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NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian expression of the day: Klabbeføre

If you're planning on going skiing in Norway soon, this is a must-know. But it also works well as a metaphor for everyday life struggles.

Norwegian expression of the day: Klabbeføre
Is it 'klabbeføre'? Photo: AFP

Why do I need to know klabbeføre?

Because it’s an expression Norwegians use a lot in the winter, which doesn’t directly translate to English.

What does it mean?

Klabbeføre refers to a certain kind of weather conditions for skiing.

Skiføre is the Norwegian term for ‘ski conditions’, and when the skiføre is klabbete, it means that the snow is sticky and hard to ski across.

Klabb is not really a word itself, although the Norwegian translation of the Harry Potter books uses it about Bludgers, the big ball that’s meant to distress wizards when playing the magical (unfortunately fictional) sport Quidditch.

If you know about Quidditch, the Bludgers are not a bad way to think about klabbeføre, just think that it’s big snowballs instead of leather ones and that they are all sticking to your skis.

When there is klabbeføre, skiing is pretty tricky – unless you have the right equipment, which most Norwegians will have – and it’s probably the worst føre for first-timers to try out cross-country skiing. (Cross-country skiing is fun, I promise, but not so fun on klabbeføre).

The opposite of klabbeføre is silkeføre, ‘silk conditions’, which means your skis will glide over the mountains as sliding on silk.

Klabbeføre is sometimes used as a metaphor to talk about  other things that have nothing to do with skiing or snow.

If there is klabbeføre at an international meeting where the participants are trying to settle on new climate goals, it means the talks are not going well. Likewise, there can be klabbeføre when a business is trying to renegotiate its employees’ salaries.

Use it like this

Hvis du skal på ski i dag bør du smøre godt først, det er skikkelig klabbeføre. – If you’re going skiing today you need to prep the skis well first, it’s really sticky out there.

Jeg orker ikke mer klabbeføre. Kan vi snu? – I can stand this sticky snow anymore. Can we go back?

Først var det totalt klabbeføre under EU samtalene, men etter noen dager gikk det mye letter fremover. – At first the EU talks were not moving forward at all, but after a few days things smoothed out a lot.

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NORWEGIAN WORD OF THE DAY

Norwegian word of the day: Hetebølge

Today's word hasn't always been associated with Norway, but instances have become increasingly common in recent years.

Norwegian word of the day: Hetebølge

What does it mean?

Hetebølge is the Norwegian word for a heatwave, and is a simple compound of the word for heat (hete) and the word for wave (bølge).

This word isn’t the most common for heat. Instead, the word varme is used when referring to heat. You would use varme in other compounds, such as a heat pump (varmepumpe).

Heatwaves, for obvious reasons, haven’t always been associated with Norway. Still, the country can see prolonged periods of 25c or 30c plus days.

In the summer, the warmest part of Norway is usually a village called Nesbyn, which holds the national heat record (varmerekord) as a temperature of 35.6c was recorded in 1970. The area’s unique microclimate means that it has also gotten as cold as -38c in the past.

Heatwaves will, unfortunately, become more common in Norway due to global warming. Even if Norway doesn’t experience super common heatwaves, plenty of Norwegians will feel the heat on the continent as they typically travel to the Mediterranean, or Syden, as Norwegians call it, every summer.

Use it like this

Jeg lurer på om det blir hetebølge i Norge i sommer.

I wonder if there will be a heatwave in Norway this summer.

Det var hetebølge i Hellas i juni med nesten 40 varmegrader.

There was a heatwave in Greece in June, and it was almost 40 degrees.

Det er meldt hetebølge neste uke.

The forecast is predicting a heatwave next week.

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