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Elizabeth626563

Elizabeth

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Learning Norwegian (Bokmål) from English

Level 15 · 8140 XP

Skills: 13

Lessons: 42

Lexemes: 229

Strength: 100%

Created: 2016-07-29
Last Goal: 2022-10-15
Timezone: UTC-6

Last update: 2023-01-23 15:30:10 GMT+3 (cached)


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··········· Table of Contents ···········

Basics 2 · 2019-11-28 ^

A heartfelt welcome to the Norwegian course!

Norwegian is a language with simpler grammar than many other European languages, but it is still a gendered language with three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.

Grammatical Gender

Masculine Feminine Neuter
en mann ei kvinne or en kvinne et barn
a man a woman a child
All feminine gendered nouns can be classified as masculine gender as well. In theory, one could treat all feminine nouns as masculine ones, but most Norwegians still use the feminine form, especially for certain words.

The choice really is up to you! Both en kvinne and ei kvinne are grammatically correct, and the tendency to use the feminine gender depends on geography and dialect. We have decided to teach it where it is most natural to use it, with words such as jente meaning girl, for example.

Pronouns

Norwegian pronouns are very straightforward and correspond well to English ones:

Singular Plural
jeg I vi we
du you, singular dere you, plural
han, hun, det he, she, it de they

Verbs

Conjugation couldn't be simpler. All conjugated verbs have an -r stem in the present, and verbs don't change according to the subject! How easy is that?

Singular Plural
jeg er I am vi er we are
du er you are dere er you are
han, hun, det er he, she, it is de er they are

Although not as common as det, den is used to mean it or that when referring to a masculine or feminine subject, and not a neuter one.

Pronunciation

As a general rule, words are spelled as they're pronounced in Norwegian. One exception is words beginning with hv, such as hva, meaning what. In this word, the h is silent.

In addition, there are several letters and letter combinations that are pronounced differently from English.

Norweg. IPA, Notes
A [ɑ], very open
B [b]
C [s] or [k] depending on word, very rare
D [d], silent in consonant clusters
E [e] or [ɛ], [æ] in her and der, [i] in de
F [f]
G [g], [j] before an i; silent before a j; silent after an i and sometimes an a or o
H [h], silent before v
I [i] like the e in email or ebook, [ɪ] before two consonants
J [j], like the y in yes or yellow
K [k]
kj, ki, ky [ç], like the sharp h in human
L [l]
M [m]
N [n]
O [u] like the oo in soon, but longer, [ʊ] before two consonants
P [p]
R [ɾ], tap, like the tt in North American butter; some in Norway use [ʁ], the so-called French R
rs [ʃ], r + s combinations produce sh sound, even between words
S [s]
skj, ski, sky, sl [ʃ], like the sh in ship or shell
T [t], silent after an e sometimes, ex. det
U [ʉ], like the ew in new, but more closed
V [v]
Y [y] or [ʏ], like the e in email, but more closed

Norwegian also has three special vowels, Æ, Ø and Å.

- Similar To IPA
Æ the a in add or apple [æ]
Ø no real equivalent, but not far from the vowel sounds in bird or earth [ø] or [œ]
Å the o in open or old [o] or [ɔ]

Special Notes on Common Words

Norweg. Meaning Pronunciation
jeg I yai
er am, is, are ær, similar to English are but with tapped r
det it, that deh, silent t
de they dee

Introduction 3 · 2022-05-18 ^

A heartfelt welcome to the Norwegian course!

Norwegian is a language with simpler grammar than many other European languages, but it is still a gendered language with three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.


Grammatical Gender

Masculine Feminine Neuter
en mann ei kvinne or en kvinne et barn
a man a woman a child

All feminine gendered nouns can be classified as masculine gender as well. In theory, one could treat all feminine nouns as masculine ones, but most Norwegians still use the feminine form to some degree, especially for certain words.

The choice really is up to you! Both en kvinne and ei kvinne are grammatically correct, and the tendency to use the feminine gender depends on geography and dialect.

We have opted to teach it where it is most natural to use it, with words such as jente meaning girl, for example, but in the first couple of skills we'll let you focus on the masculine and neuter noun patterns.


Pronouns

Norwegian pronouns are very straightforward and correspond well to English ones:

Norwegian English
jeg I
du you (singular)
han he
hun she
det it

When referring to a neutral subject, det is used to mean it or that. However, when referring to a masculine or feminine subject, it becomes den instead.


Verbs

Conjugation couldn't be simpler. All conjugated verbs have an -r stem in the present, and verbs don't change according to the subject! How easy is that?

Singular Plural
jeg er I am vi er we are
du er you are dere er you are
han, hun, det er he, she, it is de er they are

Pronunciation

As a general rule, words are spelled as they're pronounced in Norwegian. One exception is words beginning with hv, such as hvem, meaning who. In this word, the h is silent.

In addition, there are several letters and letter combinations that are pronounced differently from English.

Norwegian IPA, Notes
A [ɑ], very open
B [b]
C [s] or [k] depending on word, very rare, ex. Canada
D [d], silent in consonant clusters or at the end of certain words like med or ved
E [e] or [ɛ], [æ] in her and der, [i] in de
F [f]
G [g], [j] before an i; silent before a j; silent after an i and sometimes an a or o; often silent in days of the week
H [h], silent before v
I [i] like the e in email or ebook, [ɪ] before two consonants, like the i in hit or fit
J [j], like the y in yes or yellow
K [k]
kj, ki, ky [ç], traditionally like the sharp h in human, but more and more people now use [ʃ], like the sh in ship or shell
L [l]
M [m]
N [n]
O [u] like the oo in soon, but longer, [ʊ] before two consonants or in some exception words like tog
P [p]
Q [k], very rare, ex. Qatar
qu [kv], very rare, ex. quisling
R [ɾ], tap, like the tt in North American butter; many in Western Norway use [ʁ], the so-called French R
rs [ʃ], r + s combinations produce sh sound, even between words
S [s]
skj, ski, sky, sl [ʃ], like the sh in ship or shell
T [t], silent after an e sometimes, ex. det
U [ʉ], like the ew in new, but more closed
V [v]
W [v], very rare, ex. show
X [ks], very rare, ex. taxi
Y [y] or [ʏ], like the e in email, but more closed
Z [s], very rare, ex. zen

Norwegian also has three additional letters that English doesn't have!

Norwegian IPA, Notes
Æ [æ], like the a in mad or sad
Ø [ø], like the o in word, but more open
Å [o], like the o in go or low

Special Notes on Common Words

Norwegian Meaning Pronunciation
jeg I yai
det it, that deh, silent t

Core Vocabulary

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
er am, are, is
hvem who
og and
ikke not
jeg I
du you (singular)
han he
hun she
en a, an
en mann a man
en/ei kvinne a woman
en gutt a boy
en/ei jente a girl

Basics 2 1 · 2018-10-25 ^

Definite Forms

The definite form, the man, the woman, et cetera, is formed by attaching the indefinite article onto the end of the noun. This ending is called a postfix or a suffix.

Indefinite Definite
en mann a man mannen the man
et barn a child barnet the child

Although the t is pronounced as such in the phrase et barn, it turns silent in the definite form, barnet, which is pronounced more like barneh. This is the case with all neuter nouns in the singular definite form. Be sure to drop the t sound, otherwise you might sound rather Swedish.

For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity in the definite form:

Indefinite Definite
ei kvinne or en kvinne a woman kvinna or kvinnen the woman
ei jente or en jente a girl jenta or jenten the girl

Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all feminine nouns. Please consult the tips and notes section for the first lesson if you would like a review of the Norwegian grammatical genders.

Who? What? Where? 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Who? What? Where?

Confused yet? We have just the word for you...

Hva is the word for what, and also happens to be just the right thing to exclaim when you feel like you've been hit in the head with one Norwegian grammar rule too many.

In this skill, you'll also come across another question word, but you'll have to go look for it yourself, because we're not sure exactly where it went.


Plural Pronouns

You're already familiar with the singular pronouns jeg, du, han, hun and det, and now we're adding the plural pronouns into the mix.

Norwegian English
vi we
dere you (plural)
de they

Notice how Norwegian has two different pronouns for "you": du is the singular and dere is the plural version. An easy way to keep them apart, is to remember that the word representing more people has more letters in it.


Question Words

When you're just starting out learning a new language, few things are more useful than to be able to ask the questions that allow you to find what you need or further your learning. You've already learned one, hvem, and in this skill you'll learn two more of the most common question words.

Norwegian English
hvem who
hva what
hvor where

Isn't it neat how they all resemble their English counterparts? You've probably noticed by now that English and Norwegian have many things in common, both when it comes to grammar and vocabulary. This is because they're closely related Germanic languages.

However, we do need to differentiate ourselves somehow, and so we decided to add some extra letters to our alphabet - just to keep things interesting.


Knowing

The verb å vite, to know, is an irregular verb in Norwegian. Its present tense, which you will familiarize yourself with in this skill, is vet. See that vowel change from the infinitive to the present? Cheeky!

There are actually several verbs for knowing, and you'll get to know them all in due time, but this particular one deals with factual knowledge. Some examples of that is knowing what or where something is, or knowing something about something or someone.

Vet du hvor det er?
Do you know where it is?

Vet du hvem hun er?
Do you know who she is?


Three New Vowels

Norwegian has three extra vowels, Æ, Ø and Å.

Vowel Similar To IPA
Æ the a in add or apple [æ]
Ø no real equivalent, but not far from the vowel sounds in bird or earth [ø] or [œ]
Å the o in open or old [o] or [ɔ]

Vocabulary
har has
vet knows
sitter sits
vi we
dere you (plural)
de they
i in
hva what
hvor where
her here
der there
Norge Norway
et a, an
et barn a child
et eple an apple
en katt a cat
brød (n) bread
vann (n) water

Greetings 3 · 2021-09-03 ^

Common Phrases

We've compiled a list of common phrases in the Norwegian language, for your reference.

Many of them are idiomatic, meaning that they don't translate word for word to English. You'll have to learn the entire phrase.

One example is "Ha det bra!", which literally means "Have it good!", but idiomatically translates to "Goodbye!"

Norwegian English
Hvordan har du det? How are you?
Hvordan går det? How is it going?
Bare bra, takk! Just fine, thanks!
Jeg har det bra. I'm doing well.
Ha det bra! Goodbye!
Vi ses! See you later!

Norwegian Characters

By now, you're probably getting used to seeing the Norwegian vowels Æ, Ø and Å around.

Vowel Similar To IPA
Æ the a in add or apple [æ]
Ø no real equivalent, but not far from the vowel sounds in bird or earth [ø] or [œ]
Å the o in open or old [o] or [ɔ]

If you're doing your Duolingo lessons on the app, you may need to install a Norwegian or international keyboard to type these. However, before you do so, try holding down A or O and see if they appear as options.

If you're doing your lessons on the web, you can either install a Norwegian keyboard, or just click the special characters displayed below the input field when you type your response.

When you have no other option, you can use these replacement characters, but don't get into the habit of relying on them, as it will be a hard one to break.

Character Replacement
Æ AE
Ø OE
Å AA

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
ha have
unnskyld sorry, excuse me, pardon
vær så snill please, be so kind
takk thank you, thanks
trenger needs, requires
elsker loves
ja yes
nei no
eller or
kanskje maybe, perhaps
tusen (a) thousand
bra good, nice
hyggelig nice, pleasant
bare only, just
en tur a trip
en/ei natt a night
en/ei helg a weekend

Actions 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Definite Forms

The definite form, the man, the woman, et cetera, is formed by attaching the indefinite article onto the end of the noun. This ending is called a postfix or a suffix.

Indefinite Definite
en mann a man mannen the man
et barn a child barnet the child

Although the t is pronounced as such in the phrase et barn, it turns silent in the definite form, barnet, which is pronounced more like barneh. This is the case with all neuter nouns in the singular definite form. Be sure to drop the t sound, otherwise you might sound rather Swedish.

For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity in the definite form:

Indefinite Definite
ei kvinne or en kvinne a woman kvinna or kvinnen the woman
ei jente or en jente a girl jenta or jenten the girl

Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all feminine nouns. Please consult the tips and notes section for the first lesson if you would like a review of the Norwegian grammatical genders.


Present

The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now:

Jeg leser nå. I am reading now.

The present tense is also in general statements that are independent of time:

Jorda er rund. The earth is round.

For things that repeat and that are still recurring:

Jeg sover hver natt. I sleep every night.

The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain:

Jeg reiser i morgen. I leave tomorrow.

As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English.

You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -s in the third person singular in the present tense.

Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary).

The table below shows you how to do it:

Infinitive Present English Translation
å spise spiser eat(s), am/are/is eating
å drikke drikker drink(s), am/are/is drinking
å se ser see(s), am/are/is seeing

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
spiser eats
drikker drinks
leser reads
liker likes
ser sees
kjøper buys
noe something
den it
ei a, an
en/ei bok a book
et brev a letter
ris (m) rice
melk (m/f) milk
gutten the boy
jenta the girl
mannen the man
kvinnen the woman
barnet the child

Animals 9 · 2021-09-03 ^

Animals

Many animal names in Norwegian share etymological ties with English ones, but the meaning has drifted over time in one direction or another. Below are some examples.

Beware these false friends!

Norwegian Translation Related Word
hund dog hound
fugl bird fowl
elg moose elk*
dyr animal deer

*In British English, "elg" and "elk" are actual cognates. In American English, "elk" refers to a different animal.

The following words are true friends, meaning that the words are similar in both spelling and meaning.

Norwegian English
katt cat
bjørn bear
krabbe crab
elefant elephant
ulv wolf
mus mouse

You know more Norwegian than you thought you did!


Grammatical and Biological Gender

After being introduced to nouns such as ei jente, en gutt, and et barn, you'd be forgiven for thinking that there was a correlation between a word's grammatical gender and its biological gender, or sex.

However, this is not the case. Grammatical gender is a completely independent concept. While en hund is a masculine noun, that does not imply that the dog we're referring to is male, that's just the grammatical gender of the word itself.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
et dyr an animal
en elg a moose
en/ei and a duck
en hest a horse
en hund a dog
en fugl a bird
en bjørn a bear
en edderkopp a spider
en ulv a wolf
elgen the moose
katten the cat
hesten the horse
bjørnen the bear
hunden the dog
dyret the animal
fuglen the bird
anden the duck
edderkoppen the spider

Phrases 12 · 2020-06-12 ^

Common Phrases

We've compiled a list of common phrases in the Norwegian language, for your reference.

Many of them are idiomatic, meaning that they don't translate word for word to English. You'll have to learn the entire phrase.

One example is "Ha det bra!", which literally means "Have it good!", but idiomatically translates to "Goodbye!"

Norwegian English
Hvordan har du det? How are you?
Hvordan går det? How is it going?
Bare bra, takk! Just fine, thanks!
Jeg har det bra. I'm doing well.
Ha det bra! Goodbye!
Vi ses! See you later!

Norwegian Characters

By now, you're probably getting used to seeing the Norwegian vowels Æ, Ø and Å around.

Vowel Similar To IPA
Æ the a in add or apple [æ]
Ø no real equivalent, but not far from the vowel sounds in bird or earth [ø] or [œ]
Å the o in open or old [o] or [ɔ]

If you're doing your Duolingo lessons on the app, you may need to install a Norwegian or international keyboard to type these. However, before you do so, try holding down A or O and see if they appear as options.

If you're doing your lessons on the web, you can either install a Norwegian keyboard, or just click the special characters displayed below the input field when you type your response.

When you have no other option, you can use these replacement characters, but don't get into the habit of relying on them, as it will be a hard one to break.

Character Replacement
Æ AE
Ø OE
Å AA

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
ha have
unnskyld sorry, excuse me, pardon
vær så snill please, be so kind
takk thank you, thanks
trenger needs, requires
elsker loves
ja yes
nei no
eller or
kanskje maybe, perhaps
tusen (a) thousand
bra good, nice
hyggelig nice, pleasant
bare only, just
en tur a trip
en/ei natt a night
en/ei helg a weekend

Food 9 · 2021-09-03 ^

Cooking

In this skill, you'll learn the verb lager, which translates to make. There's no separate verb for cooking, instead, we use lager mat, literally make food.

Han lager mat.
He is cooking.


Measure Words

Remember that in Norwegian, the word for of, av, is omitted where one would normally use it in English to join a measure word with another noun.

Norwegian English
en kopp kaffe a cup of coffee
et glass vann a glass of water

Neat, huh?


