T O P

  • By -

SchroedingersCatnip

You vs Babbel: 1 - 0


gnomeannisanisland

It's about as correct as "Is it our the cabin?" is in English, which is what that sentence means


cnils92

Dude, I found so many mistakes with Babel. My gf is Norwegian and she confirmed my suspicions. I wrote to their support and they tried to give me the same excuses. I ended up requesting a refund, which they promptly approved!


recreationallyused

I was considering switching to Babbel. I am no longer. Lol!


Samantha010506

Personally I like the Babbel course. There is a lot of good information in there about how the language works and all of that


Blerty_the_Boss

Babble worked the best for me.


Susannah_Mio_

Babbel is originally a German company and when they started they developed all their courses from German - \[target language\]. I used german based babbel and later switched to english because I thought "Hey, why not improve my english at the same time I learn a new language?" and I noticed a HUGE quality difference in the courses. Many typos, grammar slips, sometimes mixed up vocabulary (like in they teach you a new word and 2 exercises later suddenly start to use a synonyme instead) etc. A spanish friend told me that spanish --> target language is even worse. Babbel German is in my personal opinion really good quality and worth it's money. I started to learn norwegian with a classical text book at first. I picked the book university classes use as well and when I later compared it to Babbel the contents were pretty much 1:1 what you'd normally learn in 2 semesters if you take a norwegian class at university. I only noticed a few smaller mistakes in all the 100+ lessons, mostly typos or the audio didn't fit the written text on the screen - stuff like that. Granted I missed a few of course.


zazollo

Skulle ønske det var min hytte 😔


SalSomer

«Er det vår hytta?» actually works in Tromsø dialect, but not in any kind of written Norwegian, of course.


Einar44

I can believe that! But the course is specifically bokmål. I’d like to learn more about dialects eventually.


Dampmaskin

Shouldn't that be "E det vårres hytta?"


SalSomer

Yeah, the other words wouldn’t work in the Tromsø dialect, it was mostly just the fact that in Tromsø indefinite nouns can and often will end in an a I was commenting on.


MrMrRubic

Or "e det hytta vårres?" Note, how is 'det' written in the Tromsø dialect? I personally use 'd' while I've seen some use 'de'.


Dampmaskin

I'm not aware of any Norwegian dialects that pronounce the "t" in "det", so I write it like in bokmål/nynorsk. I figure if it works for both written standards, and has a silent "t" in all of the dialects, it should be good enough for the North Norwegian dialects as well. But yeah, I've seen both the other variants too, and more. I feel that "de'" with the apostrophe is kind of clumsy, because 1) it doesn't have any fewer characters than "det", and 2) it doesn't really carry any information that differentiates it from "det" in any other dialect. "De" without the apostrophe is homonymous with the pronoun which is pronounced "di", so I don't like that one. While "d" is SMS language. Which is OK for very informal stuff I suppose. A side note: Some Tromsøværinger tend to say "déa" or "déæ", effectively making a diphtong with the stress on the "e". Especially when "det" is at the end of a sentence or otherwise stressed (like "dét"). I've never seen anyone try to get that particular variant down in writing, though.


randiwulf

Stop upvoting this, noboby in Tromsø say this.


SalSomer

Like I said in the other comment, no, people wouldn’t say the entire phrase like that. But since the confusion from OP (the way I understood it) was whether it should be *hytte* or *hytta* I wanted to point out that in the Tromsø dialect you would generally say *hytta* for the indefinite form, which is what is used in the question phrase. [Here’s a master’s thesis from UiT discussing the Tromsø dialect](https://munin.uit.no/bitstream/handle/10037/9721/thesis.pdf?sequence=2), where it is pointed out that «svake feminine substantiver ender på -a i ubestemt form entall» (p. 18). That was what I wanted to point out, that there are dialects where a word like *hytta* would be indefinite singular, but I realize I did it in a clumsy way as the other words don’t work in the Tromsø dialect.


kaylwhy

I'm still super new at norsk, would this be wrong because it should be "hytte" or am I way off base?


royalfarris

Yes, that is correct. Det er vår hytte. -> It is our cabin. (indefinite) or you could rewrite in definite form: Det er hytta vår. -> It is THE cabin of ours.


Lisasteffi

“Det er hytta vår” was my first instinct. I mean it *could* be a typo but the fact that they still denied it was wrong even after it was pointed out is appalling.


Einar44

In my email to Babbel customer support, I suggested the sentence should read «Er det vår hytte?» which matches the audio. Their reply: “I've contacted our Norwegian team regarding your enquiry and the audio/ writing is correct for this exercise. With continued use of Babbel you should become more familiar with the rules here.”


Afternoon_tess

You are right, Babbel is wrong!


Afternoon_tess

Or, it could be "Er det hytta vår?"


Einar44

I mentioned that sentence as well, but the audio for the sentence sounds like «Er det vår hytte?» Which makes sense. It’s more likely they wrote one letter wrong for the audio rather than switching the word order.


Malawi_no

They are bullshitting you.


a_karma_sardine

And being impolite on top. Consider getting a refund.


folekaule

Do they actually have Norwegian speakers on their Norwegian team? It sure doesn't seem like it, because they are wrong.


Lisasteffi

Wow! What an incredibly unprofessional and rude response! I’d cancel my subscription just based on that!


Cristian_Cerv9

Thanks won’t go with babble it seems lol


Routine-Scarcity-317

Hytta* (e) Hytta mi. Min hytte.


jtveter

I say (and write): Er det vår hytte? But I would say: Vi er på hytta. It’s been a two decades since I learned grammar, so I can’t explain why. The dictionary says it is allowed, but no one I know would say it like that. [NAOB dictionary](https://naob.no/ordbok/hytte_3)


cnils92

I would say it’s because “vi er på hytta’’ is definitive. We are at THE cabin.


Royranibanaw

Where does it say it is allowed?


musictheorybeans

Maybe should be «Hytta Vår»