Introduction   |   General    |    Shetland Norn     |    Orkney Norn    |    Nynorn      |      Forum      |      Contact        

Lesson Five

1. Accusative of weak substantives.

In Lesson Four we became acquainted with the accusative case and its form in the strong declension. Now let us see how the accusative is formed with weak substantives. In singular, the masculine words have the ending -a, -u applies for feminine, while neuter stays unchanged with the ending -a. As for plural, the situation is the same as in the strong declension: masculine nouns have -a, while in feminine and neuter ones the accusative form is equal to its nominative counterpart:

NB: neuter (singular and plural) and feminine (plural) never distinguish between nominative and accusative in any declension types.

Exercise 5.1.
Translate the following phrases:

I'm seeing boys. He's seeing girls. A dog bites a boy. Flies don't bite girls.

2. Accusative of personal pronouns

Examples:
Eg se dog 'I'm seeing you (sg.)'. Hann kenner hana, men ikke dor 'He knows her, but not you (pl.)'. Der finna då 'They (females) find them (males)'.

Exercise 5.2.
Translate the following phrases:

a) I know them (M), but not him. A dog is biting you (sg.). They (F) don't find us.
b) about me, near her, into that, about us, onto them (M), near them (N)

3. Verbs. Present tense. Weak conjugation

In Lesson Four we learned about the present tense of strong verbs. Now let us see how the present is formed by weak verbs. The main difference from the strong class is the endings: weak verbs form their present tense through adding either -i/er (type 1) or -a/ar (type 2):

Type 1. at gera 'to do, make'
eg geri
du gerer
hann gerer
vi gera

Some other verbs of this type:
senda 'to send', bygga 'to build', køba 'to buy', birta 'to quicken a fire', fylga 'to follow', støda 'to support', legga 'to lay'.

In exceptional cases the root vowel undergoes changes similar to those for strong verbs:

hava 'to have':
eg hev
du hever
hann hever
vi hava

Type 2. at kalla 'to call':
eg kalla
du kallar
hann kallar
vi kalla

This is the most widespread conjugation type in Nynorn. It also includes the following verbs among many other:

bjårga 'to save', fena 'to show delight, hospitality', prenta 'to print', nota 'to use', ferda 'to walk quickly', vitsja 'to visit', marka 'to mark'.

Exercise 5.3.
Translate the following phrases:

A boy is calling a dog. A girl is saving horses. She has dogs. We don't have dogs. I save you (sg.). You (pl.) visit us. He is building houses. A boy is buying balls.

Discuss this lesson on the forum

   ©2006-2016 Hnolt