#15 When English "to" becomes "å", "til å", or "for å" [vokabular]

The seemingly simple word "to" can transform into three different Norwegian constructions: "å" (the infinitive particle), "til å," or "for å." Each serves a distinct purpose in Norwegian. 

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Chapters

• 0:14 Welcome Back After Moving Break
• 1:11 Understanding "Å" - The Infinitive Particle
• 4:18 When To Use "Til Å"
• 7:43 Using "For Å" vs "Til Å"
• 11:52 Episode Wrap and Contact Information

Transcript

Silje: 0:14

hello, dear listener, and welcome back to today's episode. Before I start, I just wanted to say thank you to my new supporter on Buy Me A Coffee. I really, really appreciate it. It motivated me to make new episodes again. I've had a little break because we've been moving and things have been a little bit hectic because of that. But now I'm back and I have settled down, so I feel ready to start making new episodes, and today's episode is going to from English to Norwegian, and that is a big topic.

Silje: 1:11

I'm not going to talk about all the ways you can translate to, but in this case I'm going to talk about when you have to in front of a verb, because very often in English you just use the word to in front of a verb, but it has different meanings. Before I go into that, I just wanted to let you know that translating to and for into Norwegian can be a little bit difficult, because you cannot always translate to with till and for with for. What I tend to see is that people use till when they should use for very often and for when they should use till, and even Norwegians using for when they should use till. So a lot of Norwegians or for sure me too, have been influenced by English there. But over to today's subject.

Silje: 2:11

Today we're only going to talk about to when it's followed by a verb. So in Norwegian you have the word å, which we call the infinitive particle. Which we call the infinitive particle, and it's only used in front of a verb in infinitive, which means a verb that is out of time. Okay, it has not been conjugated into a time. It's not present, it's not past, it's just the concept of the verb, right, like in English, you could say eat, you also have eating, which is a little bit the same thing. It is the verb when it's not put into any time. So it's basically just a concept of eating, without saying when that happened, without saying when that happened. So when you're not adding any other information than that, you just want to talk about the concept of eating or concept of talking, concept of speaking or whatever it is, without adding any other information, then you just use å, that's it. So å can mean to by itself, nothing else. For instance, jeg liker å snakke, I like to speak, and that is the equivalent of I like speaking. Okay, so it can also translate to the verb plus ing. And to be sure that this works. What you can do is replace the verb with a thing instead. So, for instance, jag liker fotball I like football. If that works, then you're good to go. Then you know that that's the only thing. You need Only å, nothing else.

Silje: 4:18

Okay, now, another way to translate to plus verb is with till å till-o, and this is what I see people do a lot. They want to put that til" there. They feel that it's missing. But most of the time you don't need it. There are a few cases where you need it, if you have an expression that needs till in it, for whatever reason. Okay, don't try to find the logic. Don't try to ask yourself why are you using till here? It's just part of the expression.

Silje: 4:52

For instance something you've probably heard before if you learn Norwegian for a little while jeg har lyst til å snakke. Jeg har lyst till å snakke, I want to speak. That's just the expression. When you want to say I want to, and you add a verb after that, you have to use til, jeg har lyst til. That's the expression. Or jeg gleder mig til å snakke, I look forward to speak. Till å snakke, jeg gleder mig till å snakke, I look forward to speak. Or I look forward to speaking, I guess is the right grammatical way to say it. It's part of the expression. Don't ask me why we use till. That's just how it is Okay.

Silje: 5:50

So, apart from expressions which you just have to learn, you just have to learn that that's the preposition you use. Maybe it's going to be another preposition with another expression, but in these ones it's till and that's just how it is. But there is another way you can use till plus å, and that is when what you're talking about is how you use something. Okay, how it's being used. What's the purpose of the use of something? Okay, for instance, together with the verb bruke, you will use till when what you're talking about is how you use something. For instance, jeg bruker sykkelen til å sykle med. Jeg bruker sykkelen til å sykle med.

Silje: 6:49

I use the bike to bike, with Literal translation. So very often you would need to add a preposition in the end of the sentence and that is the preposition that goes with the thing you're using. So normally I would say I bike with a bike. You could also say jeg sykler på en sykkel, I bike on a bike. So there might be different prepositions that you can use If this thing that you use near a preposition, then you have to add that preposition in the end. In this case, if you do not put a verb, you could replace this with for in English, and just till in Norwegian, so, for instance, and just till in Norwegian. So, for instance, I use the computer for work. So you still use the same preposition till, but in this case without the infinitive mark, right?

Silje: 8:05

Because we're not using a verb anymore, we're using the noun work, not the verb work. And that's a little bit hard because very often in English there is no difference between infinitive present tense and the noun. So if I just give you the word work, that could be the verb to work, infinitive it can be the present tense. So when I say I work, then I'm using present tense, sounds exactly the same. And if I say I love my work, then work is a noun, it's a thing. So maybe I should change it with another word that is more clearly a noun. So, for instance, jag bruker PC-en till hobbyer I use my computer for hobbies. Now, that's more clear, I hope, because hobby cannot be a verb. You cannot say I hobby, so that's clearly a noun.

Silje: 9:06

Okay, so now we've covered å till å, and now the last one is for å, and this can easily be confused with til å, because in many sentences you can use both, but you're not answering the same question with them. So when you use for å, so when you use for å, you're answering the question why you do something. So, for instance, why are ", learning Norwegian,HVorfor lærer du norsk?" , vårdför lärer du norsk? And notice that the question word why finishes with for, so it finishes with for, and you want to answer starting with for, and that could be with infinitive. So, for instance, I could say For å snakke norsk med kollegaer, for å snakke norsk med kollegaer, to speak Norwegian with colleagues.

Silje: 10:22

And what this to actually means is in order to, in order to, in order to speak with colleagues in the region. So whenever you can place in order to instead of just to, then you're good to go. You know that you should use for å. Okay, so for å, in order to. So whenever somebody asks you something with vurfor, you can always start your sentence with for. It could be for å, in order to, or for de, because, or just for.

Silje: 11:08

So for by itself can also mean because For so, for instance, hvorfor lærer du norsk? Why are you learning Norwegian For å snakke norsk med kollegaer In order to speak Norwegian with colleagues? But I could also answer for jeg vill snakke norsk med kollegaer because I want to speak Norwegian with colleagues, or fordi jeg vill snakke norsk med kollegaer Same meaning because I want to speak Norwegian with colleagues. Okay, I hope that helps. Let me know in the comment field, wherever you are, whether you're listening on YouTube or Spotify or on Buzzsprout, or I don't know where you're listening, but wherever you are, or even send me an email on norskmesilje at gmailcom and feel free to make some sentences in the comment field wherever you are, and I will let you know if you got it right or not. Ha en fin dag. Vi høres.