#41 "Frisk" or "fersk"? - The finesse of freshness. [vokabular]

wo Norwegian Words For Fresh

Folkens! Hvordan går det i dag? How is it going today? I don't feel completely "frisk", which means that I feel a little bit sick, but I hope that I will get through this podcast episode without too much of a hassle. So let's dive into these two words "frisk" and "fersk" that can both be translated into fresh when we're not talking about people. And they do also stem from the same root word that means fresh. So why what? It's not easy to differentiate these two because very often things that are are fashion are also "frisk"a. So I'm gonna go into a little bit more detail, but first let's take one thing away from the equation, and that is when you're talking about live creatures and people. So if I'm talking about a person who is "frisk" and "frisk" passun, that means a person who is not sick. You cannot translate literally with healthy, because we have another word that means healthy, which is sun. And that is has more to do with lifestyle. So somebody who eats well, who works out, who takes care of his or her health, that's somebody who is sun. Frisk just means that there is absence of illness. So you can have a horrible lifestyle and still be "frisk". Okay? And uh for some weird reason we say "frisk som en fisk" which means "healthy as a fish". And that probably was a good saying before, but uh I don't think it is anymore, unfortunately. Now what about a person who is "fersk"? Can you say that? And "fersk"? It is a figurative way to use the word fush. It means that somebody is new. So for instance if you have a new colleague, somebody who feels like a beginner in something, they can say "jeg er fersk i jobben". Um fresh or I'm like I'm I'm a newbie, basically you could call it I'm new or a newbie. En fersking = a newbie. And this takes us to when we talk about food because that in general is when we're gonna use the words "frisk" and "fersk", not only, but we're gonna start with that. So "fersk mat" that means new or newly made like ferskt brød fresh bread is "nybakt", basically, newly baked. Ferskt brød = nybakt brød. Now what about "frisk"? "Frisk" on the other hand, it has more to do with how things look and how they taste. So for instance, "frisk" means that it's it looks like it's fresh, at least on the surface. So but I wouldn't use it for all kinds of food. I would only use it for vegetables and and fruit, normally, because it it it has a connection with the taste as well. So if I say "frisk frukt", then it's I can see that they're still late, the the the the fruit is still juicy, that would be one thing. It's still juicy, and it's not it has tonus. If you have it in your hands, it's not completely soft and old. It has the the tonus of something that has not stayed there for a long time. But you can be fooled because we have a lot we have loads of fruits and vegetables that can come from the other side of the planet. "En frukt kan være frisk, men ikke fersk". If the fruit was "fersk" then it would be like taken right from the tree and it would be "fersk". "Frisk" just means that it still has the shape that it should have, it still has tonus and the taste is juicy. "Frisk" also means cold, it means acidic. It can also refer to a taste of mint. So for instance a chewing gum you would call it we say that it has "frisk" taste or water, cold water, you would say "friskt vann" or some fresh air, "frisk luft" just because it's it's cold, but it's also new or less polluted than the one you have inside, but it it's more about the fact that it's cold and refreshing. "Forfriskende", refreshing. For some reason, we like to use the word "frisk" instead of acid because acid when we talk about food and we and we want to describe it, if you say that something is acid, it doesn't sound nice. But "frisk" sounds nice. And "frisk juice". And then it's not freshly pressed, it doesn't mean that. It just means that the taste is acidic. If it was freshly pressed, you would say "fersk" use. Remember? New "fersk" is new, so it's completely new. It just got made. Newly made. "Fersk juice". If you go to buy wine, you will find a symbol on the description of the wine "friskhet - freshness. Basically it means how acidic it is. Yeah, how much acidity there is in it. But the word acid or "syre" or "sur" "syre" for the noun, "sur" for the adjective, doesn't have a very good connotation. So that's why we don't use that. So we would rather say "frisk". So when you go to the grocery shop, you want to buy "ferskt brød", freshly baked bread. "Fersk fisk" fresh fish taken directly from the water, hopefully. And that hasn't been lying around for a long time. Fersk. Hopefully also "ferske grønnsaker", "fersk frukt", but probably you're not gonna get that. You're more in at least not in our way. You're probably but hopefully at least they are "frisk". They still have good taste and they still have their tonus. They're not completely soft, hopefully. Imagine I think the perfect example, the perfect image of this are herbs. When you buy them after two days uh at the kitchen bench, they're not "friske" anymore, they're just lying flat and preparing to die. So I think that's a good image to keep in your head of some of uh vegetables that are not "frisk". They're they they look depressed. Leak as well. It's very obvious when it's not fresh, when it's not "frisk" anymore. It's it's uh completely soft and uh and changes color. Alright. Of course I have to give you an exercise, as always. So you are going to the store, you want to buy some berries, and you have two scenarios. You see one box of uh blueberries and it says "ferske blåbær" and then uh next to them you see some uh strawberries and it says "friske jordbær" . In which case are they saying that the the berries were newly picked? And in which case are they saying that the the the berries look nice and that they have an acidic taste? Please let me know in the comment field below. Now of course we do not always differentiate, sometimes we use one for the other, but that's the general difference that's the general difference between the two. And the best would be that the vegetables and fruit that you buy are both "ferske" and "friske". But well in most cases you cannot have both , "du kan ikke få i pose og sekk" - You cannot have in a bag and in a bag... Good luck! Lykke til! Takk for i dag! Vi høres! :)