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Spørsmål angående engelsk
kan stilles til språkrådgiver Stewart Clark, Studieavdelingen,
e-post: stewart.clark@adm.ntnu.no, Definite article In most cases, the use of the definite article
in Norwegian and English is similar. One problem is the difference
between a noun being used in its general and specific
senses. Take the word industry as an example. When
it is written without the definite article: «Industry
must survive», this means industry in general. When
it has the definite article: «The industry must survive»,
this means a specific industrial sector. Translated into Norwegian,
both phrases will use «industrien». This distinction
applies generally. Here are some general sense staff (all employees) life is good (in general) modern society (in general) music calms (all types) specific sense the staff (those in a specific organization) the life of Brian (a specific one in a film), the geological society (specific group) the music of Brahms (his Remember even though there is a definite article in Norwegian, nouns in a general or abstract sense do not have «the» in English. Reference lists and indexing If an index of books, journals and papers puts
the titles first and some of these start with «The»,
it is common to use the first main word in the title to decide
the alphabetical order. For example, The Complete Plain
Words is indexed under «C» but written The
Complete Plain Words. The same applies to proper names
in English. When indexing The Hague, it will be written «The
Hague» but will be under «H» in the index/reference
list. For institutions, «the» is normally omitted
as the first word in the title. Universities are When there is no «The» as the first word in a title/name, a lower case definite article is to be used in running text: «This is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology», but not otherwise. Tricky words Per cent, percentage Per cent (Norw. prosent) means rate per hundred and may be an abbreviation of the pseudo-Latin per centum. It is always read as «per cent» and written as two words in British English, but as one word in American English. The ISO standard 31-0 (1992) states that there should be space between the numerical value and the unit. Therefore write 35 %, not 35%. Percentage (Norw. prosentandel) is a
rate or amount in a hundred. Percentage is followed
by a singular or plural verb according to the noun that is
involved: «20 % of his income is used for rent».
is written in one word in both BE and AE. Degree certificate, transcript Degree certificate (here, Norw. eksamensvitnemål) means an official document that states the degree awarded by a specific university: «Norwegian universities tend to send the degree certificate in the post instead of formally awarding it in person on degree day as in many other countries». Transcript (here, Norw. karakterutskrift) in the context of higher education means the official record of a student's work showing the courses taken and the grades awarded: «He asked for the English version of his transcript from the University of Oslo». Enlightening English A brochure called «Det Skjer», March
2000 is published by Trondheim Aktivum partly for our foreign
visitors and boasts of an «english summary» (non-capitalized).
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Stewart's
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