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å lage to make
å lage mat to cook
en fisk a fish
et kjøtt a meat
en pasta a pasta
en/ei suppe a soup
en kylling a chicken
mat (m) food
en frokost a breakfast
en ost a cheese
en frukt a fruit
en tomat a tomato
et glass a glass
en øl a (unit of) beer
et salt a salt
et egg an egg
et sukker a sugar
en pepper a pepper (not bell pepper!)

Object Pronouns 11 · 2020-07-09 ^

Object Pronouns

We were introduced to the Norwegian pronouns in the first skill. Let's have a look at them here:

Singular Plural
jeg I vi we
du you (singular) dere you (plural)
han, hun, den/det he, she, it de they

As in English, the pronouns above only pertain to subjects. The pronouns at the receiving end of a verb, in other words the object pronouns, are as follows:

Singular Plural
meg me oss us
deg you (singular) dere you (plural)
ham, henne, det/den him, her, it dem them

Den is used to mean it or that when referring back to a masculine or feminine subject.

Det is used to mean it or that when referring back to a neuter subject, and when introducing a brand new noun that has not yet been mentioned - regardless of the gender of that noun.

Han is an alternative form of ham, but in this course we will use "han" exclusively as a subject ("he"), and "ham" for the object form ("him").


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
viser show
meg me
deg you (singular)
ham him
henne her
den (m/f) it
det (n) it
oss us
dere you (plural)
dem them

Definite Forms 9 · 2019-08-29 ^

Definite Forms

The definite form ("the man", "the woman", et cetera) is formed by placing the indefinite article, "a/an", or in Norwegian, "en/et", at the end of the word instead of at the beginning. This is called a postfix or a suffix.

Indefinite Definite
en mann a man mannen the man
et barn a child barnet the child

For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity:

Indefinite Definite
ei kvinne OR en kvinne a woman kvinna OR kvinnen the woman
ei jente OR en jente a girl jenta OR jenten the girl

Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all feminine nouns.

It is also normal to use the masculine article "en" for indefinite forms, even when preferring a feminine suffix in definite. This is not considered an error!

Indefinite Definite
en jente a girl jenta the girl
en øy an island øya the island

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
-en definite suffix: the
en/ei hytte a cabin
osten the cheese
egget the egg
maten the food
vannet the water
brødet the bread
suppen the soup
pastaen the pasta
saltet the salt
fisken the fish
brevet the letter
kjøttet the meat
sukkeret the sugar
kyllingen the chicken
eplet the apple
frukten the fruit
ølen the beer
boken the book
risen the rice
tomaten the tomato
avisen the newspaper

Plurals 7 · 2019-08-29 ^

Plurals

With few exceptions, most masculine or feminine nouns (most nouns) pluralize with -er or -r.

Norwegian English
eple apple
epler apples
gutt boy
gutter boys
jente girl
jenter girls

Single-syllable neuter nouns, such as hus house and dyr animal, often do not change spelling in the indefinite plural.

Norwegian English
hus house or houses
dyr animal or animals
barn child or children

How then can you tell the difference between hus meaning house and hus meaning houses? That depends on context and adjective endings, which we will cover a bit later in the course.

One exception to these rules is the Norwegian word for "man" which pluralizes in an irregular way that's almost identical to English:

Norwegian English
mann man
menn men

Here are some additional common irregular plurals, a couple of which are also irregular in English.

Singular Plural English Translation
and ender duck - ducks
bok bøker book - books
fot føtter foot - feet
hånd hender hand - hands
natt netter night - nights
tann tenner tooth - teeth
tre trær tree - trees

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
noen some, any
flere several, multiple, more
mange many
en sykkel a bicycle
katter cats
aviser newspapers
jenter girls
fugler birds
gutter boys
hunder dogs
ender ducks
bøker books
hester horses
bjørner bears
epler apples
hytter cabins
kvinner women
kyllinger chickens
dyr animals
brev letters
barn children
menn men
-er indefinite plural suffix

Definite Plurals 6 · 2019-05-26 ^

Definite Plurals

With very few exceptions, all nouns can be converted to the definite plural form, i.e. the books, the cows, the dogs... by changing the -er ending on the plural form to an -ene ending:

Norwegian English
hund dog
hunden the dog
hunder dogs
hundene the dogs

Many neuter nouns do not have to follow this rule. Instead, they can become definite plurals by adding on an -a ending. The choice is yours, but the -ene ending is somewhat more common.

Norwegian English
brev letter or letters
brevet the letter
brevene or breva the letters

Keep in mind that the word "barn" meaning "child" almost always becomes "barna" in the definite plural, although "barnene" is grammatically correct as well.

Norwegian English
barn child
barnet the child
barn children
barna the children

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
alle all (of)
kattene the cats
fuglene the birds
endene the ducks
guttene the boys
hestene the horses
kyllingene the chickens
eplene the apples
bøkene the books
hundene the dogs
mennene the men
avisene the newspapers
hyttene the cabins
kvinnene the women
dyrene the animals

Verbs: Present Tense 21 · 2020-03-09 ^

Present

The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now:

Jeg leser nå. I am reading now.

The present tense is also in general statements that are independent of time:

Jorda er rund. The earth is round.

For things that repeat and that are still recurring:

Jeg sover hver natt. I sleep every night.

The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain:

Jeg reiser i morgen. I leave tomorrow.

As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English.

You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -s in the third person singular in the present tense.

Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary).

The table below shows you how to do it:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present English Translation
1 -er å vaske vasker wash(es), am/are/is washing
2 -er å kjøre kjører drive(s), am/are/is driving
3 -r å bo bor live(s), am/are/is living (as in making one's home somewhere)

There are three groups of verbs with different patterns for forming tenses in Norwegian, but in the present case they all behave in the same way as you can see.


The Swizz Army Knife of Prepositions

In this skill, we introduce the preposition - arguably the most important word in the Norwegian language. has as many uses and translations as there are types of brunost in Norway, but the one you'll learn right now deals with specifying languages.


Specifying Language

can be used to specify what language something is said or written in. When used in this meaning, it translates to in in English.

Hva betyr det på engelsk?
What does that mean in English?

Hva heter det på norsk?
What is that (called) in Norwegian?


Plurals Ending in -E

With few exceptions, most masculine or feminine nouns (most nouns) pluralize with -er or -r.

Norwegian English
eple apple
epler apples
gutt boy
gutter boys
jente girl
jenter girls

However, words that end in -er already, add an extra -e to signify the plural.

Norwegian English
lærer teacher
lærere teachers
amerikaner American
amerikanere Americans

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
gjør does
sover sleeps
hører hears
velger chooses, selects
leker plays
selger sells
arbeider works
vasker washes, cleans
skriver writes
venter waits, expects
når when
om about
in
en lærer a teacher
en amerikaner an American
en/ei mus a mouse
barna the children
jentene the girls
brevene the letters
-ene the (definite suffix), assorted words

The Cafe 3 · 2019-09-22 ^

Getting Your Caffeine Fix

When ordering coffee at a cafe, you can simply say:

En kaffe, takk!
A coffee, thanks!

Replace kaffe with espresso, americano, cappuccino or latte to get your coffee of choice. Loanword heaven!


Expressing Desire for Something

The verb for "want" is "vil" in Norwegian. When what you want is a noun, it needs to be accompanied by its friend "ha" ("have"). Where you in English could say either "I want [noun]" or "I want to have [noun]", it's always "Jeg vil ha [noun]".

Jeg vil ha et eple.
I want (to have) an apple.

Later in the course, you'll come across "vil" followed by a verb in the infinitive, in which case you do not need to add "ha".

Jeg vil spise et eple.
I want to eat an apple.


The Swizz Army Knife of Prepositions

In this skill, we reintroduce the preposition in a second meaning. has as many uses and translations as there are types of brunost in Norway, but the one you'll learn right now deals with physical location.


Describing Location

When used to describe location, can translate to on, at, and sometimes even in, depending on the context. When translating, your best bet is opting for the preposition that sounds the most natural in English.

Vi sitter på kaféen.
We are sitting at the cafe.

Hun sitter på stolen.
She is sitting on the chair.


Specifying Language

can also be used to specify what language something is said or written in. When used in this meaning, it translates to in in English.

Hva betyr det på engelsk?
What does that mean in English?

Hva heter det på norsk?
What is that (called) in Norwegian?

So, if you order your coffee på norsk, you're ordering it in Norwegian.


Vocabulary
vil wants
ha (to) have
står stands
bestiller orders
hvordan how
med with
on, at
utenfor outside (of)
mer more
en is an ice-cream
en te a tea
en kafé a cafe
en brus a soda, a pop, a fizzy drink
en drikk a drink, a beverage
et jordbær a strawberry
en sitron a lemon
en stol a chair
et bord a table
en kaffe a coffee
en lunsj a lunch
en kopp a cup
en/ei kake a cake

Counting 7 · 2020-05-09 ^

Counting

Welcome to Counting! Norwegian numbers are very easy for English speakers to learn in comparison to other languages. There is no tricky system or crazy multiplication weirdness. The numbers sound and work in a similar way as they do in English.

The most common word for seven is sju, but you may also hear the word syv used, which is decidedly less common. Be careful not to confuse it with the word tjue, which means twenty.


One and One More

So far, you've seen the articles en (masculine) ei (feminine) and et (neuter) used to to mean a or an. These also do double duty as numbers, translating to one.

If you want more of something countable, you can use the adverb til. You then combine it with a number: en til becomes one more or another, to til becomes two more, and so on.

When specifying exactly what you want, by adding a noun, the number goes before the noun, while til goes after, like so: en kopp til (one more cup).


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
til more
en one
to two
tre three
fire four
fem five
seks six
sju seven
åtte eight
ni nine
ti ten

Conversation 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Til & Fra

This skill introduces two new prepositions, "til" and "fra". Not to worry, though, as these both act predictably in this context, corresponding to "to" and "from" respectively. These work both for describing direction in a geographical sense, and in other contexts such as when giving a gift, talking to someone, or expressing where someone or something is from.

"Snakker du til meg?"
"Are you talking to me?"

"Vi flyr til Norge."
"We are flying to Norway."

"Jeg er fra England."
"I am from England."

"Han gir en gave til jenta."
"He gives a gift to the girl."


Vocabulary
tror thinks, believes
sier says
lytter listens
ringer calls, rings
kommer comes
betyr means, signifies
til to
fra from
now
snart soon, shortly
ofte often
aldri never
hallo hello
hvorfor why
hvordan går det how is it going, how are you
det går ... it is going..., I am...
en mamma a mom
en pappa a dad
en nabo a neighbor
en gjest a guest, a visitor

Possessives 6 · 2019-08-29 ^

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns change depending on the gender and number of the possessor and the possessed.

My

The Definite Form

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren min mora mi barnet mitt foreldrene mine
my father my mother my child my parents

The above form takes the definite form of the noun and places the possessive pronoun after it. This is the more common form in colloquial Norwegian, and the one you will encounter most often.

  • Faren min er fargeblind.

  • My father is colorblind.

Another form is as follows:

The Indefinite Form

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
min far mi mor mitt barn mine foreldre
my father my mother my child my parents

This form takes the possessive pronoun and places it before the indefinite form of the noun. This form is considered more formal and places special emphasis on the possessor.

  • Mitt barn er perfekt.

  • My child is perfect.


Your (Singular)

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren din mora di barnet ditt foreldrene dine
din far di mor ditt barn dine foreldre
your father your mother your child your parents
  • Hvem er foreldrene dine?

  • Who are your parents?


His

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren hans mora hans barnet hans foreldrene hans
hans far hans mor hans barn hans foreldre
his father his mother his child his parents
  • Hunden hans er vennlig.

  • His dog is friendly.


Her

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren hennes mora hennes barnet hennes foreldrene hennes
hennes far hennes mor hennes barn hennes foreldre
her father her mother her child her parents
  • Hva heter barnet hennes?

  • What is her child's name?


Our

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren vår mora vår barnet vårt foreldrene våre
vår far vår mor vårt barn våre foreldre
our father our mother our child our parents
  • Vi elsker døtrene våre.

  • We love our daughters.


Your (Plural)

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren deres mora deres barnet deres foreldrene deres
deres far deres mor deres barn deres foreldre
your (pl.) father your (pl.) mother your (pl.) child your (pl.) parents
  • Hvor kommer familien deres fra?

  • Where does your family come from?


Their

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren deres mora deres barnet deres foreldrene deres
deres far deres mor deres barn deres foreldre
their father their mother their child their parents
  • Datamaskinen deres fungerer ikke.

  • Their computer does not work.

Notice how deres can mean your (pl.) or their. You will be able to tell the difference through context.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
eier owns
tilhører belongs
mi/min/mitt/mine my, mine
di/din/ditt/dine your, yours
vår/vårt/våre our, ours
hans his
hennes her, hers
deres their, theirs
et rom a room
et navn a name
en telefon a telephone

Personal Qualities 4 · 2019-04-10 ^

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives change for gender, number, indefinite and definite forms. Let's take a look at adjectives joined to nouns by the phrase to be, starting with the adjective stor, which means big or great.

The Indefinite Form

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine En stol er stor. A chair is big.
Feminine Ei bok er stor. A book is big.

So far, so good. There is no change to the adjective in either masculine or feminine form.

Gender Norwegian English
Neuter Et bord er stort. A table is big.
Plural Hus er store. Houses are big.

As you can see above, the neuter noun changes the spelling of stor to include a -t ending, and the plural noun changes stor to include an -e ending. This pattern applies to most adjectives in the indefinite form, as shown below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en stor stol a big chair
Feminine ei stor bok a big book
Neuter et stort bord a big table
Plural store hus big houses

Many adjectives ending in -ig or -sk, like viktig and norsk, do not sound pleasant with a -t ending. This is why we do not add a -t to these specific adjectives in the neuter form.

Norwegian English
et viktig brev an important letter
et norsk hus a Norwegian house

We do still add the -e ending in the plural form, however!

Norwegian English
viktige brev important letters
norske hus Norwegian houses

The Definite Form

The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same.

Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e.

In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen the big chair
Feminine den store boka the big book
Neuter det store bordet the big table
Plural de store husene the big houses

Missing Endings in Old and Famous Names

As students of Danish may be aware, the postfixes after the nouns above are absent in Danish, and as a legacy of Danish colonialism, some Norwegian phrases lack the noun endings shown in the table above. These words are generally famous titles or institutions, such as The White House or The French Academy. See how they operate below.

Norwegian English
Det franske akademi The French Academy
Det hvite hus The White House

Note that det hvite huset can also mean the white house, just not the one the US President lives inside.

Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.

Pay special attention to context, and in time, these adjective endings become second nature.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
so, that
kjempe- very (prefix)
rar strange
ung young
pen pretty
snill kind, nice
fattig poor
berømt famous
rik rich
slem mean, unkind
kjekk handsome
farlig dangerous
perfekt perfect
spesiell special
gammel old

That and Those 3 · 2019-08-29 ^

That and Those

We learned early on how to describe definite nouns with the appropriate gender- and number-specific suffixes.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine stolen the chair
Feminine boka the book
Neuter bordet the table
Plural husene the houses

In order to specify further with the word that or those, all we do is add one gender- and number-specific word to the mix: den, det, or de.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den stolen that chair
Feminine den boka that book
Neuter det bordet that table
Plural de husene those houses

Family 9 · 2021-02-08 ^

Family

Welcome to the family skill! Family words are some of the most common in Norwegian, but also some of the most irregular. Pay attention to how the following words pluralize.

English Indef. Sing. Def. Sing. Indef. Plur. Def. Plur.
father far faren fedre fedrene
mother mor moren mødre mødrene
brother bror broren brødre brødrene
sister søster søsteren søstre søstrene
daughter datter datteren døtre døtrene

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
en baby a baby
en sønn a son
en/ei datter a daughter
en familie a family
en forelder a parent
en far a father
en/ei mor a mother
en bror a brother
en/ei søster a sister
en tvilling a twin
et søsken a sibling

Grammar focus
possession possessive pronouns
nouns all declensions
verbs present

Location 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Location

To describe where something is, Norwegian often forgoes the verb to be in favor of to stand or to lie. Most often, upright objects with legs, such as beds, stand, while other objects, especially those on their side, tend to lie, just like in English.

