#28 Meg og meg selv, selv -- me and myself, by myself ... wait, what?? [vokabular]

Stop second-guessing yourself in Norwegian. In this episode you will learn the three ways to say "myself" (and "yourself", "himself", "herself" etc.) in Norwegian. It is easier and more complicated than you think ... :P 

Chapters

• 0:13 You’re Probably Saying “Myself” Wrong
• 0:44 Three Ways To Say It In Norwegian
• 1:08 “Selv” For On My Own
• 2:34 Reflexive Meaning: Same Subject And Object
• 5:48 When Reflexives Are Required Or Change Meaning
• 9:20 Practice Sentences And Wrap Up

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:13

Hello guys! Hi hi! Doug. This is a thing that you are most probably doing wrong. If you haven't learned it and you don't have a special talent for languages, then you're most probably doing this wrong. How do you say myself and yourself, themselves, itself, himself, etc. in Norwegian? There are three ways to say this in Norwegian. So I'm gonna use myself as an example, and I'm gonna show you how you can apply it to other pronouns. But first of all, we have to start out with myself. What does that actually mean? Because what you're gonna use depends on what it means. So the first meaning of myself that we're gonna look at is the easiest one to use. And that is when you wanna say on my own. I can do it myself. I can do it on my own. The only word you need is sell. That's it. Yikon Yura de Cell Yikon Yurada Cell I can do it on my own. I can do it myself. And actually sell is used to all people, so it doesn't matter if it's himself or themselves or yourself that's the only word you need sell. Du cany decel you can do it on your own. Han can sell he can do it on his own. We can do it on our own. We can do it ourselves. Okay, so that wasn't super easy. If you want to say myself and it means on my own without help, sell. That's all you need. Cell. Now it gets a little bit more complicated. When you wanna say myself as in me, in English, just like in in Norwegian, the word myself is used to specify that you're talking about yourself and it's not a different person. I'm gonna give an example. I would say in English, I talk to myself. Let's use that as an example. I talk to myself. Myself refers back to I. Right? It's the same person as the subject. If I was talking about someone else, if I talked about you, I could say you talk to yourself. So you're using myself because it's referring back to I, the subject, yourself because referring back to you, subject. But let's say the subject and the object here is not the same person, then you would skip self. So I would say I talk to you. I wouldn't say I talk to yourself. That makes no sense. So the function here of self is no other than just telling that this is the same person as the one I started with. That's it. Same thing if I said you talk to me. You wouldn't say you talk to myself, right? And we have the same logic in Norwegian. But it is not necessary to put it there. You don't have to add this information, but you can. So I could say Yai snuckid me snockid me cell. I talk to me, I talk to myself. The o the the difference in in interpretation, they're both grammatically correct. The difference in interpretation is that if I say, I am treating me as another person, right? It sounds like I am talking to another person who is me. Okay? Whereas if I say yes naked me sell, then we have more the feeling that it's the same person. Okay, so it could be a way to show, like to be a little bit poetic, I guess, to to externalize yourself, if that makes sense. Um but so so that is when you could use my cell if it's the same subject as the object. If it was you talking to me, I would say do snakerme my. Just like in English. You talk to me. You wouldn't say you talk to myself. That's obvious. Now, a thing you have to remember is that this is used only when you are actually doing something towards yourself. You're talking to yourself, you're dressing yourself. But in the region, there are expressions where you do use what we call reflexive pronoun, which means that you're reflecting back on the person you started with, just like here. Yay, my do, die. So my would be the reflexive pronoun of yi. If you use them together in the same sentence, then my is a reflexive pronoun. But if you use my together with do, for instance, me and you, then it's not reflexive anymore. Same word, but not reflexive anymore because it's not referring back to the same person. So it can be reflexive or not reflexive, depending on the sentence. And then we have some expressions in Norwegian where you have a verb that either makes no sense at all if you don't use a reflexive pronoun after it. For instance, yai sheader my normally you always use reflexive pronoun after. Yai shead my literally I bore myself. I'm bored. That's how you would say I am bored. Yai sheader my. Of course, you could also bore someone else. Yai she dir die. That works as well. But normally, typically you use it with a reflexive pronoun. And since this is an expression that needs to have this reflexive pronoun, and you're not literally, you're not literally doing something, you're not actively doing something towards yourself, right? When you say that you're bored, you're not actively doing anything. So it's a very figurative expression, and it that's just how you have to say it. That's just how you grammatically say that you are bored. And since you're not actually doing something, it makes no sense to add cell in this case. You cannot say I heard my cell. Then then it it will be understood in a very direct way. It sounds like you're actively trying to bore yourself. Um yeah, that's weird. Uh another example. So, yeah, as I mentioned, there are two categories of uh verbs that take a reflexive pronoun. Either it makes it makes no sense at all if you don't add a reflexive pronoun, or it means something different. So another example where the reflexive pronoun really changes the meaning of the verb is Yai lik my poyub, for instance. Ya likid my poyub, I like it at work. It doesn't mean I like myself at work, even though it might sound like that. The moment you add a reflexive pronoun after likid, it means to like it, to feel comfortable, to feel you thrive and you found a place where you feel safe and where you like it. But if you don't use a reflexive pronoun, it just means to means to like something. So if I say Yalik your die, it means I like you. Yalikid my plus place Yalik my head yikin my poyob Elikidmi Inurge then it means to like it somewhere. I like it at work Yikin my poyob Elikin my heart I like it here Elikinai Inorga I like it in Norway. So since you cannot take this literally, you're not talking about liking yourself, you're talking about something else. Here as well, you will not add cell. So this is an expression that doesn't mean exactly what you're saying. So if you happen to add cell in this expression, if you say I liked my cell, that can only mean one thing. It can only mean I like myself. You see? If you say yalikir myself, it means I like myself. If you say my, depending on the context, it can mean either I like it somewhere, if you're adding the place, then it means that you like it there. Or if you just say yalikirmai, it also means I like myself. So adding cell is common to do, but it doesn't add any information. Laliki Mai Eliki Mai Cell. I like myself. Both make sense. Okay, adding cell just says that this is the same person as in the beginning of the sentence. That's it. I hope that helps. I will give you three sentences that I would like you to finish and I will translate them so that you know what I'm expecting. Okay? Are you ready?

SPEAKER_00: 12:14

Do lick it blank in or again. You like it in Norway. I can say to myself Yad Til Yule. I look forward to Christmas.

SPEAKER_01: 12:56

Like it till, please write me the answers. I hope this episode was useful to you. If you liked it, please share it with someone you think might enjoy this. Thank you so much for listening.