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

Welcome Back After Moving Break

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 .

Understanding "Å" - The Infinitive Particle

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 .

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 .

When To Use "Til Å"

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 .

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 .

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 .

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 ,

Using "For Å" vs "Til Å"

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 ?

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 .

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 .

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 .

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

Episode Wrap and Contact Information

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 .