#33 I have cake for you... or to you? When to use "til" instead of "for" in Norwegian. [vokabular]

Chapters

• 0:15 Four As A False Friend
• 0:31 Who This Lesson Helps
• 1:00 Meanings Of Till And For
• 1:25 Till For Direction And Giving
• 2:30 Belonging And Use With Till
• 4:03 Infinitives: Til Å Vs For Å
• 4:31 For As Because
• 4:47 Money For That: Why Till
• 5:27 Favors Vs Gifts: For Or Till
• 7:27 Only Till With Gifts
• 9:23 Made For Kids: Nuance
• 10:47 Reason And Possibility: Both Or Either
• 12:31 Time With Till Vs For
• 14:28 To Me Vs For Me In Norwegian
• 16:17 Closing And Listener Questions

Transcript

Speaker: 0:15

"For" is a false friend. Very often in English you would use "for", and in Norwegian, we don't always use "for" in the same cases. We very often use "til" instead. And this episode is meant for you who are crying every day. No, I'm just kidding. This episode is for you if you struggle to know when to use "til" instead of "for". Now, of course, there are many examples where you would use other prepositions instead of "for". In many expressions, uh you just have to learn which preposition to use and then move on with your life. But I'm gonna talk a little bit about the meanings of "til" and "for" in some cases, and why "til" should be used and not "for", and sometimes why you can use both and what would be the difference in meaning. Now, first let's look at the different meanings "til" can have, the general meanings. The easiest one is for direction. This is very straightforward, you know when to use it. "Jeg drar til Norge", "I go to Norway". So you can you can translate literally "til" with "to". Same thing when you talk about giving something to someone, "give to" "gi til", "Jeg gir en gave til deg." "I give a gift to you". Now remembering these meanings can be very useful later. Um the fact that you use "til" when you talk about giving something to one giving something to someone and the use of "til" for direction can be very useful in figurative use. Right? We would say "jeg gleder meg til" "I look forward to", right? There's a figurative movement towards something that you would like. A different meaning of "til" is about belonging. Now this is different from English. We wouldn't you could say this belongs to me, right? But unless you use the verb belong, you wouldn't use the preposition "to" alone. But in Norwegian we use "til" for belonging. So we could say "boka til Jens", which means the book belonging to Jens or the book of Jens. So that is different. And another meaning of "til" is when you talk about use. What is something used for? In English you say "for" when you talk about what something is used for, but we say "til". For eksempel: " Boka brukes til å lære norsk." For instance the book is used for learning Norwegian. What is something used for "hva brukes noe til?" So in some cases both "til" and "for" can be used. I have an episode about the use of "til å" and "for å" which is episode 15. When you talk about what something is used for and you add an infinitive, you use "til å", and when you talk about why you do something, you use "for å". You can learn more about this in episode 15. But "til" is not only used with infinitive, and "for" is not always used with infinitive either. "For" can actually mean "for di". So you can use it instead of "fordi". "Jeg lærer norsk for jeg vil det." "Jeg lærer norsk fordi jeg vil det." I learn Norwegian because I want to. So for instance I could say "Jeg har ikke penger til det." In English you would say "I don't have money for that" for we would say til in Norwegian. Why? Because you're talking about what you're gonna use something for, use "money for that", "penger til det". So that's the reason why you would use "til" and not "for" in that case. "For" just like in English is used when you do someone a favor, "I can do that for you", "Jeg kan gjøre det for deg." So here there's no difference. But when the the favor includes making something, then it gets more complicated. Because if you say "I can make a cake for you", right, then there are two options. Either I am just making the cake so that you don't have to make it, but the cake is maybe for your neighbor's birthday party, you're not even gonna be there, you're just doing your neighbor a favor, but you can't make the cake, so I make it for you. So focus is just on doing someone a favor, they don't have to do that action. But then another understanding of that sentence is that I make the cake and I want you to eat it. I'm gonna give it to you. Remember, when you give something to someone, like in English, to "til" you use "til". So if my purpose is for you to eat it, I'm giving it to you, it's a gift to you, then that is my main focus, and in that case I will use "til" and not "for". So if your sentence contain the this this favor is something that you make for someone, you construct it for someone, and you want them to have it, then you use "til". Now both options are possible with "for" and "til", but there is a difference in meaning. So I would say "Jeg har laget en kake for deg." That means that I have made a cake for you. That means that you didn't have to make the cake, I did it. You had to make a cake and you didn't have time, but I made it. Whatever you're gonna use it for is irrelevant. My focus is on the fact