#17 "Annen", "annet", "andre" : another confusing topic in Norwegian [grammatikk] [vokabular]

This episode tackles one of the most confusing aspects of Norwegian grammar: the different forms of "annet," "annen," and "andre" and when to use each one.

I start by clarifying a fundamental distinction that English speakers often miss – the difference between "one more of something" (enda en/et) versus "a different one" (annen/annet/andre). 

I also address common pronunciation shortcuts that native speakers use, and explain how definiteness works with these words (and how to know whether "andre" means "second" or "other"). 

Chapters

• 0:14 Introduction and Episode Welcome
• 1:02 "Annet" and "Annen" Usage Explained
• 4:31 Common Pronunciations and Duck Warning
• 6:27 Understanding "Andre" in Different Contexts
• 11:06 Ordinals vs "Other": Avoiding Confusion
• 17:53 Compound Words and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:14

hello, hello and welcome to another episode featuring me and nobody else but me. I hope you're not sick and tired of hearing my voice. If so, I'm sorry. If you want me to invite some people, then let me know. Maybe that could be a fun experience. Anyway, today is another episode, and I wanted to start with that sentence in Norwegian. Welcome to another episode.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Velkommen til enda en episode. Enda en I didn't say en annen, which this podcast is about. No Et annet, en annen en andre, three words that people very often get confused about Annen, annet, andre. I didn't say that, I said enda en episode, and the reason why I wanted to pinpoint that is because another can mean two things in English. It can mean another, as in English, it can mean another, as in one extra, okay, a new one. In that case we say enda en or enda ett, depending on the gender after. So, enda en episode, one other episode, a new episode, or one extra episode. Enda ett glass, one other glass. So if you're like, oh God, another one, you can say oh, enda en. Oh, my god, haven't we had enough already? So that is not the meaning of anden, andet and andre, the meaning of those three words, and I'm going to go into the details of how to use each of them, but the meaning of them is it's like saying a different one, right? So it's more neutral not the same, but a different one, right? So if you're pinpointing, no, it wasn't that time, it was another time, it was a different one, and when talking about people, it was not that person, it was someone else. Okay, so, not that one, but a different one. That's how we're going to use those three words to talk about, to identify something that is not that thing, but it's not something else. Okay, so two first ones are super easy to use. Annett is used together with the article ett, so if the thing that you're pointing at is neutral, then that's the one to use. For instance, ett annet hus, another house, different house. Ett annet sted, a different place. Not that place, but a different place. Not that place, but a different one, a different place. No, did I say that twice, oh god. A different question. Another question, not that one, but a different one. Okay, annen, still simple, use it with en En annen gang, a different time. En annen episode, a different episode. En annen kopp, a different kopp, not that kopp, but a different one. Annen kopp, a different kopp, not that kopp, but a different one. Okay, now I said it really in a very formal way.

Speaker 1: 4:09

Normally people don't say annett and annen, unless they really want to say it slowly or emphasize. But in general people just say ant et anthus et antsted, or maybe with a long a ant Et anthus Et antsted, or maybe with a long A Ant, ant, you can say both ant or ant. That's more common. And then the other one. Instead of saying annen, they would say an, just either an short one, an or an, an. So you could say en an gang, en an gang, en an gang, en an gang. Okay, that's easier and more effective. Okay, so we've covered annet or ant. That's easier and more effective. Okay, so we've covered annet or ant, annen or an. These are easy and I don't want to spend more time on them.

Speaker 1: 5:16

There's just one thing I wanted to add an, an, not an. An can also mean duck, depending on the context, and an probably it's better to prolong it so that it's not misunderstood with duck and an. It's better an and an. And an can also mean someone else, so it can directly refer to people, to to a person. So very often we don't add the word person, I don't say another person, I just say another, another one and depending on the context, that can. That by itself can just mean someone else, another person, and we do that a lot. We skip saying person, we just say like, for instance, mange can mean many people. We don't necessarily say mange personer, we just say mange, okay, yeah. And then yeah, same thing with andre.

Speaker 1: 6:27

So now we're going over to the last one that can have different meanings. And the first meaning I'm going to add is other people. Andre by itself can mean andre folk, other people. So first meaning is plural when you're talking about something or someone, plural, many, many of something. So if I don't add anything, it can mean other people or others or other things. If I'm referring to something specific Other cups, other friends, other questions, other times Okay.

Speaker 1: 7:26

So whenever you describe something that there are more of than one, you use andre. If you have studied the different forms of adjectives, regular adjectives, you know that normally you put an e-ending to the adjective when you have more of it. So you would, for instance, say hyggelige vänner, right, nice friends, fina spørsmål, good questions, or pretty questions, depending on the context, or pretty questions, depending on the context. So adding andre is the equivalent of that e that you normally add to an adjective and an adjective with an e. If you have paid attention in your lessons, you know that that's not the only function. The e adds to the adjective. An e to a regular adjective also is used when you want to talk about something definite, for instance, when I want to say the nice question, det fine spørsmålet, andre also has that function. It's also there to define whatever you're talking about.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Whenever you want to say the something, something Okay, and notice that it's not enough to say andre, I also have to add something equivalent to the. In English and this can be super confusing because in English you have the question, right, the question. When I want to say the question, I don't say the, I say question, the. I put the article in the end of the word. Right, spørsmålet, spørsmålet. I add it in the end of question. So why do I suddenly need to add an article before? Or? It's not really an article, it's called determinative. But it has the same function as a definite article. So we can call it a definite article just for the sake of making it simple.

