Grammar notes
Grammar
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This week’s Grammar notes will focus on the use of prepositions to express time relation and on three particular verbs used to express what we think about something.
PREPOSITIONS: Time expressions
A lot of time expressions are formed together with prepositions. Below you are presented with some of these expressions:
The preposition I is used
A) In front of years, months, holidays and other expressions regarding time:
i 2009, i oktober, i jula (for/during Christmas), (i) neste uke (next week), i kveld (tonight), i morgen (tomorrow), i dag (today).
B) In front of seasons.
The season you refer to is a specific one, and the tense of the verb will indicate whether you refer to the present season, to the coming season or to the last season. Note that we use the indefinite form of the noun for the season:
| Ben går på norskkurs i høst. | Ben takes a Norwegian course this autumn. |
| Ken skal studere psykologi i høst. | Ken is going to study psychology this autumn. |
| I høst dro studentene på hyttetur. | This autumn the students went on a cabin trip. |
C) in front of periods of time:
| Anna har bodd i Norge i tre måneder. | Anna has lived in Norway for three months. |
| Hun skal være her i to år. | She is going to stay here for two years. |
The preposition OM is used
A) In front of seasons and parts of the day
In this case, seasons and parts of the day are related to habitual actions, something you are used to do in that particular period of time. Note the definite form of the noun:
| Ola liker å bade om sommeren. | Ola likes to go for a swim in the summer. |
| Om kvelden ser Ken på TV. | In the evening, Ken watches TV. |
B) To express future:
| De skal reise på tur om to dager. | They are going on a trip in two days. |
| Kurset begynner om 15 minutter. | The course starts in 15 minutes. |
NB: In English you use the preposition “in”, but remember always to use OM in Norwegian!
For __ siden
We use the discontinuous preposition for __ siden to express the English ago:
| De flyttet hit for tre måneder siden. | They moved here three months ago. |
NB: You always have to remember to pair up for with siden in this case!
The preposition PÅ is used together with weekdays:
| Bussen drar klokka 16.00 på søndag. | The bus leaves at 4 pm on Sunday. |
| Maria er på Dragvoll på fredager. | Maria is at Dragvoll on Fridays. |
NB: PÅ is the only preposition allowed with days of the week!
The verbs SYNES – TRO – TENKE
The verbs synes, tro and tenke mean all «to think», but they are used in different contexts.
SYNES is used about a subjective meaning.
It can also be translated with «to find» in English:
| Hun synes at det er interessant. | She thinks it is interesting. / She finds it interesting. |
NB: Notice that SYNES ends in -s in all forms: å synes – synes – syntes – har syntes.
TRO is used when you are insecure about facts.
It can also be translated with «to believe» in English:
| Jeg tror at London er større enn Oslo. | I think/believe London is bigger than Oslo. |
TENKE refers in general to the cognitive process of thinking:
| Alex tenker på katten. | Alex is thinking about the cat. |
© NTNU
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