Norwegian English
Sengen står på gulvet. The bed [stands/is] on the floor.
Hunden ligger på gulvet. The dog [lies/is] on the floor.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
ligger lies
mellom between
ved by
hjemme (at) home
bak behind
over over, above
foran in front of
under under, below, underneath
ute outside
inne inside
nede downstairs, down
blant among
oppe upstairs, up
et gulv a floor
en butikk a store, a shop
en/ei seng a bed
en/ei øy an island
et hus a house
en bil a car
et tre a tree
en/ei bro a bridge
et gjerde a fence
en lekeplass a playground

Dates 1 · 2018-10-25 ^

Below are the days of the week. The reason they're so similar to English is because English gets most of the words for the days of the week from the names of Norse gods. Keep in mind that the days of the week, unlike English, are only capitalized at the beginning of the sentence. The g at the end of these words may or may not be pronounced.

Norwegian English
mandag Monday
tirsdag Tuesday
onsdag Wednesday
torsdag Thursday
fredag Friday
lørdag Saturday
søndag Sunday

These are the months of the year, also normally in lower-case. Keep in mind the RS sound in mars makes it sound like marsh. This RS letter combination creates an SH sound in the Norwegian language.

Norwegian English
januar January
februar February
mars March
april April
mai May
juni June
juli July
august August
september September
oktober October
november November
desember December

Clothing 7 · 2021-06-13 ^

Clothing

This lesson introduces you to clothing as well as the Norwegian word seg. This word is the reflexive pronoun for all third-person nouns, himself, herself, themselves, etc. It is used in many verbs. In fact, the reflexive is far more common in Norwegian than in English.

For clothing, one uses har på seg to describe what someone is wearing. It literally means, have on oneself and is the equivalent of the English, have on.

  • Hun har på seg en hatt.
  • She has on (herself) a hat.
  • She's wearing a hat.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
har på seg wears, has on
bruker uses, wears
klær (n) clothes, clothing
en sko a shoe
en/ei jakke a jacket
briller (m) (eye)glasses
en genser a sweater
en/ei skjorte a shirt
en hatt a hat
et slips a tie
en sokk a sock
en frakk a coat
en kjole a dress
en/ei bukse a pair of pants
et belte a belt
en knapp a button
en/ei lomme a pocket
en hanske a glove
et skjerf a scarf
en støvel a (rain)boot
undertøy underwear

The Restaurant 7 · 2021-06-13 ^

The Restaurant

Hungry already, are we? Nothing like a bit of language learning to work up an appetite.

Ordering

If you're visiting Norway as a tourist, ordering food at a restaurant is a good way to practice a little Norwegian.

After having a look at the menu and working up your courage, give the waiter your most charming smile, and say any of the following:

Jeg vil (gjerne) ha X.
I would like X.

Jeg har lyst på X.
I would like X.

X, takk.
X, please/thanks.

Remember, snapping your fingers or yelling to get a waiter's attention is rude. Try to make eye contact instead. If that fails, you can say unnskyld (excuse me), perhaps accompanied by a wave.


Courses & Drinks

If you want to order a standard three-course meal, you can look at the menu and locate these three headings:

Norwegian English
forrett appetizer
hovedrett main course
dessert dessert

Water is usually free, but if you want anything else to drink you'll find the drinking menu either as the last section of the main menu or as a separate menu. The drinking age in Norway is 18 for beer and wine, but 21 for hard liquor, and it's strictly enforced.


Receiving Your Food

When your food is ready, it will likely be delivered to you with a vær så god, which is the Norwegian equivalent of here you go or dig in.

The appropriate response is either takk, tusen takk, or takk skal du ha.

Later, the waiter may stop by and ask you how your food was, but apart from that you shouldn't expect much small talk or attention. Norwegians like to be left alone to enjoy their food, so the waiter isn't ignoring you to be rude, they're just treating you like Norwegians tend to prefer being treated.


Tipping Culture

Both kitchen and waitstaff are paid decent wages in Norway, so you should never feel like you have to tip anyone. However, it's a nice gesture if you feel the meal or service was good and would like to show your appreciation. Norwegians will often round up to the nearest 100 or 50 kr, depending on how large the total was.

Tips are registered and taxed along with the rest of people's income, so whenever you tip someone you're actually also tipping the Norwegian welfare state, contributing to better healthcare, education, and infrastructure. Having dinner and saving lives - not bad for an evening's work!


Vocabulary
vær så god here you are/go, dig in
smaker tastes
betaler pays
serverer serves
til with
nok enough
en vin a wine
en salat a salad
salat (m) lettuce
en meny a menu
en/ei flaske a bottle
en forrett an appetizer
en restaurant a restaurant
en kokk a cook, a chef
et måltid a meal
en pizza a pizza
en grønnsak a vegetable
en servitør a waiter
en middag a dinner
en tallerken a plate
en olje an oil
en/ei skje a spoon
en kniv a knife
en gaffel a fork
en hovedrett a main course

Direction and Motion 10 · 2019-09-07 ^

Direction and Motion

In Norwegian, adverbs of place that describe where something is change when they become adverbs of motion and describe where something moves. Below are some examples:

Existence Translation Motion Translation
er hjemme is at home går hjem goes home
er inne is inside går inn goes in
er ute is outside går ut goes out
er oppe is up går opp goes up
er nede is down below går ned goes down

Be careful to use the proper adverb for each situation. For most of the words above, the endings fall off when in motion. Think of them like a pocket book on top of a car. The car moves, so the pocket book falls off.

Existence Translation Motion Translation
er her is here går hit goes here
er der is there går dit goes there

The words hit and dit are related to the antiquated English words hither and thither, which used to describe here and there in motion. Note that it has to be motion toward a location - not in or at a location.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
går walks, goes
drar goes, leaves
løper runs
legger lays, puts, places
flyr flies
svømmer swims
hopper jumps
hjem home
til to (physical direction)
hit (to) here, hither
dit (to) there, thither
mot toward, against
etter after
frem forward
forbi past
tilbake back
inn in
opp up
ned down
gjennom through
ut out
rett straight, directly
rundt around
et basseng a (swimming) pool
en/ei dør a door
et vindu a window

Prepositions 7 · 2019-08-29 ^

Prepositions

As in English, all prepositions in Norwegian stand before the noun. Below is a reference sheet for the prepositions introduced in this chapter. "Av" and "for" are notoriously versatile prepositions, with several other definitions in addition to the ones mentioned.

Norwegian English Notes
av of, off Used with fractions or two-part verbs.
for for, to Often does not translate directly.
uten without
unntatt except Literally "taken out."
i stedet for instead of

Of course, you've already familiarized yourself with some key prepositions in earlier skills as well. Here comes a quick refresher:

Norwegian English Notes
i in, inside Used to express location
on, at, in Used to express location or indicate language
til to, for Used to express direction and purpose
med with Said like meh, but in a neutral tone.

Phrasal verbs

While we won't mix them into this skill, both separable verbs and phrasal verbs are important parts of the Norwegian language.

Often, they'll use prepositions in ways that are unfamiliar, so if you ever come across a preposition you don't understand the function of, it is worth considering whether it actually forms part of the verb.

This and These 1 · 2019-05-16 ^

This and These

We learned early on how to describe definite nouns with the appropriate gender- and number-specific suffixes.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine stolen the chair
Feminine boka the book
Neuter bordet the table
Plural husene the houses

And how to specify further with the word that or those.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den stolen that chair
Feminine den boka that book
Neuter det bordet that table
Plural de husene those houses

Now, we're introducing how to say this and these in Norwegian.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine denne stolen this chair
Feminine denne boka this book
Neuter dette bordet this table
Plural disse husene these houses

Adjectives 9 · 2020-03-25 ^

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives change for gender, number, indefinite and definite forms. Let's take a look at adjectives joined to nouns by the phrase to be, starting with the adjective stor, which means big or great.


The Indefinite Form

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine En stol er stor. A chair is big.
Feminine Ei bok er stor. A book is big.

So far, so good. There is no change to the adjective in either masculine or feminine form.

Gender Norwegian English
Neuter Et bord er stort. A table is big.
Plural Hus er store. Houses are big.

As you can see above, the neuter noun changes the spelling of stor to include a -t ending, and the plural noun changes stor to include an -e ending. This pattern applies to most adjectives in the indefinite form, as shown below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en stor stol a big chair
Feminine ei stor bok a big book
Neuter et stort bord a big table
Plural store hus big houses

Many adjectives ending in -ig or -sk, like viktig and norsk, do not sound pleasant with a -t ending. This is why we do not add a -t to these specific adjectives in the neuter form.

Norwegian English
et viktig brev an important letter
et norsk hus a Norwegian house

We do still add the -e ending in the plural form, however!

Norwegian English
viktige brev important letters
norske hus Norwegian houses

Adjectives in the Definite Form

The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same.

Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e.

In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen the big chair
Feminine den store boka the big book
Neuter det store bordet the big table
Plural de store husene the big houses

Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.

Pay special attention to context, and in time, these adjective endings become second nature.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
hvor how (degree)
god good, nice
ny new
stor big
kort short
varm warm, hot
åpen open
vanskelig difficult
veldig very
fin nice
kald cold
lang long
trygg safe, secure
dårlig bad, poor
mye much
tung heavy
viktig important
skitten dirty
ganske rather, pretty, somewhat
ren clean
lett light
mulig possible
vanlig common, usual
forferdelig terrible, awful
hel whole
flott great
hard hard

Professions 1 · 2019-03-12 ^

Jobs

Unlike in English, Norwegian usually drops the indefinite article when describing someone's profession.

Norwegian English
Jeg er student. I am a student.
Hun er lege. She is a doctor.
Han er forfatter. He is a writer.

Be mindful that constructions such as jeg er en student are also grammatical, but they are far less common.

Two Verbs - One Job

In Norwegian, there are two very common verbs for to work, å arbeide and å jobbe.

While these are largely interchangeable, there are cases where one will be preferred to the other.

Å arbeide is the old workhorse, of Old Norse origin, and thus features in more compounds and fixed expressions.

Å jobbe is the young English apprentice, which has been adopted by the younger generations.

Both verbs are used extensively, and Norwegians will happily switch between the two within the same text or conversation.

Spelling Words of Greek Origin

Like English, Norwegian borrows heavily from Greek and Latin, especially for more technical terms. In this skill, you'll come across the noun fotograf, photographer, which stems from the words φῶς (phos), meaning light, and γραφή (graphê), meaning drawing or writing. That's what photographers do, right? They draw with light.

Whenever you come across a word of Greek origin that is spelled with a "ph" combination in English, it will be spelled with an "f" in Norwegian. Another example of this is elefant, which of course is elephant in English.

The same pattern holds true in Greek words with a "th" combination in English; the "h" disappears in Norwegian, leaving only the "t". An example from this skill is therapist, which becomes terapeut.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å arbeide to work
å jobbe to work
å selge to sell
profesjonell professional
et yrke a profession
en pilot a pilot
en arkitekt an architect
en fotograf a photographer
en/ei utdanning an education
en fisker a fisherman, a fisher
en advokat a lawyer
en terapeut a therapist
en politibetjent a police officer, a policeman, a policewoman

Location 2 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Bor & Lever

In Norwegian, there are two verbs that translate to "to live", "å bo" and "å leve". However, they are rarely interchangeable with each other.

When talking about someone's place of residence, you should use the verb "bor".

When expressing that someone or something is alive, or describing their way of life, you use "lever".


Ute & Utenfor

There are several of these pairs, but the ones we'll concentrate on is "ute" (adverb) and "utenfor" (preposition).

"Ute" (out; outside; outdoors) is an adverb, and can be used without a point of reference. If you ever want to refer to the great outdoors in Norwegian, you can say "ute".

Vi liker å være ute i naturen.
We like being out in nature.

"Utenfor" is a preposition, which means that it always needs a point of reference. What makes it a little confusing is that the point of reference can be implied; it doesn't have to be explicitly present in the sentence.

In the sentence below, there's an explicit reference point, "gjerdet".

De er utenfor gjerdet.
They are outside (of) the fence.

In the next sentence, there's no explicit reference point. However, we can imagine that the person uttering the sentence is inside a house, and that the subject of the sentence is sitting outside said house.

Hun sitter utenfor.
She is sitting outside.

In the last example, you could use "ute" as well. Either would be correct.


Same, Same, but Different

Some of the prepositions and prepositional phrases you're learning have rather similar meanings, but there are still nuances to them, and you should strive to translate them precisely.

Norwegian English
ved by
ved siden av next to
nær near, close to
i nærheten av near, close to

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lever lives
henger hangs
leter looks, searches
setter sets, puts, places
det er there is, there are
nær near, close to
langs along
ved siden av next to
innenfor inside (of)
bortenfor past, beyond
herfra from here
derfra from there
en vei a road
en bakke a slope, a hill(side)
et speil a mirror
et bilde a picture
en vegg a wall
en/ei lampe a lamp
en/ei innside an inside
en/ei grense a border, a limit, a boundary
en utgang an exit
en inngang an entrance
et kjøleskap a refrigerator

Qualities 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Adjectives in the Definite Form

The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same.

Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e.

In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen the big chair
Feminine den store boka the big book
Neuter det store bordet the big table
Plural de store husene the big houses

Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.

Pay special attention to context, and in time, these adjective endings become second nature.


Liten

The adjective liten, meaning little or small, is the most highly irregular adjective in the Norwegian language. Take a look at how it declines. Commit this table to memory, because as in English, the word small is used a lot.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en liten stol a small chair
den lille stolen the small chair
Feminine ei lita bok a small book
den lille boka the small book
Neuter et lite bord a small table
det lille bordet the small table
Plural små hus small houses
de små husene the small houses

Missing Endings in Old and Famous Names

As students of Danish may be aware, the postfixes after the nouns above are absent in Danish, and as a legacy of Danish colonialism, some Norwegian phrases lack the noun endings shown in the table above. These words are generally famous titles or institutions, such as The White House or The French Academy. See how they operate below.

Norwegian English
Det franske akademi The French Academy
Det hvite hus The White House

Note that det hvite huset can also mean the white house, just not the one the US President lives inside.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
det (m./f.) the
den (n.) the
de (pl.) the
so, that
kjempe- very (prefix)
rar strange
ung young
pen pretty
snill kind, nice
liten little, small
fattig poor
berømt famous
rik rich
slem mean, unkind
kjekk handsome
farlig dangerous
perfekt perfect
spesiell special
gammel old

Ownership 6 · 2020-11-26 ^

Ownership

Possessive pronouns change depending on the gender and number of the possessor and the possessed. Be sure to pay special attention to "sin, si, sitt, & sine," which do not have equivalents in English.


Sin, Si, Sitt, & Sine

The above are an interesting set of possessive pronouns in Norwegian. They all translate to his, her, its, or their and can only be attached to objects in a sentence. Sin, si, sitt, & sine describe something that the subject has or owns, not somebody else. This distinction does not exist in English, so it may take some getting used to, but it's actually a useful distinction to be able to make; many sentences that would be ambiguous in English are perfectly clear in Norwegian.

Norwegian English
Hun elsker faren sin. She loves her (own) father.
Hun elsker faren hennes. She loves her (another woman's) father.
Faren hennes elsker henne. Her father loves her.

In the last sentence, we use faren hennes instead of faren sin because her father is the subject, not the object, of the sentence.


His, Her, or Their (Own)

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
faren sin mora si barnet sitt foreldrene sine
sin far si mor sitt barn sine foreldre
his/her/their (own) father his/her/their (own) mother his/her/their (own) child his/her/their (own) parents

Please note that you should not add "own" to your translations of si/sin/sitt/sine, it's just used here to explain the concept as clearly as possible.


Expressing Possession with a Genitive "-s"

Sometimes you don't have a possessive pronoun to express the ownership with, as you may be talking about "the woman's car" rather than "her car". Just like in English, you can do this by adding a genitive -s at the end of the possessing noun.

  • Kvinnens bil er rød.
  • The woman's car is red.*

As you can see, you don't need to add an apostrophe in Norwegian. The only exception is when the noun itself ends in an -s, -x or -z already, in which case we add an apostrophe and forego the extra -s.


Expressing Possession with "Til"

Another way of achieving the same thing, is using the preposition "til". It's the equivalent of expressing ownership with the preposition "of" in English. While this can sound stilted in English, it's perfectly natural in Norwegian.

  • Bilen til kvinnen er rød.
  • The car of the woman is red.
  • The woman's car is red.

Garpegenitiv

A final way to express possession is the so-called garpegenitiv. It's a format that saw some use in English in the 1600s, often referred to as his-genitive. What it does is link the possessing noun to the possessed noun with a possessive pronoun.

  • Kvinnen sin bil er rød.
  • The woman's car is red.

Literally, "The woman her car is red".