Speaker 1: 9:54

When you add an adjective to a noun, okay. So for instance, nice is an adjective, good is an adjective, blue is an adjective. Good is an adjective, blue is an adjective. Any word describing a thing, adding information about that thing, can be called an adjective, whenever I add that. And if I want to use that adjective to define which thing I'm talking about, not just to add information about it, right, if I say en fin bil, a nice car, I'm not defining which car I'm talking about, I'm just adding information about a car. Right, but if I say the nice car, den fina bilen, then the function of the adjective is to pinpoint which car I'm talking about. Right, I'm talking about the nice car, not the ugly one, for instance.

Speaker 1: 10:58

So that is when you need to use what we call the definite form. That is when you need to use what we call the definite form, the form that defines which thing you're talking about. And when you use definite form, you have to add one of the three determinatives or articles in front Den, de or die. So andre, in this case, cannot stand by itself. You need to add den de or di in front. So if I want to say the other time, time being masculine, I start with den, den andre gangen and notice that I still add en in the end of gangen. So what I'm actually saying here, hold on, is the, the other the time, if you take the definite form of other, so den andre gangen, the other time. If I want to say the other question, the question is neutral. So I will say det andre spørsmålet, det andre spørsmålet, det andre spørsmålet, the other times, de, de, de andre gangene, the other questions, de andre spørsmålene, the the other, the questions, de andre spørsmålene, the the other the questions. So when you talk about something specific in Norwegian, you are sure you can be sure that you're not misunderstanding, because every single word is definite.

Speaker 1: 13:10

Now, I forgot to mention the feminine nouns. If you use a feminine noun, so for instance jente, and you want to say another girl, you can say I, an jente, so you can use the masculine form. You can also, if you want to use Anna, ei, anna, jente. That's less common in written Norwegian, but it's yeah, you choose whatever you prefer and then you use the same plural form for plural. So andre jenter, that doesn't change. And den andre jenta, the other girl, so same as masculine, den first.

Speaker 1: 14:10

Now, if you have learned the ordinals Første, andre, tredje, etc, etc, at least the two first ones, then you might be asking yourself what, hold on. Andre, that means second. How can that mean both second and other? So how do we differentiate? Because, yes, it can mean both. It can mean other and second. Now ordinals første, andre, tredje, fjärde, femte right, first, second, third, fourth, etc.

Speaker 1: 14:52

They are a little bit special. The thing with them is that when you use an ordinal, you're very, very sure about which thing you're talking about. Right, if I say the second time, that can only refer to one specific time, right, there's only one second time. Or the third time there's only one third time. Right, only one possible reference, whereas if I say the other time, that can have a lot of different references. Right there, there, there are many other times. Normally, unless there was only one other time, then for sure, then there's only one reference, but in general it can refer to more than one time.

Speaker 1: 15:39

So, which means that the word second in itself is definite. It doesn't have to, you don't have to use three words to define which time you're talking about, because the word is inherently definite. And we have not only ordinals but some other adjectives as well. And we have not only ordinals but some other adjectives as well, like nästa förja, sista sist. Those are also inherently definite because we know exactly which thing we're referring to. So when you use ordinals or any of these other adjectives, you do not have to use definite form.

Speaker 1: 16:32

So instead of saying the second time, I can just say second time, andre gang, förste gang, first time, andre gang, first time, andre gang, second time. Even though I'm not saying den andre gangen, I know for sure it's the second one. So when you use andre with a noun in indefinite form, a no article, first, it can only mean second, it cannot be mean other, right? So andre gang can only mean second time. But if I do choose to put it in definite form, then andre gangen. I can also do that, and in that case only the context will help you understand whether it's the other and the or the second. And sometimes it doesn't really matter which one it means, because it mean it can mean more or less the same thing if you think about it, because the second time is also another time, and especially if there were only two times, then you're good to go um. So yeah, when you say andre gang, it can only mean second time.

Speaker 1: 17:56

Andre spørsmål can mean second time or other questions, depending on the context. So what now? Yeah, yeah, last one, last one, last example, because sometimes we want to say a second, something, something, for instance. Well, the best example I can come up with is a second interview. Right, if you get a job interview and you go to the second round, you come to your second interview. So you can say, ah, I got a second interview, a second, not the second, but a second.

Speaker 1: 18:38

In that case you will still use andre, so you would say ett andre intervju or ett andre jobintervju. That's one way to say it. Another way to say it, which is a little bit longer, is with a compound word. So you're gonna say andregangsintervju, andregangsintervju, in one word, other times, interview, so the S, there is a connector, no, sorry, connecting S Andregangsintervju as andregangsintervju. So we have førstegangsintervju, first time interview, andregangsintervju. And if there are many, many interviews, you have tredjegangsintervju, fjärregangsintervju, and hopefully it's not more than that. Okay, so that's also an option or just Cool. I hope that makes sense. As always, if you have any questions, just write me wherever you are in the comment field and feel free to make any examples if you, or if you have any sentence that, if you have any sentences that you are unsure about. Just put them in the comment field and I will try to guide you and figure out what it means or why it's written in the way it is. Tack för idag. Vi hördes, thank you.