation died, all the guests put down their cutlery and stared at me.
My brother wondered out loud if our hostess had spiked the water with Vodka, because what I had just said was 鈥淣o thank you, I鈥檓 drunk!鈥�
There are many more strange phrases, but I鈥檒l get to those in a later lesson.
It is important to know that some swears can land you in hot water or worse in jail, if uttered against an officer of the law.
One young man in Northern Norway ended up in jail after comparing the highway patrol officer that had pulled him over, to a certain part of a stallion located between the legs at the opposite end of the horses face!
