Why do Norwegians use the English word “deal”?
Godteri, film og en liten deal
A2 Norwegian listening practice · Standard Norwegian · Picked for people who know a little
Modern Norwegian absorbs English so smoothly that the word deal sits in casual conversation the way avtale (agreement) used to. In this clip a parent and child negotiate over candy and movies, calling the trade en liten deal (“a little deal”). It’s not hipster slang. Norwegian speakers under fifty use deal without thinking.
Words like trip, cool, chill, and deal take Norwegian articles and conjugations as if they were native. Older speakers and language purists raise eyebrows. The Norwegian Language Council (Språkrådet) catalogues the trend without trying to stop it. The borrowed forms carry no foreign flavour in everyday talk anymore.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A2 Norwegian listening practice video?
How common in written Norwegian
How common in spoken Norwegian
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A2. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.
- ▸In Norwegian family negotiations about screen time, candy, or chores
- ▸In Norwegian podcasts and reality TV (Paradise Hotel, Farmen, Skal vi danse)
- ▸In Norwegian business slang where en god deal is a standard phrase
- ▸In Norwegian rap and pop lyrics
- ▸In Norwegian text messages and comment sections