While this format is common in many dialects and recognized by Språkrådet as acceptable in Bokmål, it is considered informal and should not be what you turn to in formal writing.


Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.


Vocabulary
si/sin/sitt/sine his, her, its, their
til of
-s possessive s (suffix)
guttens the boy's
jentas the girl's
barnets the child's
kattens the cat's
hundens the dog's
mannens the man's
kvinnens the woman's

Colors 5 · 2022-02-04 ^

Colors as adjectives

Below is a reference chart for all of the most basic Norwegian colors.

Norwegian English
hvit white
grå gray
svart black
brun brown
rød red
rosa pink
oransje orange
gul yellow
grønn green
blå blue
lilla purple

Most colors change their endings for gender and number, like most other adjectives in Norwegian.

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
en brun stol ei brun bok et brunt bord brune hus
en gul stol ei gul bok et gult bord gule hus
en grønn stol ei grønn bok et grønt bord grønne hus

Certain colors are irregular, however, in certain situations.

The words hvit, grå and blå have an extra -t in their neuter forms, and grå and blå also have the option of omitting the plural ending.

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
en hvit stol ei hvit bok et hvitt bord hvite hus
en grå stol ei grå bok et grått bord grå(e) hus
en blå stol ei blå bok et blått bord blå(e) hus

Unlike most adjectives, the words rosa, oransje, and lilla never change for gender or number. They always remain the same.

Masculine Feminine Neuter Plural
en rosa stol ei rosa bok et rosa bord rosa hus
en oransje stol ei oransje bok et oransje bord oransje hus
en lilla stol ei lilla bok et lilla bord lilla hus

Colors as nouns

Colors can also be nouns. In that case they look a lot like the neuter form of the adjective:

Norwegian English
hvitt white
grått gray
svart black
brunt brown
rødt red
rosa pink
oransje orange
gult yellow
grønt green
blått blue
lilla purple

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
hvit white
rosa pink
svart black
blå blue
rød red
lys light
gul yellow
grønn green
fargerik colorful
lilla purple
oransje orange
brun brown
mørk dark
en farge a color
en blomst a flower

The Store 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
koster costs
ser ut looks
dyr expensive
hundre (a) hundred
en pose a bag (plastic/paper)
en kunde a customer
en/ei krone a krone, a crown
penger (m) money
en/ei kvittering a receipt
en matbutikk a grocery store
en kurv a basket
en banan a banana
en/ei pære a pear
en appelsin an orange
et skjørt a skirt
en dress a suit
en klesbutikk a clothing store
en sjokolade a chocolate

Leisure 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Hos

"Hos" can be a tricky preposition to translate, as it does not have an equivalent in English. However, those of you who are familiar with French can liken it to "chez".

It's mainly used to express that you're at someone's place; in a person's home, at a company's office, etc.

De er hos oss.
They are at our place.


Vocabulary
spiller plays
vinner wins
taper loses
tegner draws
synger sings
hviler rests
hos at (X's place)
fantastisk fantastic
en hage a garden, a yard
en gitar a guitar
et besøk a visit
en sport a sport
en ball a ball
en park a park
en hobby a hobby
fotball (m) football, soccer
et spill a game
musikk (m) music
et band a band
et piano a piano
en sang a song
et kor a choir
en film a movie, a film
en radio a radio
en TV a TV

Verbs: Present 2 17 · 2019-08-29 ^

Just One, Please!

As you may have noticed in previous lessons, we have yet to introduce a solid distinction between indefinite articles such as a or an in English, and the number one. So far, you've been using en (m), ei (f), and et (n) for both functions, and that's also what natives will do when they feel no need to specify.

In cases where you want to emphasize the number, you can use the following descriptors:

Masculine Feminine Neuter
én gutt éi jente ett barn
one boy one girl one child

These will always translate to either one or a single (one). Translating them to a or an would be incorrect.

In speech, you make the distinction by putting stress on the number. The TTS voice used for this course is not great about doing that, so you need to exaggerate it a little more than she does.


Både & Begge

There are two words for both in Norwegian, både and begge. Både is a conjunction and is used in constructions such as både ... og, ie. both ... and . In this case it is possible to list more than two elements. Begge is a quantifier and is used instead of alle when there are only two of something. If you need to use the word both on its own, you may use the phrase begge to, which literally means, both two.

Norwegian English
Vi har bare én katt. We have only one cat.
Jeg ser bare éi and. I see only one duck.
Det er bare ett stykke igjen. There is only one piece left.

Liten

The adjective liten, meaning little or small, is the most highly irregular adjective in the Norwegian language. Take a look at how it declines. Commit this table to memory, because as in English, the word small is used a lot.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en liten stol a small chair
den lille stolen the small chair
Feminine ei lita bok a small book
den lille boka the small book
Neuter et lite bord a small table
det lille bordet the small table
Plural små hus small houses
de små husene the small houses

Present

The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now:

Jeg leser nå. I am reading now.

The present tense is also used in general statements that are independent of time:

Jorda er rund. The earth is round.

For things that repeat and that are still recurring:

Jeg sover hver natt. I sleep every night.

The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain:

Jeg reiser i morgen. I leave tomorrow.

As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English.

You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -s in the third person singular in the present tense.

Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary).

The table below shows you how to do it:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present English Translation
1 -er å vaske vasker wash(es), am/are/is washing
2 -er å kjøre kjører drive(s), am/are/is driving
3 -r å bo bor live(s), am/are/is living (as in making one's home somewhere)

There are three groups of verbs with different patterns for forming tenses in Norwegian, but in the present case they all behave in the same way as you can see.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lukter smells
gir gives
venter waits, expects
husker remembers
tar takes
finner finds
åpner opens
takker thanks
dør dies
regner rains
beklager apologizes
leier rents, holds hands with
kysser kisses
én/éi/ett one (not a/an!)
begge both
men but
også also, too, as well
til for
alltid always
hvordan how
langt far
hjemmefra from home
bare just, only
for too
lite little, small

Relatives 2 · 2021-06-13 ^

Relatives

In Norwegian, each grandparent has a unique name that's very intuitive.

Norwegian English
mormor mother's mother
morfar mother's father
farmor father's mother
farfar father's father

Bestemor is the generic term for grandmother.

Bestefar is in turn the generic term for grandfather.


Vocabulary
en onkel an uncle
en/ei tante an aunt
beste- grand- (prefix)
en slektning a relative
et barnebarn a grandchild
lille- little, younger, baby (prefix)
en/ei slekt an extended family
en svoger a brother-in-law
en morfar a (maternal) grandfather
en/ei mormor a (maternal) grandmother
et søskenbarn a cousin (gender neutral)
store- big, older (prefix)
en farfar a (paternal) grandfather
en/ei farmor a (paternal) grandmother
en/ei kusine a (female) cousin
et enebarn an only child
en/ei svigerinne a sister-in-law
ste- step- (prefix)
olde- great-grand- (prefix)
en nevø a nephew
en/ei niese a niece
en fetter a (male) cousin

Feelings 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Feelings

To prepare you for the emotional roller-coaster that is the Norwegian course, this skill will supply you with vocabulary to express your basic feelings.


Irregular Adjectives

While most of the words follow patterns you've already learned, there are a couple of irregularities among the adjectives.

Glad and redd do not take a -t ending in their neuter forms.

Stakkars stays the same in all forms, no matter the gender or number of the noun it modifies.


Fixed Expressions - Love Them or Fear Them

When expressing emotions, you're going to come across a couple of fixed expressions.

å være glad i
to be fond of, to love

å være redd for
to be afraid of

Because these are fixed expressions, their adjectives, glad and redd, do not change to the plural form when used with a plural subject.

Vi er glad i deg.
We love you.

Vi er redd for ulver.
We are afraid of wolves.

Using the plural adjective is by no means a grave error, and actually quite common among natives, but if you want to impress your Norwegian teacher or ace that exam, you'll stick to the singular.


Expressing Emotions in the Cold North

Norwegians tend to be a little reserved, and, as an extension of that, rather economical with their emotions. That doesn't mean that they don't feel as strongly about things, it's just not as readily expressed. Unless we're drunk, of course.


Vocabulary
gråter cries
ler laughs
smiler smiles
føler feels
gjør makes
hater hates
sint angry
glad glad, happy
stakkars poor
trøtt sleepy, tired
redd scared, afraid
sulten hungry
trist sad
stolt proud
ensom lonely
en følelse a feeling, an emotion

Work 11 · 2019-08-29 ^

Work

Unlike in English, Norwegian usually drops the indefinite article when describing someone's profession.

Norwegian English
Jeg er student. I am a student.
Hun er lege. She is a doctor.
Han er forfatter. He is a writer.

Be mindful that constructions such as jeg er en student are also grammatical, but they are far less common.


Finding Your Voice

Now that you're becoming familiar with the sound of the Norwegian language, listening exercises are probably starting to become a little easier. However, speaking can still be a hurdle!

It's perfectly natural to feel shy about speaking a new language, but it's something that becomes more comfortable the more you practice it. The good news is that you don't have to run out and find a native speaker to practice. Saying the Duolingo sentences out loud is a great start, and will get your tongue used to making those unfamiliar twists and turns. And yes, we do mean every sentence - not just the listening exercises!


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
studerer study
tid (m/f) time
overtid (m/f) overtime
en lege a doctor, a physician
en jobb a job
et kontor an office
en student a student (uni level)
en forfatter an author
et møte a meeting
en konferanse a conference
en sjef a boss
fritid (m/f) free time, leisure
et arbeid a work, a job
en elektriker an electrician
en rørlegger a plumber
en brannmann a fireman, a firefighter
en prest a priest
en ingeniør an engineer
en bussjåfør a bus driver
en telefonselger a telemarketer, a telephone salesman

Verbs: Infinitive 7 · 2021-06-13 ^

Infinitives

To infinitives, and beyond!

Most infinitive verbs in Norwegian end in the stem -e. There are many, many exceptions, however. A few modal constructions exist that link to infinitive verbs directly, such as kan and vil.

Norwegian English
Jeg kan spise. I can eat.
Hun vil finne katten. She wants to find the cat.

Many infinitives link with other parts of the sentence with the word å, which translates to to, as in, å se or to see. This applies to all situations where an infinitive is present without a modal verb.

Norwegian English
Det er viktig å lese. It is important to read.
Han liker å lage mat. He likes to cook.

You may have noticed that in the final sentence above, the verb å lage mat could have easily translated to cooking, and you would be correct. Sometimes an infinitive beginning with an å can act like a gerund, which is nerd for a noun ending in -ing.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å to
kan can, am able to
must
å bli to become, to get, to be
å lage to make
å spise to eat
å betale to pay
å gi to give
å sove to sleep
å være to be
å gjøre to do, to make
å danse to dance
å kjøpe to buy
å se to see
å ta to take
å få to get, to receive
å lese to read
å vise to show
å synge to sing
å si to say
å leie to rent, to hold hands
å høre to hear
å velge to choose
å tenke to think
å prøve to try, to test, to attempt
å fortsette to continue

Vacation 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vacation

Phew! After all that work, it's finally time for a vacation. No phrasal verbs, no new prepositions, and not an irregular adjective in sight. Just sit down, relax, and enjoy the scenery.


Norwegian Vacation Habits

For Norwegians, vacation time tends to mean one of two things.

One alternative is to put on three layers of wool clothing and drive all the way up to your cabin in the mountains. This cabin may or may not have water and electricity, but that's not important; what matters is that it's koselig. If you get cold, you can always chop some wood, go on a hike, or shovel some snow.

The other, and polar opposite, is to stock up on sunscreen, put on your socks and sandals, and catch a plane to Syden. Where is this mysterious Syden, you ask? Well, it tends to be anywhere that's warm enough to feel like Norwegian summer in the winter time. Bonus points if there are cheap flights. The Canary Islands are practically overrun with Norwegian pensioners, so it might not be the worst place to go if you want to practice your Norwegian.


Norway as a Vacation Destination

Norway is a popular vacation destination due to its beautiful nature, but you're going to need a bit of spending money, because the only thing that's cheap here is the water. Food and lodging are both on the expensive side, and beer prices are outrageous.

However, if you plan ahead, it doesn't have to break the bank. Youth hostels, apartments for rent, or even your own tent or van will enable you to live on the cheap, and while the food in the grocery stores is still expensive, it's definitely less so than eating out.


Vocabulary
reiser travels, goes
å lande to land
et fly a plane
et pass a passport
et land a country
en ferie a vacation
en billett a ticket
en flyplass an airport
en bagasje a baggage, a luggage
en/ei sol a sun
sand (m) sand
en turist a tourist
et hotell a hotel
en guide a guide
en/ei strand a beach

Schedule 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Times of Day

Norwegian English
morgen morning
formiddag late morning (9-12 am)
ettermiddag afternoon
kveld evening; night (before bed)
natt night

Familiar Prepositions, New Contexts

You're already familiar with the prepositions i, om and from previous skills. Here, you'll meet them again, but in new contexts and with different translations.


Norwegian English
i dag today
i natt tonight
i morgen tomorrow
om dagen at day; during the day
om morgenen in the morning; during the morning
om en time in an hour (from now)
på dagen at day
på morgenen in the morning

As you can see, both and om can be used to express that something happens at day or in the morning.

If you're referring to a specific point in time, like five in the morning, you would use fem på morgenen. If you're just referring to the morning in general, you may use either or om. Some dialects have a preference for one over the other, but that's nothing you need to worry about here.


Two Verbs - One Job

In Norwegian, there are two very common verbs for to work, å arbeide and å jobbe.

While these are largely interchangeable, there are cases where one will be preferred to the other.

Å arbeide is the old workhorse, of Old Norse origin, and thus features in more compounds and fixed expressions.

Å jobbe is the young English apprentice, which has been adopted by the younger generations.

Both verbs are used extensively, and Norwegians will happily switch between the two within the same text or conversation.


Vocabulary
å møte to meet, to encounter
å jobbe to work
å komme to come
om in, at
hver every, each
sjelden seldom, rarely
før before, prior to
i dag today
i kveld this evening, tonight
i morgen tomorrow
senere later
daglig daily
ferdig done, finished, complete
en gang once, one time, a time
en morgen a morning
en ettermiddag an afternoon
en kveld an evening, a night
en plan a plan
et skift a shift
fleksitid (m/f) flexible hours, flextime

Traits 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Liten

The adjective liten, meaning little or small, is the most highly irregular adjective in the Norwegian language. Take a look at how it declines. Commit this table to memory, because as in English, the word small is used a lot.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en liten stol a small chair
den lille stolen the small chair
Feminine ei lita bok a small book
den lille boka the small book
Neuter et lite bord a small table
det lille bordet the small table
Plural små hus small houses
de små husene the small houses

Pay special attention to context, and in time, these adjective endings become second nature.


Negative Prefixes

Just as in English, there are a few different negative prefixes that can be used to negate an adjective. In this skill you'll learn to use u-, but there are a few others as well such as a-, in-, dis-, and mis-, so we'll give examples for all of them while we're at it.

Norwegian English
atypisk atypical
uvanlig unusual
umulig impossible
utrolig incredible
intolerant intolerant
inkompatibel incompatible
disharmoni disharmony
misfornøyd dissatisfied; unhappy

As you can see, there are plenty of cognates going around, but sometimes the choice of prefix does change from language to language, as is the case for "utrolig", which turns into "incredible".


Altfor

You've already learned the intensifying adverb "for", which translates to "too". However, in cases where you feel like that isn't quite strong enough, you can intensify the meaning further by adding the prefix alt-.

"Altfor" translates to "all too", "far too", "way too", or "much too". Note that it cannot be translated to just "too".

"Denne kjolen er altfor dyr!"
"This dress is far too expensive!"


Declining Adjectives

Need a refresher on how to decline adjectives? Have a look at the Tips & Notes for the Adjectives skill.


Vocabulary
virker seems
altfor all too, far too
helt wholly, completely, totally
den lille the little, the small
enkel simple
streng strict
vakker beautiful
umulig impossible
u- un-, im-, a- (negative prefix)
små small, little
lik like, alike
alvorlig serious
kjedelig boring, dull
interessant interesting
fri free
søt sweet, cute
vennlig friendly
forskjellig different

Community 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Community

Since you're here learning a language, you probably already know the importance of community and connecting with other people. Now, you'll learn the vocabulary for it as well!


Boyfriend/Girlfriend - It's All the Same to Us

The Norwegian word for boyfriend or girlfriend is kjæreste, which literally means dearest. This is gender neutral in the sense that it does not say anything about the gender of one's partner.

