{"id":384,"date":"2013-05-13T15:03:06","date_gmt":"2013-05-13T15:03:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/islenzka.net\/?p=384"},"modified":"2013-05-13T15:03:06","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T15:03:06","slug":"carry-and-fight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/carry-and-fight\/","title":{"rendered":"Carry And Fight"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two verbs, distinguished by a single letter, with very similar conjugations in the present tense. One strong, one weak…some i-shift, some u-shift – what’s not to like? \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 bera – to carry, bear<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nber<\/td>\nbar<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nber\u00f0<\/td>\nbarst<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nber<\/td>\nbar<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nberum<\/td>\nb\u00e1rum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nberi\u00f0<\/td>\nb\u00e1ru\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nbera<\/td>\nb\u00e1ru<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The verb a\u00f0 bera<\/strong> is a strong verb that exhibits the e-a-\u00e1-o<\/strong> i-shift in the past tense. Like most common words, bera<\/strong> has an insane number of uses in many different expressions and phrases. I’ve barely begun to scratch the surface, but here’s some of what I’ve learned:<\/p>\n

bera vitni<\/strong> – testify, bear witness, give evidence
\nbera kennsl \u00e1 einhvern<\/strong> – recognize somebody
\nbera \u00e1byrg\u00f0 \u00e1 einhverju<\/strong> – be responsible for something
\nbera h\u00f6fu\u00f0i\u00f0 h\u00e1tt<\/strong> – hold your head high
\nbera upp eitthva\u00f0<\/strong> – propose something
\nbera \u00fat einhvern<\/strong> – evict somebody
\nbera saman<\/strong> – compare<\/p>\n

It can be used in impersonal expressions with the meaning of something needing to be done (someone is obliged or has responsibility for it):
\n\u00fea\u00f0 ber a\u00f0 gera \u00feetta<\/strong> – it needs to be done
\nhonum\/henni ber a\u00f0 gera \u00feetta<\/strong> – he\/she needs to do that<\/p>\n

In addition to the the meaning bear<\/em> as in carry<\/em>, it can mean bear<\/em> as in give birth<\/em>, when talking about animals. In reflexive form, it might be seen in describing something being carried along, like a boat on the water. In news reports it is common to see the past tense barst<\/strong>. Here is means arrived<\/em>, received<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Tilkynning barst r\u00e9tt fyrir klukkan t\u00edu…<\/strong>
\nNotice was received just before 10 o’clock…<\/p>\n

\u00c1\u00f0ur en a\u00f0sto\u00f0 barst…<\/strong>
\nBefore help arrived (reached them)…
\n

\u00b7 \u00b7 \u00b7<\/strong><\/center><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
a\u00f0 berja – to beat (punch)<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\npresent<\/th>\npast<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00e9g<\/th>\nber<\/td>\nbar\u00f0i<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fe\u00fa<\/th>\nber\u00f0<\/td>\nbar\u00f0ir<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fea\u00f0<\/th>\nber<\/td>\nbar\u00f0i<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
vi\u00f0<\/th>\nberjum<\/td>\nb\u00f6r\u00f0um<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00fei\u00f0<\/th>\nberji\u00f0<\/td>\nb\u00f6r\u00f0u\u00f0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00feau<\/th>\nberja<\/td>\nb\u00f6r\u00f0u<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

The verb a\u00f0 berja<\/strong> is a bit simpler. In addition to meaning beat<\/em>, it can mean knock<\/em>:
\nberja a\u00f0 dyrum<\/strong> – to knock on a door<\/p>\n

In reflexive form it means fight<\/em>:
\n\u00deeir b\u00f6r\u00f0ust.<\/strong> – They fought.
\nberjast fyrir einhverju<\/strong> – fight for something<\/p>\n

There are also some forms of the neuter noun ber<\/strong> (berry) that I saw in an article<\/a> that might briefly confuse. One sentence is:
\nEnn er varhugavert a\u00f0 neyta frosinna berja.<\/strong>
\nIt is still dangerous to eat frozen berries.<\/p>\n

In this case berja<\/strong> is the genitive plural of ber<\/strong>, because the verb a\u00f0 neyta<\/strong> (to eat, consume) requires the genitive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
ber (n) – berry<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/th>\nsingular<\/th>\nplural<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n
nom<\/th>\nber<\/td>\nber<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
acc<\/th>\nber<\/p>\nber<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
dat<\/th>\nberi<\/td>\nberjum<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gen<\/th>\nbers<\/td>\nberja<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two verbs, distinguished by a single letter, with very similar conjugations in the present tense. One strong, one weak…some i-shift,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1886,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3,9],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":46,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/islenzka.net\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}