that I did that for you so that you didn't have to do it. And another the other scenario is when I say "Jeg har laget en kake til deg." That means I'm giving you a cake, here you go, maybe it's your birthday. Eat it. Another example you where you would only use "til", it doesn't make sense to use "for", is where the action, the favor is gone. "Jeg har en gave til deg." I have a gift for you. I cannot say "jeg har en gave for deg" because here there's no favor. You only see the result. I already have the gift. There's no favor there. I only have the result of whatever I did to get that gift. So here, "til" is the only option. I'm giving it to you. I have it and I'm giving it to you. It's destined for you. That's what the "til" mean "til" means. This is going in your direction. I have a gift going in your direction, going towards you. Now another example where both "for" and "til" can be used, but there is a nuance difference. "Laget for", "laget til". "Made for, made for." When you say for instance this book is made for kids, that can mean two things, which is more or less the same thing. So it doesn't really matter which one you choose, but I want you to understand the the difference. It can mean that it's designed for, so it has you've had kids in your mind when you made that book. Whereas with "til", it's just the the book is going to be given to. Goal is to give, and that's your focus. Now, when you go to the movie theater, you have different age limits, which means that the producers know which group of people it is made for. So they had that in mind. It's designed for a certain kind of group. Here you would use for, not "til". So we could say "for alle" if there's no age limit, "for alle". "For barn over sju" or no, I don't think that's an age limit. Six years I think. "For barn over seks år", "for barn over ti" or "for voksne", etc. In some cases both prepositions are possible. For instance, the with "grunn", which means reason, "en grunn", you can say "en grunn til" a reason for, "en grunn for" a reason for. I don't know why we have two options. Maybe we are influenced by English, maybe it should be "til" and people are still using "for". In some cases that might be true. If you use "for" where you should use "til", it's not a big deal. Norwegians even make mistakes here using "for" a little bit too much. Another example is "mulighet til", "mulighet for" "possibility for or to. Maybe you can say both in English as well. So here you can choose which one you use. "Jeg har mulighet til å lære norsk." "Jeg har mulighet for å lære norsk." I have the possibility to learn Norwegian. Oh, actually, I guess you would use "to". Anyways, but there is one scenario where you have to use "for", which is when you want to say there is a chance of something. There might be rain tomorrow, for instance, there where there's a chance, there's a risk of something. "Det er mulighet for regn." So if you're not sure which one to use, just use "for" and it will work. And then you have uh an example where using "til" and "for" would have a difference. You can use both, but it doesn't mean exactly the same thing. "Tid til" means "time for" and "tid for" also means "time for". But be careful. There is time for, and there is time for... For eksempel: "Jeg har ikke tid til å lære norsk." I do not have time I do not have the time to learn Norwegian. "Det er tid for å lære norsk." " It's time to learn Norwegian." It's the moment it's the right time to learn Norwegian. "Jeg har ikke tid til det." I don't have time for that." I don't have available time for that. Remember now I told you that "til" is used when you talk about what something is used for, and this I guess is another example of that. I don't have time that I can use for that. No available time, so no time I can use for that. Or I just won't don't want to spend my time on that. "Det er tid for det." It's time for that. It's the moment for that, it's the perfect moment for that. If you're talking about the right moment, "Det er tid for lunsj." It's time for lunch. It's the right moment for lunch. Then you use "for". "Det er tid til lunsj." There is available time for lunch. We have the time to eat lunch. Both are possible, but different meaning. And finally, to end this episode, I also wanted to give you one very common mistake that people make where in English there is a tendency of using to. I think you can also use for, but I'm not quite sure. For example, to me, grammar is difficult. In Norwegian you would say "for", "for meg er grammatikk vanskelig". Or "grammatikk er vanskelig for meg.". When people say "det passer for meg" when you say "Can you meet on Sunday at six o'clock? And they say Det passer" or "Det passer for meg." , then they're actually saying "to me that works". The way I see it in my life, the way I experience it, it works. That's why "for" is used in that context. This is the reality for me. That's how I see it, that's how I experience it, that's how it is for me. To me. I hope that helps you, as always. Maybe you have some examples you're not sure of. Maybe you've seen examples where both "til" and for can be used, and you don't know the difference, or you don't know why "til" is used and not "for", or the opposite. Please let me know. I would love to hear from you. Ha en fin dag! Vi høres! :)