So, if you're queer and in the closet, you can still talk about your significant other in public.


There Are People, and Then There Are People

As in German, Norwegian has a few words that translate to the English word people. Below is a brief overview.

Norwegian English
mennesker most generic term
personer emphasizes the individual
folk emphasizes the collective

Making Friends in Norway

While Norwegians are notorious for avoiding conversation on the bus and in the elevator, you'll find them more receptive in other contexts.

If you don't have the luxury of already knowing someone who can introduce you to new people, or the option of mingling at the workplace, your best bet is to find a shared activity to bond over. This could be a hobby or interest, or just taking a walk in the woods. Norwegians actually greet strangers in the woods, true story.

Why this need for a shared activity? Well, it bypasses the need for small talk, as you'll already have something to talk about that interests both parties. You can liken it to dating: On a coffee date, you may have to work to keep the conversation going, but take your date to do some sort of activity that you both enjoy, and the hours will fly by.

So, sign up for some classes! Learn new things, enjoy nature's offerings, have fun and connect. Build your own little community. :)


Vocabulary
klemmer hugs
å være enig to agree
støtter supports
å snakke to speak, to talk
redder saves, rescues
kjenner knows, is familiar with
tenker thinks
deler shares
å hjelpe to help
noen someone, anyone
sammen together
alene alone
hjelpsom helpful
en kjæreste a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a significant other
et liv a life
en venn a friend
et ansvar a responsibility
et menneske a human
en/ei gruppe a group
et medlem a member
folk (n) people
et språk a language
internet (n) internet
et kallenavn a nickname
en nordmann a Norwegian (person)

Determiners 9 · 2020-07-10 ^

This and These

We learned early on how to describe definite nouns with the appropriate gender- and number-specific suffixes.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine stolen the chair
Feminine boka the book
Neuter bordet the table
Plural husene the houses

And how to specify further with the word that or those.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den stolen that chair
Feminine den boka that book
Neuter det bordet that table
Plural de husene those houses

Now, we're introducing how to say this and these in Norwegian.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine denne stolen this chair
Feminine denne boka this book
Neuter dette bordet this table
Plural disse husene these houses

Other & Second

There is only one word for other and second in Norwegian, annen. It declines irregularly, so watch out.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en annen stol another chair
den andre stolen the other chair
Feminine ei anna bok another book
den andre boka the other book
Neuter et annet bord another table
det andre bordet the other table
Plural andre hus other houses
de andre husene the other houses

Både & Begge

There are two words for both in Norwegian, både and begge. Både is a conjunction and is used in constructions such as både ... og, ie. both ... and . In this case it is possible to list more than two elements. Begge is a quantifier and is used instead of alle when there are only two of something. If you need to use the word both on its own, you may use the phrase begge to, which literally means, both two.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
alt all, everything
andre other, others, second
ingenting nothing
selv myself, yourself, herself...
egen own
ingen no, nobody, no-one
både both (X and X)
annet other, second
hverandre each other, one another
annen other, second
annenhver every other, every second
et ord a word

Days 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Weekdays

Below are the days of the week. The reason they're so similar to English is because English gets most of the words for the days of the week from the names of Norse gods. "Thursday" is Thor's day, and so on.

Keep in mind that the days of the week, unlike in English, are only capitalized at the beginning of the sentence. The g at the end of these words may or may not be pronounced, depending on dialect, register, and stress. Even when pronounced, it should be quite soft.

Norwegian English
mandag Monday
tirsdag Tuesday
onsdag Wednesday
torsdag Thursday
fredag Friday
lørdag Saturday
søndag Sunday

Monday through Friday are referred to as hverdager, while Saturday and Sunday are helgedager.

Since all of the days are compound nouns ending in the masculine noun en dag, they too are treated as masculine nouns.


Preposition Use

When you want to express that something's happening on a specific day, you say på mandag, on Monday.

However, if you want to say that something's happening on the weekend, it's i helgen.


Present Tense, Future Meaning

As you already know, you can make some statements about the future using the present tense in English. An example would be "We are going to Norway next month." We still understand that the sentence must be about the future, as a future point in time has been specified.

In Norwegian, you can do exactly the same. In fact, it's even more common to do so.

Vi drar på onsdag.
We are leaving on Wednesday.

Prøven er fredag.
The test is on Friday.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
mandag Monday
tirsdag Tuesday
onsdag Wednesday
torsdag Thursday
fredag Friday
lørdag Saturday
søndag Sunday
en hverdag a weekday
en/ei uke a week
en/ei helg a weekend

Questions 12 · 2022-02-04 ^

A heartfelt welcome to the Norwegian course!

Norwegian is a language with simpler grammar than many other European languages, but it is still a gendered language with three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter.


Grammatical Gender

Masculine Feminine Neuter
en mann ei kvinne or en kvinne et barn
a man a woman a child

All feminine gendered nouns can be classified as masculine gender as well. In theory, one could treat all feminine nouns as masculine ones, but most Norwegians still use the feminine form to some degree, especially for certain words.

The choice really is up to you! Both en kvinne and ei kvinne are grammatically correct, and the tendency to use the feminine gender depends on geography and dialect.

We have opted to teach it where it is most natural to use it, with words such as jente meaning girl, for example, but in the first couple of skills we'll let you focus on the masculine and neuter noun patterns.


Pronouns

Norwegian pronouns are very straightforward and correspond well to English ones:

Norwegian English
jeg I
du you (singular)
han he
hun she
det it

When referring to a neutral subject, det is used to mean it or that. However, when referring to a masculine or feminine subject, it becomes den instead.


Verbs

Conjugation couldn't be simpler. All conjugated verbs have an -r stem in the present, and verbs don't change according to the subject! How easy is that?

Singular Plural
jeg er I am vi er we are
du er you are dere er you are
han, hun, det er he, she, it is de er they are

Pronunciation

As a general rule, words are spelled as they're pronounced in Norwegian. One exception is words beginning with hv, such as hvem, meaning who. In this word, the h is silent.

In addition, there are several letters and letter combinations that are pronounced differently from English.

Norwegian IPA, Notes
A [ɑ], very open
B [b]
C [s] or [k] depending on word, very rare
D [d], silent in consonant clusters
E [e] or [ɛ], [æ] in her and der, [i] in de
F [f]
G [g], [j] before an i; silent before a j; silent after an i and sometimes an a or o
H [h], silent before v
I [i] like the e in email or ebook, [ɪ] before two consonants
J [j], like the y in yes or yellow
K [k]
kj, ki, ky [ç], like the sharp h in human
L [l]
M [m]
N [n]
O [u] like the oo in soon, but longer, [ʊ] before two consonants
P [p]
R [ɾ], tap, like the tt in North American butter; some in Norway use [ʁ], the so-called French R
rs [ʃ], r + s combinations produce sh sound, even between words
S [s]
skj, ski, sky, sl [ʃ], like the sh in ship or shell
T [t], silent after an e sometimes, ex. det
U [ʉ], like the ew in new, but more closed
V [v]
Y [y] or [ʏ], like the e in email, but more closed

Special Notes on Common Words

Norwegian Meaning Pronunciation
jeg I yai
det it, that deh, silent t

Core Vocabulary

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
er am, are, is
hvem who
og and
ikke not
jeg I
du you (singular)
han he
hun she
en a, an
en mann a man
en/ei kvinne a woman
en gutt a boy
en/ei jente a girl

Countries and Nationalities 1 · 2018-10-25 ^

The words for most countries and nationalities are very similar to their English equivalents, with a few notable exceptions, as shown below.

Norwegian Etymology English
Tyskland Deutschland Germany
Østerrike Österreich Austria
Frankrike Frankarîki France
Hellas Ελλάς Greece

In addition, several more countries' names end in -ia in Norwegian than they do in English.

Norwegian English
Tyrkia Turkey
Spania Spain
Italia Italy
Storbritannia Great Britain

Nationalities are not that straightforward, but a base of the country name are usually found in the nationality, with the exception of "a Greek, from Greece", en greker, fra Hellas.

If the nationality adjective ends in -sk one special rule applies, it will not become -skt for neuter nouns.

En norsk mann, ei norsk dame, et norsk barn, flere norske personer.

Verbs: Present 3 12 · 2020-06-17 ^

Indefinite Pronouns

When we're not referring to a specific person, but are making a general statement, we often use an indefinite or impersonal pronoun.

English has two such pronouns, the rather formal "one", which one imagines the queen uses a fair bit more than the general population, and the less formal general "you".

In Norwegian, there are also two of these pronouns, "man" and "en". However, there is no difference in formality; they can be used freely in both the formal and informal register.

"Man kan aldri være helt sikker."
"One can never be completely certain."

Note that "man" can only be used as a subject pronoun, while "en" can be used as both a subject pronoun and an object pronoun. "Ens" is the possessive pronoun, corresponding to "one's" or the general "your".


Learning and Teaching

In this skill, you'll learn the verb lærer, which changes meaning depending on whether it has an indirect object or not.

If it lacks an indirect object, it translates to learn/learns/am learning/are learning/is learning.

Jeg lærer norsk.
I am learning Norwegian.

However, if it has an indirect object, it becomes teach/teaches/am teaching/are teaching/is teaching. You can see how it works in the sentence below, where meg is the indirect object and the person being taught something.

Hun lærer meg norsk.
She is teaching me Norwegian.

What about when you want to say "teach", and you don't have an indirect object? Well, then you can add the adverb "bort" to "lærer", like so:

De lærer bort norsk.
They are teaching Norwegian.

You can also use a whole other verb, which you will learn in a later skill. "Underviser" is used for teaching in a school or university context - classroom teaching.

Professoren underviser i norsk.
The professor teaches Norwegian.


To Exist or Just to Be, That is the Question

The verb finnes is an interesting one. Not only does it have the passive ending -s, but it's used much more extensively than its English counterpart, exist.

Finnes is the passive version of finner, find, so anything that finnes is something that is to be found. Depending on what sounds more natural, you should translate it to either is/are or exist(s) in English.


Present

The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now:

Jeg leser nå. I am reading now.

The present tense is also used in general statements that are independent of time:

Jorda er rund. The earth is round.

For things that repeat and that are still recurring:

Jeg sover hver natt. I sleep every night.

The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain:

Jeg reiser i morgen. I leave tomorrow.

As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English.

You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -s in the third person singular in the present tense.

Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary).

The table below shows you how to do it:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present English Translation
1 -er å vaske vasker wash(es), am/are/is washing
2 -er å kjøre kjører drive(s), am/are/is driving
3 -r å bo bor live(s), am/are/is living (as in making one's home somewhere)

There are three groups of verbs with different patterns for forming tenses in Norwegian, but in the present case they all behave in the same way as you can see.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lærer learns, teaches
får gets, receives
skjer happens, occurs, takes place
holder holds, is enough
foretrekker prefers
stoler trusts
følger follows
ønsker wishes
forsøker tries, attempts
slutter stops, quits
å fryse to freeze, to be cold
begynner begins, starts
finnes exists, is
bærer carries
stemmer is right
kler på seg gets dressed, puts on
man one, you (impersonal)
godt well
igjen again
en tyv a thief, a burglar
en vane a habit

The Clock 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Telling Time

In order to ask what time it is, you may ask,

Hva er klokka?

or literally, What is the clock?

The response will be something like,

Klokka er to.

which means the clock is two, or in other words,

It's two o'clock.


AM, PM & Military Time

Norwegians are used to seamlessly jumping between using 12-hour and 24-hour time, depending on what the situation requires.

When the intended point of time should be obvious from the context, they'll use 12-hour time without specifying AM or PM.

When there is room for confusion, they will either use 12-hour time in conjunction with a time of day to specify, or they'll switch to 24-hour time, also known as military time.

12 hour 12 hour + specification 24 hour military
to to på/om dagen fjorten 14:00
ni ni på/om kvelden tjueen 21:00

The Confusing Half Hours

When someone says halv to in Norwegian, it actually means half past one. The half hour relates to the next whole hour, rather than the previous one, which may take a little getting used to.

Norwegian English
halv fire half past three
halv åtte half past seven
halv elleve half past ten

Vocabulary
allerede already
halv half
kvart på a quarter to
kvart over a quarter past
X på X to
X over X past
sen late
tidlig early
fort fast, quickly
en/ei klokke a clock, a watch, (a time)
et minutt a minute
et sekund a second

Jobs 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Jobs

Unlike in English, Norwegian usually drops the indefinite article when describing someone's profession.

Norwegian English
Jeg er student. I am a student.
Hun er lege. She is a doctor.
Han er forfatter. He is a writer.

Be mindful that constructions such as jeg er en student are also grammatical, but they are far less common.


Two Verbs - One Job

In Norwegian, there are two very common verbs for to work, å arbeide and å jobbe.

While these are largely interchangeable, there are cases where one will be preferred to the other.

Å arbeide is the old workhorse, of Old Norse origin, and thus features in more compounds and fixed expressions.

Å jobbe is the young English apprentice, which has been adopted by the younger generations.

Both verbs are used extensively, and Norwegians will happily switch between the two within the same text or conversation.


Spelling Words of Greek Origin

Like English, Norwegian borrows heavily from Greek and Latin, especially for more technical terms. In this skill, you'll come across the noun fotograf, photographer, which stems from the words φῶς (phos), meaning light, and γραφή (graphê), meaning drawing or writing. That's what photographers do, right? They draw with light.

Whenever you come across a word of Greek origin that is spelled with a "ph" combination in English, it will be spelled with an "f" in Norwegian. Another example of this is elefant, which of course is elephant in English.

The same pattern holds true in Greek words with a "th" combination in English; the "h" disappears in Norwegian, leaving only the "t". An example from this skill is therapist, which becomes terapeut.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å arbeide to work
å selge to sell
profesjonell professional
et yrke a profession
en pilot a pilot
en arkitekt an architect
en fotograf a photographer
en/ei utdanning an education
en fisker a fisherman, a fisher
en advokat a lawyer
en terapeut a therapist
en politibetjent a police officer, a policeman, a policewoman

Conjunctions 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Conjunctions

Below is a short list of some of the most common conjunctions in the Norwegian language. Four of them, og, men, fordi, and eller, you're already familiar with.

Norwegian English
og and
men but
eller or
fordi because
at that
om whether, if (binary plausibility)
hvis if (cause and effect)

Norwegian conjunctions act very similarly to English ones, with a couple of special rules.


Ikke

Keep in mind that in dependent clauses, the negation ikke gets pulled to a position in-between the subject and the main verb. This occurs with several other constructions as well. This is one weird quirk with Norwegian grammar, but it will sound natural after a while.

Norwegian English
Hun er ikke her. She is not here.
Jeg vet at hun ikke er her. I know that she is not here.

Isn't that interesting?


V-2 Word Order

The V-2 Rule is a linguistic law that applies to all Germanic languages... except English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis. What it essentially means is that Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements.

The V-2 Rule applies to dependent clauses that begin sentences. In this specific situation, the whole dependent clause is treated as being in the first position, so the verb in the independent clause comes immediately after it, in the second position, followed by the subject in the independent clause.

Norwegian English
Du (1) må (2) støtte meg. You must support me.
Hvis du vil hjelpe meg (1) , (2) du støtte meg. If you want to help me, you must support me.

This may sound jarring, but this rule of inversion becomes easy enough after some exposure.

Norwegian English
Jeg (1) snakker (2) ikke norsk. I do not speak Norwegian.
Selv om jeg er nordmann (1) , snakker (2) jeg ikke norsk. Even though I am Norwegian, I do not speak Norwegian.

If you think this word order is weird, try German.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
om if, whether
at that
so
når when
mens while
for for, because
hvis if
som like, which
selv om even if, even though, despite

Adverbs 10 · 2021-06-13 ^

Adverbs

In Norwegian, adverbs usually follow the verb.

Norwegian English
Du snakker godt norsk! You speak Norwegian well!

One exception is that adverbs of time often appear at the end of the sentence or clause.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.

Another exception is related to the V-2 Rule in Germanic linguistics, which applies to all Germanic languages... besides English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis, but don't get crazy.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.
Jeg har tid. I now have time.
har jeg tid. Now I have time.

