Anti-strong verbs

Today as Palmer and I were driving up the 5 freeway, he started telling me a story about a black knight and his group of grey knight friends who "fighted a dragon." I corrected him, "who fought a dragon."

Palmer has decided, starting sometime in October or so, that all verbs should be formed by adding -ed to the end of them. I am therefore I fairly regularly trying to correct him. His normal response is to complete ignore me and keep saying things liked "thinked" and "drived".

But today when I interjected "fought"into his story, he said, "what? fought? what? That doesn't make ANY sense! It is supposed to be fighted" and then he kept going.

This made me realizing that teaching him Icelandic might be a little more tricky than I thought.

Comments

Anonymous said…
This is a phase almost all children go through and a natural part of learning to use the language correctly, so I wouldn't worry too much. Don't actually correct him but rather repeat what he said without a "correcting tone" and without expecting him to repeat after you.

It will be difficult for him to learn Icelandic unless you bring him here very regularly and over a fairly long time, each time, though...
December 29, 2010 at 11:28 AM
Harpa Jónsdóttir said…
I was going to say exactly the same as Hildigunnur...
December 29, 2010 at 4:31 PM
Heiða said…
óliver gerði alveg eins. hann vildi leika við vin sinn og sagði mér svo frá þegar hann "leikaði" (í staðinn fyrir "lék") "Snúði mér við" í stað "snéri mér við" var lengi lengi að lagast, en svo loks gerðist það. Allt svona gengur yfir, engar áhyggjur!
December 29, 2010 at 5:30 PM
Anonymous said…
I of course meant for you to repeat what he said, but correctly...
December 30, 2010 at 12:28 AM
Lissy said…
Haha, Hildigunnur! That is what I do most of the time, just repeat the sentence correctly without any kind of correcting tone. Usually he just ignores me, but the time I said fought instead of fighted, he was like "no way!" That is what was so funny.
December 30, 2010 at 5:12 PM
Anonymous said…
yes, that's what I thought you did - and yes it was funny :D
December 30, 2010 at 10:47 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dett í, ofan á, úr, út

I´m not sure if someone had dett í (gotten drunk), or if það bara dett ofan á (it just sort of happened), or if some dett úr (forgot), but at any rate, my household goods dett út (have disappeared). Let's review the chronology here. Early August packers from the shipping company arrive at the apartment in Moraga. They load my 4 large plastic containers and 8 cardboard boxes, plus one baby crib, into their truck. I watch my things depart. In September, I ask the friendly girl (Magie is her name) if she happens to know when I might expect my stuff. Late September she tells me. I am most impressed. Extremely so. Mid October rolls around, and I have not gotten a call. And it occurs to me that I am going to be traveling through November. Hmm. So I call again. Well, yes, she tells me, looks like your shipment should arrive on the 31st of October. Now here I admit that maybe I was a little lacks. I had a lot to do before my trip, and so when they did not call me, I did not follow ...
Read more

On Icelandic doctors

My friends and family here in Iceland were very enthusiastic about me going to the krabbameinsfélag for an exam. I was really impressed how easy it was to get an appointment--booked online even! And when I got there this afternoon, the efficiency continued: they have a well oiled operation in place there, all very organized with computers asking questions and keyed lockers to keep one's personal belongings in. Then when it came time to see the doctor, well, that lasted all of 2 minutes. And I paid 3420 kroner. So I was overall a little disappointed. When I mentioned to the front desk clerks that I was wondering if it was possible to actually get an appointment where I could speak to a doctor, I was given a variety of phone numbers. None of the ones I called had appointments within the next 6 weeks. In the United States, when I want a doctor's appointment, I can usually get it within a week of calling, though sometimes I have had to wait 10 days or so. The highest co-pay I hav...
Read more

Cultural tourism in Iceland

I just finished writing a chapter of my dissertation, which resulted in a much larger discussion of cultural tourism in Iceland than I had intended. But the fact is, this is an issue I have been extremely interested and concerned about for at least 15 years, if not 20. I have never, ever liked the way Iceland is marketed to tourists in the U.S. Everything from the unspoiled nature to the crazy city life in Reykavik. It has always left the part of Iceland I loved--the simple joy of being in a relaxing and lovely place with my family--completely out of the picture. In 2001, I went to Hvollsvöllur to examine the Saga Centre as part of a study commissioned by the National Park's service to look into cultural landscapes as heritage tourism. I thought that endeavor might represent a change in how Iceland was presented to tourists. But in the last 10 years, and especially while working at Vikingaheimar, and at meetings with the Saga Trails Association, I came to see just how completel...
Read more