All Nordic languages: I spy with my little eye...

V

vthebee

Senior Member
English- Ireland
Hei,

What is the equivalent translation, in Norwegian (Bokmål), of the expression 'I spy with my little eye, something beginning with...'

I'm not sure if its translated directly as something like 'Jeg spionere med lite øyet mitt, noe som begynner med...'

Just in response to a couple of posts below, apologies I should have clarified that I am referring to the game 'I spy with my little eye something beginning with...' where someone says a letter and the other person has to guess what they see which begins with that letter.

It is usually a game played when you are younger but I thought it might help me with my vocabulary!

Takk for hjelpen.
 
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    • Context? I assume you mean the game where game participants have to guess what you're referring to, and that it has to be an object you can see at the time, somewhere in your line of sight?

    I can't remember any Swedish guessing games that are exactly the same, and first learned it when living in the UK - when driving with children! Don't know about Norway (or Denmark) though. It is of course possible that this game does have an equivalent in Norway (or any other Scandinavian country). If it does, I'll be curious to know. If not, we'll have to invent a good Norwegian/Danish/Swedish title for it, with rhymes and all! :) This is why I have changed the scope to All Nordic languages.
     
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    Assuming that vthebee is indeed referring to the game and not to an exact translation, I hereby offer some Danish info. In Denmark we have a game which is pretty similar to I spy. It's calles Skibet er ladet med ... (The ship is loaded with ...) The starter saying this opening phrase also offers a letter and the other players must then answer by something beginning with that letter. But in contrast to the rules of I spy, the answer doesn't have to be something in actual view. Both the English and the Danish game are often used didactically in Denmark, I spy in the teaching of English as a vocabulary builder, Skibet er ladet med in the teaching of Danish for phonological awareness/early reading.
     
    In Norwegian, the game is called "Mitt skip er lastet med" and it works like the Danish version, although you could limit it to things you can see.

    Mitt skip er lastet med noe som begynner på L.
     
    When my kids were younger they wanted to play “I spy” with some Danish relatives and wanted me, their poetically challenged mom, to come up with a Danish translation. All I could think of was, Jeg ser det ganske nøje, jeg ser det med mit lille øje...noget der begynder med ...(letter) –noget der er (color). It seemed to work alright, keeping them busy for a while; I wish I had thought about ”Skibet er ladet med”, though.:)

    Bic
     
    Hei, thanks everyone for your responses. It is interesting to read about the differences between the game in Scandanavia and Ireland (where I grew up). Thanks for explaining these differences and providing the translations!
     
    Swedish also has the "Ett skepp kommer lastat med...", where you have to start with repeating all the things that has been mentioned before, and continuing with adding a thing that starts with the last letter of the last word. For smaller children you could have everything starting with the same letter.
     
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