The final example is a demonstration of the V-2 Rule. When the adverb moved to the front of the statement, the subject moved to the other side of the verb har. This is because Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
litt a little
godt well
igjen again
ennå still
borte gone, away, missing
dessverre unfortunately, regrettably, sadly
til og med even, up to and including
enn than
heller rather
nesten nearly, almost
egentlig actually, in fact
vanligvis usually
kun only, exclusively
svært very
gjerne gladly, happily, (not translated, adds politeness/willingness)
i stedet instead
akkurat right, just, exactly, precisely
åpenbart obviously

Imperative 3 · 2019-04-12 ^

The Imperative

Forming the imperative in Norwegian is quite simple. Take the base form of the verb, such as spise and drop the -e to form the word spis. Congratulations! You have successfully created the imperative in Norwegian!

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
eat spise spis
read lese les
be være vær

You may be wondering about how we handle verbs that do not end in -e in their base form, such as tro and ta, which mean believe and take. The answer is, we don't change the verb at all in the imperative.

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
believe tro tro
take ta ta
have ha ha

Some verbs that do end in -e end in a string of consonants that may sound strange without the -e. This is why you are given the option to keep the -e ending in the imperative if you so desire, but only in these specific verbs.

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
open åpne åpne or åpn
trade handle handle or handl

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
si say
les read
løp run
spis eat
ring call, ring, phone
tenk think
ta take
tro believe
lytt listen
gjør do
kyss kiss
bruk use
syng sing
la let, allow, permit
gi give
vær be
husk remember
betal pay
fortsett continue
se see, look
lek play
pass (på) watch out, look out, make sure
skriv write
tegn draw
bekymre worry

Places 12 · 2019-08-29 ^

Oh the Places You'll Go...

Norway is a country of fjords and valleys, of babbling brooks and scenic waterfalls, and it's all topped off with a coastline longer than the polar night. If you ever get a chance to visit, you're in for a treat!


Rural Communities

When describing rural communities in Norway, you can use either en/ei bygd or et tettsted.

Ei bygd is a small town or hamlet. It can have a defined center, but often it's more like a handful of farms strewn about the countryside, with a local store and not much more. Some even have to drive to another bygd to do their grocery shopping.

Et tettsted is a very vague term, as it can refer to any congregation of houses with a number of inhabitants of 200 and upward. So, it could be a tiny village, or one of Norway's largest cities.

When talking about villages outside of Norway, or in a historic context, we use the noun en landsby instead. There's a quaintness to it.

Larger towns and cities are referred to as en by.


Gate & Vei

We observe the same distinction as in English, where en gate, a street, is bordered by houses, while en vei, a road, just has to take you from A to B.

You can use vei when referring to a street as well, but it doesn't work the other way around; gate would never be used for a country road or a highway.


Left & Right

When something is to the left of you, you can say that it's either på venstre side, på venstre hånd, or til venstre.

It works the same way for høyre, right. Take care not to get the noun for the direction, høyre, mixed up with the noun for straight or correct, rett.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
omkring around
overfor opposite, across from, facing
venstre left
høyre right
borte ved over by
der borte over there
en by a town, a city
et sted a place
et tårn a tower
et slott a castle
en/ei kirke a church
jorden (m/f) the earth
en/ei bygd a village, a small town, a hamlet
en/ei adresse an address
et område an area
en/ei bygning a building
en eiendom a property
en/ei gate a street
en/ei sone a zone
en innsjø a lake, a pond
en/ei forside a front
en/ei side a side
en bank a bank
en plass a place
nærhet (m/f) proximity, vicinity
en hovedstad a capital city
en planet a planet
en måne a moon
en/ei stjerne a star

Verbs: Infinitive 2 2 · 2019-10-13 ^

Infinitives

To infinitives, and beyond!

Most infinitive verbs in Norwegian end in the stem -e. There are many, many exceptions, however. A few modal constructions exist that link to infinitive verbs directly, such as kan and vil.

Norwegian English
Jeg kan spise. I can eat.
Hun vil finne katten. She wants to find the cat.

Many infinitives link with other parts of the sentence with the word å, which translates to to, as in, å se or to see. This applies to all situations where an infinitive is present without a modal verb.

Norwegian English
Det er viktig å lese. It is important to read.
Han liker å lage mat. He likes to cook.

You may have noticed that in the final sentence above, the verb å lage mat could have easily translated to cooking, and you would be correct. Sometimes an infinitive beginning with an å can act like a gerund, which is nerd for a noun ending in -ing.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
for å (in order) to
å le to laugh
å finne to find
pleier tend to, usually do
å holde to hold
å forsøke to try, to attempt
å begynne to begin, to start
å tro to believe
å åpne to open
å endre to alter, to change, to edit
å bruke to use
å bestemme to decide
å gå to walk, to go
å dø to die
å sitte to sit
å leke to play
å miste to lose, to drop
å huske to remember
å stenge to close, to shut
å drikke to drink
å bo to live, to reside
å stå to stand, to be
å vinne to win
å regne to rain, to calculate, to count (on)
å få X til å to make X, to get X to

Animals 2 6 · 2019-08-29 ^

Animals

You've already learned the names of some of the most common animals, and in this skill you'll get to familiarize yourself with some staples of the Norwegian fauna, such as rein, mus, and ugle, as well as some løver and elefanter that seem to have escaped from the zoo.


Mostly Harmless

Among the animals native to Norway, there are few that pose a real threat to humans. Sure, there are bears and wolves, but they're few and far between, and don't actually tend to attack unless provoked. You should probably be more wary of moose and cattle.

We have one venomous snake, huggorm (Vipera berus), which will only bite if it feels threatened. If you're bitten you should seek medical attention, but there's no need to panic; bites are seldom fatal, just painful and nauseating.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å bite to bite
å hoppe to jump
slapp av relax
overalt everywhere
en elg a moose (US), an elk (UK)
en/ei ugle an owl
en kanin a rabbit
en slange a snake
et kjæledyr a pet
en/ei skilpadde a turtle, a tortoise
en skog a forest
et bur a cage
en/ei ape a monkey, an ape
en/ei løve a lion
en hale a tail
en maur an ant
en elefant an elephant

Demands and Requests 3 · 2022-02-04 ^

Saying Please

There are a number of ways to say please in Norwegian. Some go at the beginning of the sentence, while others are more comfortable at the very end of the sentence.

Note that vær så snill is a plea or request, while vennligst is more of a polite demand. You'll often see vennligst used on signs in stores, restaurants, and other public areas.

Norwegian English Placement
vær så snill (å) please, be so kind as to beginning
vær snill og please, kindly beginning
vennligst please, kindly beginning
takk please, thanks end
er du snill please, if you please end

The Imperative

Forming the imperative in Norwegian is quite simple. Take the base form of the verb, such as spise and drop the -e to form the word spis. Congratulations! You have successfully created the imperative in Norwegian!

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
eat spise spis
read lese les
be være vær

You may be wondering about how we handle verbs that do not end in -e in their base form, such as tro and ta, which mean believe and take. The answer is that we don't change the verb at all in the imperative.

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
believe tro tro
take ta ta
have ha ha

Some verbs that do end in -e end in a string of consonants that may sound strange without the -e. This is why you are given the option to keep the -e ending in the imperative if you so desire, but only in these specific verbs. The versions with the -e suffix is generally preferred, so those are the ones we'll teach you in this course.

English Verb Norwegian Verb Norwegian Command
open åpne åpne or åpn
trade handle handle or handl

Vocabulary
svar answer, reply, respond
spør ask
kom come
hjelp help
sett put, place, set
vær så snill å please
walk, go
lukk close, shut
slutt stop, quit
vask wash, clean
åpne open
vennligst please, kindly
følg follow
møt meet
vent wait
hold hold
forlat leave, abandon
avbryt interrupt
send send
er du snill please, if you please

Time 17 · 2021-06-13 ^

Time

While we're not quite as obsessed with timeliness as the Germans, being reasonably punctual is important both at work and in private. If you want to make a good impression, you should always strive to be on time.

Of course, sometimes you're late because of things out of your control, in which case it's good to notify the people waiting for you that you're running late, giving some indication of when you're expecting to arrive.

Public transport in Norway tends to be pretty punctual as well. City buses may be late during rush hour, but trains and coaches are usually on time, as are ferries unless the weather's acting up.


Døgn

Et døgn is a really neat noun, which allows you to make a distinction that doesn't exist in everyday English. It translates to a day, but specifically refers to the full 24-hour period. So it's not day as opposed to night, but the day and the night all wrapped up in one unambiguous package.


For ... Siden

When translating the English word ago, you need two words in Norwegian, for ... siden. You should place for in front of the time expression and siden after.

For fem år siden
Five years ago


Prepositions

Several Norwegian expressions of time use the preposition i in combination with a noun. These must be learned independently and treated as completely separate from the nouns they're used with. For example:

Norwegian English
i dag today
i kveld tonight
i morgen tomorrow
i morgen tidlig tomorrow morning
i går yesterday
i år this year
i fjor last year

Wrestling With the Past

Your first encounter with the past tense will be made in this skill, in the form of var (was), hadde (had), and kom (came).

As in many other languages, some of the most important verbs have highly irregular conjugations. No need to despair, though: We're introducing them early so that you'll get plenty of practice using them. By the time you're halfway through the course, these will have become second nature to you.

Infinitive Present Past English
å være er var was
å ha har hadde had
å komme kommer kom came

Regular Past Tense Verbs

The majority of regular verbs end in either -te or -et, such as spiste and snakket, which mean ate and spoke, respectively.

Infinitive Present Past English
å spise spiser spiste ate
å snakke snakker snakket spoke

Some also end in -de or -dde.

Infinitive Present Past English
å prøve prøver prøvde tried
å bo bor bodde lived

Ordinal Numbers

With one notable exception, all adjectival ordinal numbers have the same spelling regardless of gender or number, ending in -e across the board.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en første stol a first chair
den første stolen the first chair
Feminine ei første bok a first book
den første boka the first book
Neuter et første bord a first table
det første bordet the first table
Plural første hus first houses
de første husene the first houses

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
var was
kom came
hadde had
fortsatt still
i løpet av in the course of, during
iblant occasionally
lenger anymore, any longer
i mellomtiden in the meantime
siden since
for ... siden ago
inntil until, up to
lenge long
første (the) first
neste (the) next
siste (the) last
klar ready
rask swift, quick
langsom slow
et år a year
et døgn a day, a 24h period of time
et øyeblikk a moment
en fest a party
fortid (m/f) past
nåtid (m/f) present
fremtid (m/f) future
en alder an age
en bursdag a birthday

Objects 15 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
selg (imperative) sell
legg (imperative) lay, put, place
mister loses, drops
fyller fills, turns
full full
tom empty
ekstra extra
en mynt a coin
en mobil a mobile
en nøkkel a key
en maskin a machine
et kort a card
en roman a novel
en bit a piece, a bit, a part
en/ei skål a bowl
en ting a thing
en kjele a saucepan, a pot, a kettle
en/ei pakke a package
søppel (f/m/n) garbage, rubbish, trash
en paraply an umbrella
et skap a closet, a cabinet, a cupboard
et lokk a lid
en tråd a thread
en stein a stone

The Home 7 · 2021-09-03 ^

Home, Sweet Home

Or hjem, kjære hjem, as it goes in Norwegian. Of course, it's difficult to make generalizations about people's homes, but don't think for a second that we're going to let that stop us from trying.

If you're Norwegian, chances are that you either live in a wooden house or in a condo building in one of the larger cities. Most households consist of either a single person or a small family; it's rare to see more than two generations living together.

For the past couple of decades, people have been very busy painting their walls white, which admittedly makes sense in a country with such dark winters. Scandinavian interior design tends to emphasize materials, wood in particular, and there's a certain minimalism to it.

Many Norwegian homes have a fireplace or an oven, to make sure everything's suitably koselig (cozy). What you won't see a lot of are wall-to-wall carpets; wooden floors with the odd rug is where it's at.

With Janteloven, the Law of Jante, still going strong, there aren't many huge or flashy houses around. Mansions are few and far between.


Mind Your Manners

When invited into someone's home, it's customary to take off your shoes as soon as you've made it inside the front door. Norwegians wear socks or slippers indoors.

If you're wearing a hat of some sort, you should leave that in the entryway with your coat and shoes as well, at least if you're visiting someone of the older generation.

So far, so good, right? From here on out, you should get by on basic courtesy, but do remember to thank your host for the food or drink if any is served. Leaving a dinner table without thanking the host or hostess for feeding you is tantamount to treason. It doesn't even matter if the food was bad - your manners have to be better.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å stryke to iron
å låse to lock
å rydde to tidy (up)
å støvsuge to vacuum
en peis a fireplace
en/ei stue a living room
en/ei eske a box
et hjem a home
en gang a hallway, an entryway
et møbel a piece of furniture
en/ei dørmatte a doormat
en duk a tablecloth
en sofa a sofa, a couch
et teppe a rug, a carpet
en/ei badstu a sauna
en fjernkontroll a remote control
et hull a hole
en/ei hylle a shelf
et kjøkken a kitchen
en stikkontakt a power socket
en fryser a freezer
et loft an attic
et tak a roof, a ceiling
støv (n) dust
en/ei trapp a staircase
en etasje a floor, a story, a storey
en kjeller a cellar, a basement
en/ei leilighet an apartment, a flat

*The vocabulary lists are not exhaustive. What you see listed are the main lexemes of each skill, but each lexeme can contain several forms of a word.

For example, a verb lexeme may contain all its conjugations, while a noun lexeme may contain all its declensions. Sometimes, a single lexeme may even comprise several word classes, provided they share the same root and translate predictably into English.

Compound Words 7 · 2020-11-29 ^

Compounds

Compound words are words built from at least two different elements, each with their own separate meaning. Together, they mean something new, but related. English has a few of these words, like "fireman", "starfish" and "windmill". It also has nouns that act like descriptors before other nouns, like "chocolate milk", "apple pie" and "grocery store".

Unlike the English phrases above, Norwegian compounds are almost always a single word, without the extra space. Just like in English, the final element in the compound is what conveys the true meaning of the word. Take the word teskje, which means teaspoon. Although it's a combination of two nouns, we recognize that the word refers to a type of spoon, and not a type of tea. In Norwegian, the word teskje behaves just like the word skje meaning spoon, simply with a te- prefix.

There are several ways to form compound nouns in Norwegian:

A noun is combined with a second noun.

te skje teskje
tea spoon teaspoon

A verb is combined with a noun.

lese briller lesebriller
read glasses reading glasses

A noun is combined with "s" and a second noun.

arbeid s plass arbeidsplass
work place workplace

A noun is combined with "e" and a second noun.

hest e sko hestesko
horse shoe horseshoe

Determining which way to form a compound noun is not intuitive, but there are some patterns. For example, animals, human or otherwise, will often combine with "e" to form a compound phrase, such as in the word "hestesko" above.

Compound nouns consisting of two or more nouns take on the gender of the last noun.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
en/ei teskje a teaspoon
en/ei dagbok a diary
en motorvei a motorway, a highway, an expressway
en bilnøkkel a car key
lesebriller (m) reading glasses
en/ei stekepanne a frying pan
en rullestol a wheelchair
[compounds] compounds with no combining letter
[s compounds] compounds with "s" as a combining letter
arbeidstid (m/f) working hours
en arbeidsgiver an employer
en arbeidsplass a workplace
et svømmebasseng a swimming pool
[e compounds] compounds with "e" as a combining letter
en hestesko a horse shoe
en dyrehage a zoo
en barnehage a kindergarten
hundemat (m) dog food

*The vocabulary lists are not exhaustive. What you see listed are the main lexemes of each skill, but each lexeme can contain several forms of a word.

For example, a verb lexeme may contain all its conjugations, while a noun lexeme may contain all its declensions. Sometimes, a single lexeme may even comprise several word classes, provided they share the same root and translate predictably into English.

Body Parts 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Body Parts

When it comes to body parts, there are plenty of cognates to go around. Have a quick look at the vocabulary list at the bottom of the tips before you get started, and see how many of the Norwegian words resemble their English counterparts.

There are a few irregular nouns to watch out for as well: en tann, en tå, en hånd and en fot all get a vowel change in their plural forms. In the table below, you'll see their full declensions.

indefinite sl. definite sl. indefinite pl. definite pl.
en tann tannen tenner tennene
en tå tåen tær tærne
en hånd hånden hender hendene
en fot foten føtter føttene

Implied Possessives

In Norwegian, as in many other languages, body parts generally do not carry possessive pronouns. Instead, we use the definite form for all pronouns. Øyet can mean the eye, my eye, or your eye, etc. The person's body in question should be intuited from context.

This is especially common when speaking about one's own body parts.


Vocabulary
blod (n) blood
en/ei tå a toe
en fot a foot
et bein a leg
en/ei arm an arm
en/ei hånd a hand
en finger a finger
et øre an ear
et hår a hair
et hode a head
et hjerte a heart
en kropp a body
et øye an eye
en/ei tann a tooth
en/ei nese a nose
en munn a mouth
et ansikt a face
en/ei tunge a tongue

*The vocabulary lists are not exhaustive. What you see listed are the main lexemes of each skill, but each lexeme can contain several forms of a word.

For example, a verb lexeme may contain all its conjugations, while a noun lexeme may contain all its declensions. Sometimes, a single lexeme may even comprise several word classes, provided they share the same root and translate predictably into English.

Bedroom 12 · 2019-08-29 ^

Getting Dressed

In the Clothing skill, you learned to use the reflexive phrasal verb å ha på seg for wearing - or having on - clothing.

In this skill, you will familiarize yourself with its two friends, å ta på seg and å ta av seg. These are also reflexive phrasal verbs, and follow the same pattern.

Norwegian English
å ta på seg to put on, to don
å ha på seg to have on, to wear
å ta av seg to take off, to doff

In case you wish to take this opportunity to revise the reflexive pronouns, we've provided a table below.

Norwegian English
meg myself
deg yourself
seg herself, himself, oneself, itself
oss ourselves
dere yourselves
seg themselves

Keeping the Cold at Bay

If you live in a warmer part of the world, you may be accustomed to sleeping under just a thin quilt or blanket, but in Norway the duvet reigns supreme. The thicker the better, especially during those cold and dark winter nights.

A duvet is like a thick quilt, with either down or synthetic filling. We always put a removable duvet cover on them, which can be taken off and washed, removing the need for a top sheet.

The only time we don't rely on our trusty duvets is when we're out hiking. Then, we'll bring our extra warm soveposer, sleeping bags, instead.


A Sweet Dream or a Beautiful Nightmare

Just like in English, Norwegian makes a distinction between drømmer, which can refer to any type of dream, and mareritt, which specifically refers to nightmares.

En mare is a mare in the more sinister sense of the word, a malicious supernatural being, perhaps even a demon. This creature was traditionally thought to be riding the victim of a nightmare, and that's where the second half of the Norwegian word, ritt comes from.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å snorke to snore
å drømme to dream
å ta av seg to take off
å ta på seg to put on
å legge seg to go to bed
å stå opp to get up, to get out of bed
våken awake
i søvne in one's sleep
søvn (m) sleep
en/ei pute a pillow
en/ei dyne a duvet, a doona
et laken a bedsheet
en drøm a dream
et mareritt a nightmare
et soverom a bedroom
en skuff a drawer
en/ei/et gardin a curtain
et klesskap a closet (for clothing), a wardrobe
en kommode a chest of drawers

Hygiene 8 · 2020-07-07 ^

Yes, You May Talk About Toilets

In English, you might ask someone to excuse you while you go to the bathroom, or even to powder your nose, but in Norwegian, we just say where we're actually going, på do or på toalettet.

On the topic of toilets, quite a few public toilets are actually unisex toilets. This might seem daunting to some, but you can relax. Norwegians will go about their business there just like they will on public transport: by making absolutely no eye contact and pretending you don't exist. You might as well be alone in the room!


Declining Compound Nouns

You've already learned quite a few compound nouns at this point in the course. In the Compounds skill, we looked at how they're formed, and now it's time to learn how they decline.

A compound noun will always take its cue from the last noun in the compound. That means that it takes on the grammatical gender of the last noun, and declines exactly as that noun would on its own.

So, et badekar declines like the monosyllabic neuter noun et kar, while en tanntråd declines like the masculine en tråd, and en/ei dagbok can follow either the masculine or the feminine declination just like en/ei bok.

Meanwhile, the first noun in the compound never changes. If you think about it, it works the same way in English: toothpaste doesn't become teethpastes in the plural!

indefinite sl. definite sl. indefinite pl. definite pl.
et badekar badekaret badekar badekarene
en tanntråd tanntråden tanntråder tanntrådene
ei dagbok dagboka dagbøker dagbøkene
en dagbok dagboken dagbøker dagbøkene

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å pusse to brush (one's teeth), to polish
å gre to brush (one's hair)
å føne to blow-dry
å vaske to wash, to clean
å barbere to shave
å bade to bathe
å dusje to shower
å tørke to dry
fuktig damp
en børste a brush
en tanntråd a dental floss
en tannkrem a toothpaste
en tannbørste a toothbrush
et bad a bathroom
en balsam a conditioner
en sjampo a shampoo
en hårføner a hairdryer
et skjegg a beard
en vaskemaskin a washing machine
en barberhøvel a razor
en barbermaskin an electric razor
en hud a skin
en vask a sink, a washbasin
en/ei såpe a (bar of) soap
et toalett a toilet
et toalettpapir a toilet paper
en dusj a shower
et badekar a bathtub
et håndkle a towel

The Farm 3 · 2022-02-04 ^

Vocabulary
å mate to feed
å dyrke to grow
på landet in the country(side)
en/ei ku a cow
en sau a sheep
en gris a pig
en gård a farm
en bonde a farmer
en låve a barn
en/ei geit a goat
en åker a field
en potet a potato
en/ei gulrot a carrot

*The vocabulary lists are not exhaustive. What you see listed are the main lexemes of each skill, but each lexeme can contain several forms of a word.

For example, a verb lexeme may contain all its conjugations, while a noun lexeme may contain all its declensions. Sometimes, a single lexeme may even comprise several word classes, provided they share the same root.

Shopping 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å bruke to spend
kjøp buy
passer fits
stenger closes
billig inexpensive, cheap
kontant (in) cash
til salgs for sale
et salg a sale
en/ei veske a (hand)bag
en størrelse a size
et prøverom a fitting room, a changing room
en minibank an ATM
et kjøpesenter a shopping mall
en blomsterbutikk a flower shop, a florist
en pris a price
et gull a gold
en regning a bill, a check, an invoice
et kredittkort a credit card
en/ei lommebok a wallet

Marriage 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
forelsket infatuated
gift married
ekte- (prefix) wedded, married
sviger- (prefix) -in-law
et par a couple
et løfte a promise
et bryllup a wedding
kjærlighet (m/f) love
en ring a ring
en/ei kone a wife
et ekteskap a marriage

Determiners 2 1 · 2019-05-16 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
dets its
viss certain
sånn so, such, like this, like that, that way
enhver any, anyone, everyone
enten ... eller either ... or
few
eneste (the) only
samme (the) same
samtlige all
slik so, such, like this, like that, that way, thus
verken ... eller neither ... nor

People 13 · 2020-05-09 ^

People

As in German, Norwegian has a few words that translate to the English word people. Below is a brief overview.

Norwegian English
mennesker most generic term
personer emphasizes the individual
folk emphasizes the collective

Honorifics

Titles such as "Mr", "Mrs" and "Miss" have almost completely gone out of use since the 1960s. We'll list them regardless, as you might see them on airline tickets and they are sometimes used in a joking manner, just as in English a husband may refer to his wife as "the missus".

Norwegian English
Herr (Hr) Mister (Mr)
Fru (Fr) Mrs
Frøken (Frk) Miss

Pupils used to refer to female teacher as "Frøken", but this has also gone out of use.

Herre also means Lord, so in Norway all men are lords. Perhaps it's only fair, with the word kvinne sharing the same root as queen.


All Ladies are Women, But...

Remember how the saying goes in English? Well, in Norwegian it's more like "All ladies are women, and all women are ladies too", because we don't have the same clear distinction between the words en/ei dame and en/ei kvinne.

Yes, en/ei dame can refer to a lady of noble birth or demeanor, but it can just as well be used to refer to women in general. Different dialects tend to prefer one word over the other, and use that almost exclusively.


Love, Just Not Too Strongly

You've already encountered the two verbs å elske and å være glad i, which both can translate to to love in English.

When referring to people, å elske is used sparingly. It's what you say to your significant other, and possibly your children, but it's not something to throw around lightly. Teenage girls tend to use it a little more broadly, but in general you don't want to overdo it.

The phrasal verb å være glad i can mean anything from I'm fond of you to I really, really love you. It can be said to your lover, your family, your friends, your dog, etc. It can carry as much weight as å elske, but it can also be closer to å like, to like, depending on the context.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å elske to love
menneskelig human, humane
hemmelig secret
voksen grown, grown-up, adult
sjenert shy
personlig personal
folk flest most people
en eks an ex
en herre a gentleman, a lord, a master
en dame a lady, a woman
en fiende an enemy, a foe
en person a person
et offer a victim, a sacrifice
et forhold a relationship
en skuespiller an actor, an actress
en/ei befolkning a population
allmennheten (m/f) the (general) public
en prins a prince
en viking a Viking
en konge a king
en tenåring a teenager
en/ei dronning a queen
en/ei prinsesse a princess
en kronprins a crown prince
en ungdom a youth, a young person
et vennskap a friendship
en pensjonist a pensioner

Adverbs 2 7 · 2022-02-04 ^

Adverbs

In Norwegian, adverbs usually follow the verb.

Norwegian English
Du snakker godt norsk! You speak Norwegian well!

One exception is that adverbs of time often appear at the end of the sentence or clause.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.

Another exception is related to the V-2 Rule in Germanic linguistics, which applies to all Germanic languages... besides English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis, but don't get crazy.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.
Jeg har tid. I now have time.
har jeg tid. Now I have time.

The final example is a demonstration of the V-2 Rule. When the adverb moved to the front of the statement, the subject moved to the other side of the verb har. This is because Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å gå an to be possible
å legge an på to hit on, to flirt with
ellers else, otherwise
riktig really, properly, correctly
faktisk actually, in fact
derimot on the other hand
i alle fall at least
rett og slett simply, plain and simple
plutselig suddenly
knapt barely
hittil thus far, so far
tydelig clearly, clear
straks (very) soon, shortly, straight away
stadig constantly, ever more, more and more
videre further, on(ward)
samtidig simultaneously, at the same time
altså therefore, then
særlig especially
likevel still, after all
tidsnok in time
fremover forward, forth
temmelig rather
på forhånd in advance
vekk away, gone
nylig recently
derfor therefore, why
engang even
noensinne ever
forresten by the way
opprinnelig originally

The Office 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å klippe to cut (with scissors)
å sende to send
å kopiere to copy
en penn a pen
et papir a paper
en blyant a pencil
en/ei mappe a folder
et skrivebord a desk
en/ei saks a pair of scissors
en heis an elevator, a lift
et batteri a battery
et nettbrett a tablet
en kopi a copy
en skjerm a screen, a monitor
en skriver a printer
en rapport a report
en kopimaskin a copy machine, a xerox machine, a photocopier
en datamaskin a computer
en teip a tape
plast (m) plastic
en e-post an email
en linjal a ruler
en binders a paperclip
et viskelær an eraser, a rubber
en/ei avdeling a department

The Year 3 · 2020-05-09 ^

A Full Year of Cognates

In the table below, you'll find the twelve months of the year listed. Notice how they all share the same etymology as their English counterparts? That's right, this skill is going to be a breeze!

Just like weekdays, months are not capitalized in Norwegian. Unless they begin a sentence, of course. If you ever need to abbreviate them, just take the first three letters of any month and stick a period at the end.

Keep in mind the RS sound in mars makes it sound like marsh. This RS letter combination creates an SH sound in the Norwegian language.

Norwegian English
januar January
februar February
mars March
april April
mai May
juni June
juli July
august August
september September
oktober October
november November
desember December

For grammatical purposes, all of the months are treated as masculine nouns.


Two Types of Seasons

While English tends to use the same word for both, Norwegian has one word for the four seasons of the year, en/ei årstid, and another one for any other type of season, like the hunting season or the skiing season, en sesong.


Preposition Use

As you already know, we use the preposition when referring to days or times of day.

Norwegian English
på mandag on Monday
på morgenen in the morning

When talking about months and seasons, we switch things up a bit and use the preposition i instead. This is also the preposition of choice when it comes to describing how many times a week/month/year something happens.

Norwegian English
i januar in January, this January
i vinter this winter
i uken a week
i måneden a month
i året a year

If you're talking about something that isn't happening this winter in particular, but just generally happens in the wintertime, you would say om vinteren.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
i år this year
januar January
februar February
en dato a date
en vinter a winter
en måned a month
en kalender a calendar
mars March
april April
mai May
juni June
juli July
en vår a spring
en sommer a summer
august August
september September
oktober October
november November
desember December
en høst an autumn, a fall
en/ei årstid a season, a time of year

Present 4 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Present

The present tense is used to describe things that are happening or are true now:

Jeg leser nå. I am reading now.

The present tense is also used in general statements that are independent of time:

Jorda er rund. The earth is round.

For things that repeat and that are still recurring:

Jeg sover hver natt. I sleep every night.

The present tense can be used to talk about the future as well, especially when it is certain:

Jeg reiser i morgen. I leave tomorrow.

As a rule of thumb, you can use the present tense where you would use either the present (I leave tomorrow.) or present progressive (I am leaving tomorrow.) tenses in English.

You do not have to worry about person or number when dealing with verbs in Norwegian, the verb stays the same. This is even simpler than English where you have to remember to add the -s in the third person singular in the present tense.

Forming the present is extremely easy, just add the suffix -r to the infinitive (the form you'll find in the dictionary).

The table below shows you how to do it:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present English
1 -er å vaske vasker wash(es), am/are/is washing
2 -er å kjøre kjører drive(s), am/are/is driving
3 -r å bo bor live(s), am/are/is living (as in making one's home somewhere)

There are three groups of verbs with different patterns for forming tenses in Norwegian, but in the present case they all behave in the same way as you can see.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
blir becomes
klarer is able, manages
inneholder contains
ber asks
antar assumes, presumes
knuser crushes, breaks, smashes
blander mixes, blends
glemmer forgets
fortsetter continues
slår beats, hits, strikes
håper hopes
behøver needs, requires
gjelder pertains to, is about, is valid
skjærer cuts, carves
forlater leaves, abandons
orker has the energy to/for
slipper doesn't have to, is spared
sender sends
stanser stops, halts
handler is about, acts
forteller tells
tilbringer spends (time)
overrasker surprises
lite little
som that, which
fremfor over
en/et/ei slags a sort of, a kind of

Nature 7 · 2021-06-13 ^

Nature

Norwegians love being out in nature, and who can blame them? Wherever you turn, it's like you're in the middle of a beautiful landscape painting.


Allemannsretten

In Norway, everyone enjoys the right of access to uncultivated land in the countryside. Yes, that privilege extends to you as a tourist as well.

Of course, this means that it's also everyone's responsibility to show consideration to landowners and to respect nature. Littering in the city might earn you some angry glares, but littering in nature might just earn you a spot on someone's hit list. Whenever you leave the great outdoors, it should look as if you were never there.


Playing With Fire

In this skill, you'll learn the general term for fire as a concept and fire as a controlled resource, ild.

Later in the tree, you'll come to know two other terms for fire as well. There's en brann, which is an uncontrolled, destructive fire. Hopefully, you'll never need to, but the fire department's number is 110 in Norway.

You can also call 112 (police) or 113 (medical assistance), and they'll patch you through to the right department. 112 is actually a standard emergency number used throughout the EU states, so you might as well commit it to memory if you're planning to travel in Europe. Most mobile phones will now patch you through if you use 911 as well, so if you blank on the number, just call the one that comes to mind.

The third term for a fire is for bonfires specifically, et bål. Note that you may only make bonfires out in the woods between September 15. and April 15. This is a precaution against forest fires during the drier summer months.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å ødelegge to destroy, to ruin, to break
å stige to rise, to increase
å resirkulere to recycle
å vokse to grow, to increase
naturlig natural
tørr dry
et sted somewhere
en/ei elv a river
et hav an ocean, a sea
en natur a nature
et gress a grass
en/ei plante a plant
en himmel a sky, a heaven
en is an ice
et fjell a mountain
en ild a fire (general/controlled)
en røyk a smoke
en vulkan a volcano
en fjord a fjord
en bølge a wave
et landskap a landscape, a scenery
et tre a (type of) wood
en/ei luft an air
et miljø an environment
en ørken a desert

Verb Endings 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Special Endings


This Verb Looks Familiar...

Many Norwegian verbs that end in -erer in the present tense, such as importerer and produserer, are loan words from Latin. As such, they are especially easy to learn for an English speaker. Be sure to recognize them when you can.


Why Does This Verb End in S?

There are a very special set of verbs and expressions that exclusively end in the letter "s" in Norwegian. Usually, this construction is reserved for the passive form, but not here. These verbs represent very abstract concepts and must be learned individually.

Norwegian English
Jeg synes du er pen. I think you are pretty. (Synes is used exclusively for personal opinions.)
Vi ses! See you!
Du mislykkes. You are failing.
Det føles forferdelig. It feels terrible.

I Would Like...

You already know how to say that you want something using vil+[bare infinitive] and vil ha+[noun]. In this skill, you'll learn a slightly more polite way of expressing desire, using the phrasal verbs å ha lyst til+[infinitive] and å ha lyst på+[noun].


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
fungerer functions, works
passerer passes
reparerer repairs
respekterer respects
presenterer presents
ses see (each other)
føles feels
trives is enjoying X, thrives
synes thinks, is of the opinion
møtes meet (each other)
mislykkes fails
har lyst til would like to, wants to
gifter seg gets married
skynder seg hurries
oppfører seg behaves
forbereder seg prepares
har lyst på would like, wants
er i ferd med is about to, is in the process of
spiser opp eats up
går glipp av misses out on
skriver under signs
kommer an på depends on

Simple Past 8 · 2021-06-13 ^

Simple Past

The simple past is used in a nearly identical way to how it is used in English. The vast majority of verbs in the simple past end in either -te or -et, such as spiste and snakket, which mean ate and spoke, respectively.

Infinitive Present Past English
å spise spiser spiste ate
å snakke snakker snakket spoke

There are several irregular past forms, but, thankfully, these are often similar to the ones that exist in English. You've already encountered the two most common ones, var and hadde, in the Time skill, so you even have a head start!

Infinitive Present Past English
å være er var was
å ha har hadde had
å drikke drikker drakk drank
å finne finner fant found
å ta tar tok took
å le ler lo laughed
å gi gir ga gave

Notice how some of the irregular verb only get a vowel change in the past tense, with no added ending?

Watch out for two verbs in particular, å se and å si, as they are ridiculously easy to confuse in the past tense. Here they are in the present tense, as a review.

Norwegian English
Jeg ser noe. I see something.
Jeg sier noe. I am saying something.

The past tense forms of these verbs are tricky for many reasons. They are each very, very common and they only have a circle above the a to distinguish them! If you imagine this circle to be an eyeball, it will go a long way to remembering that means saw and that sa means said.

Norwegian English
Jeg så noe. I saw something.
Jeg sa noe. I said something.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
ga gave
fikk got, received
spiste ate
kysset kissed
brukte used
trodde thought
saw
tok took
visste knew
elsket loved
snakket spoke, talked
lo laughed
gikk walked, went
ville wanted
lekte played
skrev wrote
kjøpte bought
valgte chose
sov slept
fant found
fylte filled, turned
kjørte drove
takket thanked
gjorde did
et minne a memory

Transport 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å kjøre to drive
å hente to pick up, to fetch
med by
et tog a train
en trikk a tram
en buss a bus
en/ei reise a travel
en t-bane an underground train, a subway, a metro
kollektivtrafikk (m) public transport
en båt a boat
et skip a ship
en/ei ferge a ferry
en avgang a departure
en ankomst an arrival
en holdeplass a stop
et hjul a wheel
en motor a motor, an engine
et kjøretøy a vehicle
en motorsykkel a motorcycle

Numbers 11 · 2020-04-25 ^

Numbers

You already know how to count to ten, but with Norwegian prices being what they are, that's just not going to cut it. Best get to work!


Writing Numbers in Running Text

Since you're here to learn Norwegian, you should always be writing out the numbers rather than just using numerals (fem, not 5). That's the only way you're going to learn to spell and pronounce them.

However, once you feel comfortable with them and are starting to produce your own texts outside of Duolingo, it's good to know the general rules for representing numbers.

In running text, the whole numbers 1-12 are usually written out in letters. For the numbers 13 and up, you're free to use numerals.

Decimal numbers are always expressed using numerals. When numbers are small and whole, but precision is important, for example when taking measurements or writing a recipe, it's also customary to use numerals.


Number Reform

The Norwegian language has seen constant changes over the past century. There have been several language reforms, which we won't go into here, but pertinent to this skill topic is the number reform of 1951.

This reform changed how the numbers between 20 and 100 were said and written, which really is quite impressive if you think of it. While the reform was a moderate success, the old way of counting is still alive and well among the older generation and in certain dialects.

We will go a little more into details about what the reform entailed in the next numbers skill, but the relevant change for this skill is that the number 20 is no longer expressed as tyve in Bokmål, but exclusively as tjue.

Norwegian English
Jeg snakker både norsk og engelsk. I speak both Norwegian and English.
Jeg snakker begge språk. I speak both languages.
Jeg snakker begge to. I speak both.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å telle to count
pluss plus
minus minus
all all
et tall a number
et null a zero
en sum a sum
et stykke a piece, a part
en mengde an amount
et (telefon)nummer a (phone) number
elleve eleven
tolv twelve
tretten thirteen
fjorten fourteen
femten fifteen
seksten sixteen
sytten seventeen
atten eighteen
nitten nineteen
tjue twenty

Relative Pronouns 2 · 2019-04-22 ^

Vocabulary
der where
hva what
som that, who
det (som) what, that (which)

School 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å lære to learn
å forklare to explain
å stave to spell
å gjenta to repeat
å fortjene to deserve
å skrive to write
forklarer explains
skjønner understands, gets
lærte learned
klarte managed, was able to
hysj hush, shh
interessert interested
en elev a pupil, a (young) student
en time a class
en skole a school
en/ei tavle a (black)board
en/ei setning a sentence
en skolegård a schoolyard
et klasserom a classroom
et fag a subject
en sjanger a genre
en/ei lekse homework (plurale tantum)
geografi (m) geography
en/ei prøve a test, an exam
en/ei klasse a class
en/ei ordbok a dictionary

Prediction 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Prediction

One way to talk about the future in Norwegian, is to use kommer til with the infinitve of the verb. Kommer til is a bit hard to translate directly, but the closest equivalent would be going to. Sometimes, it can also be translated as will, but never as shall, as it does not carry that degree of control and certainty.

It is often used when making predictions about what is probably going to happen. In other words, often about things that you can't control.

Jeg tror at det kommer til å regne i morgen.
I think it is going to rain tomorrow.

Hun kommer nok ikke til å like gaven. She is probably not going to like the gift.


Vocabulary
å savne to miss
å glemme to forget
å ordne seg to work (itself) out , to be okay
å trenge to need, to require
å komme til å to be going to

Hope 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
å leve to live, to be alive
å forbedre to improve
å be to pray
håpte hoped
ventet waited
å glede seg to look forward to
å forandre to change, to alter
å skulle ønske to wish
håpefull hopeful, promising
et ønske a wish
en sjanse a chance
en/ei løsning a solution
en begynnelse a beginning, a start
en/ei due a dove, a pigeon
en/ei tro a faith, a belief
en/ei frihet a freedom
et håp a hope
en gud a god
en engel an angel
en tvil a doubt
en fred a peace
en illusjon an illusion

Compare 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Traits & Comparisons

In this skill, you'll be getting a taste of how comparisons are formed in Norwegian.

Comparisons, in the grammatical sense, are adjectives that express a relationship between two nouns. Some of them are irregular, just like in English. Luckily, irregular comparisons in Norwegian are mostly cognates with English ones.

For example:

god bedre best
good better best

Just like in English, there are two ways to form comparisons in Norwegian:

A special ending is added to the adjective.

kald kaldere kaldest
cold colder coldest

The word "more" or "most" is added, particularly for longer adjectives.

religiøs mer religiøs mest religiøs
religious more religious most religious

Be careful, though, since sometimes one language has a special ending where the other language does not.

viktig viktigere viktigst
important more important most important

Keep in mind that all these comparison adjectives still behave like adjectives. This means they'll usually take an -e ending in the definite or plural forms.

  • Boka er viktig.
  • Denne boka er viktigere.
  • Den boka er viktigst.
  • Det er den viktigste boka.

Vocabulary
å ligne to resemble
å kalle to call
kul cool
lat lazy
rolig calm
stygg ugly
typisk typical
tålmodig patient
lav short, low
høy tall, high
dum dumb, stupid
smart smart, clever, bright
utrolig incredible
ekte real, genuine, true
bedre better
snillere kinder, nicer
best best
en egenskap a trait, a characteristic
en/ei personlighet a personality

Simple Past 2 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Simple Past

The simple past is used in a nearly identical way to how it is used in English. The vast majority of verbs in the simple past end in either -te or -et, such as spiste and snakket, which mean ate and spoke, respectively.

Although there is no conjugation in the simple past, or anywhere in Norwegian, there are several irregular past forms, but they are similar to the ones that exist in English.

Norwegian English
var was, were
hadde had
drakk drank

Watch out for two verbs in particular, å se and å si, as they are ridiculously easy to confuse in the past tense. Here they are in the present tense, as a review.

Norwegian English
Jeg ser noe. I see something.
Jeg sier noe. I am saying something.

The past tense forms of these verbs are tricky for many reasons. They are each very, very common and they only have a circle above the a to distinguish them! If you imagine this circle to be an eyeball, it will go a long way to remembering that means saw and that sa means said.

Norwegian English
Jeg så noe. I saw something.
Jeg sa noe. I said something.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
het was named
døde died
mistet lost, dropped
tenkte thought
bodde lived, resided
betydde meant, signified
så på watched
holdt held
virket seemed
kjente knew
solgte sold
trengte needed
forklarte explained
lette looked, searched
stolte trusted
støttet supported
betalte paid
inneholdt contained, held
oppførte seg behaved
kunne could
stengte closed, shut
beholdt kept
åpnet opened
prøvde tried, attempted, tested
dukket opp turned up, appeared
then
i tide in time
i fjor last year

Order 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Ordinal Numbers

With one notable exception, all adjectival ordinal numbers have the same spelling regardless of gender or number. All but one of them have an -e ending.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en første stol a first chair
den første stolen the first chair
Feminine ei første bok a first book
den første boka the first book
Neuter et første bord a first table
det første bordet the first table
Plural første hus first houses
de første husene the first houses

The one exception is annen, which we introduced in the Determiners chapter as meaning second or other. Watch how it operates below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en annen stol a second chair
den andre stolen the second chair
Feminine ei anna bok a second book
den andre boka the second book
Neuter et annet bord a second table
det andre bordet the second table
Plural andre hus second houses
de andre husene the second houses

Keep in mind that annet is pronounced like the British or Boston pronunciation of the word aunt. It can also mean else, as in noe annet or something else.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
andre (the) second
tredje (the) third
fjerde (the) fourth
femte (the) fifth
sjette (the) sixth
sjuende (the) seventh
åttende (the) eight
niende (the) ninth
tiende (the) tenth
ellevte (the) eleventh
tolvte (the) twelfth
trettende (the) thirteenth
fjortende (the) fourteenth
femtende (the) fifteenth
sekstende (the) sixteenth
syttende (the) seventeenth
attende (the) eighteenth
nittende (the) nineteenth
tjuende (the) twentieth
forrige (the) previous, (the) last
et århundre a century
en rekkefølge an order

The Nordic Countries 3 · 2021-09-03 ^

The Nordic Countries

The Nordic Countries, Norden, are Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, as well as their associated territories, Greenland, the Faroe Islands and the Åland Islands. These countries share both cultural and linguistic heritage, and their inhabitants generally get along well.

Sure, there's plenty of teasing, svenskevitser, and sibling rivalry going around, but we don't call the Swedes söta bror (sweet brother) for nothing.


Scandinavia

There may be some confusion regarding the term Scandinavia in English, but in Norwegian Skandinavia refers unequivocally to the countries Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. No, this is not up for discussion.

These three nations have a long history of unions and messy breakups, but we seem to be in a good phase currently.


Capitalization

While the names of countries and regions are considered proper nouns and capitalized accordingly, the same does not hold true for the corresponding languages, adjectives, and demonyms.

Country/Region Language Adjective Demonym
Danmark dansk dansk en danske
Island islandsk islandsk en islending
Finland finsk finsk en finne
Norden - nordisk en nordboer
Norge norsk norsk en nordmann
Skandinavia - skandinavisk en skandinav

Vocabulary
dansk Danish
svensk Swedish
skandinavisk Scandinavian
finsk Finnish
nordisk Nordic
Sverige Sweden
Danmark Denmark
Skandinavia Scandinavia
Island Iceland
Finland Finland
snø (m) snow
en rein a reindeer
en/ei lue a beanie, a winter hat, a toque
en vott a mitten
et troll a troll
en/ei stavkirke a stave church
en brunost a brown cheese, a brunost
en ostehøvel a cheese slicer

The Pharmacy 3 · 2021-03-18 ^

Vocabulary
å kaste opp to throw up, to vomit
å blø to bleed
å være forkjølet to have a cold
å ha vondt to be in pain
å klø to itch, to scratch
å hoste to cough
syk sick, ill, unwell
vond painful
frisk healthy, well, fresh
smittsom contagious
en feber a fever
et apotek a pharmacy
et alternativ an alternative
et sår a wound, a sore
et plaster a band-aid, a (sticking) plaster
et vitamin a vitamin
et symptom a symptom
en hoste a cough
en resept a prescription
en eksem an eczema
et legemiddel a medication
en fuktighetskrem a moisturizer

Shapes 5 · 2020-03-23 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
flat flat
rund round
en/ei linje a line
en form a form, a shape
en sirkel a circle
en vinkel an angle
et kvadrat a square
en/ei kurve a curve
et hjørne a corner
en/ei innside an inside
en trekant a triangle
en dimensjon a dimension
et midtpunkt a midpoint, a center
en kant an edge
en bunn a bottom
en topp a top
en meter a meter
en/ei høyde a height
en/ei lengde a length

Travel 4 · 2021-09-03 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å besøke to visit
å fly to fly
viste showed, displayed
bort away
øst east
vest west
sør south
nord north
utenlands abroad
internasjonal international
fremmed foreign, alien, strange
en/ei reise a trip, a travel
en region a region
en koffert a suitcase
en/ei verden a world
en ryggsekk a backpack, a rucksack
et kontinent a continent
en/ei gjestfrihet a hospitality
utland (n) abroad
en/ei retning a direction
en aksent an accent
en kontakt a contact

Small Talk 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
dro left, went
likte liked
møtte met
spurte asked
svarte responded
presenterte presented, introduced
ba asked
antok assumed
ringte called
sa said
traff met, hit
hørte heard
forsto understood
skjedde happened, occurred, took place
da then
i sted earlier, a little while ago
etterpå afterwards
nettopp just, just now, exactly
i går yesterday
i morges this morning
sist last, last time
deretter thereafter, afterwards
en samtale a conversation
et problem a problem
et vær a weather
et rykte a rumor
et tema a topic, a subject, a theme

Europe 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

The words for most countries and nationalities are very similar to their English equivalents, with a few notable exceptions, as shown below.

Norwegian Etymology English
Tyskland Deutschland Germany
Østerrike Österreich Austria
Frankrike Frankarîki France
Hellas Ελλάς Greece

In addition, several more countries' names end in -ia in Norwegian than they do in English.

Norwegian English
Tyrkia Turkey
Spania Spain
Italia Italy
Storbritannia the UK, Great Britain

Nationalities are not that straightforward, but a base of the country name are usually found in the nationality, with the exception of "a Greek, from Greece", en greker, fra Hellas.

If the nationality adjective ends in -sk one special rule applies, it will not become -skt for neuter nouns.

En norsk mann, ei norsk dame, et norsk barn, flere norske personer.


Vocabulary
tysk German
europeisk European
britisk British
engelsk English
Europa Europe
Sveits Switzerland
Tyskland Germany
Nederland the Netherlands
Polen Poland
Russland Russia
Østerrike Austria
Storbritannia the UK, Great Britain
Italia Italia
Hellas Greece
Spania Spain
Portugal Portugal
en kultur a culture
en/ei pølse a sausage
en union a union
en oliven an olive
en skikk a custom

Abstract Objects 8 · 2021-06-13 ^

Abstract Nouns

One can often recognize an abstract noun through one of several endings. Below is a sampling of them.

Ending Grammar Notes Example
-ing usually feminine regjering government
-het usually feminine kjærlighet love
-sjon usually masculine versjon version
-else usually masculine beskrivelse description
-tet usually masculine aktivitet activity
-skap usually neuter vennskap friendship

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
en sort a sort, a kind, a variety
en/ei liste a list
en måte a way, a manner
et signal a signal
en grunn a reason
en beskrivelse a description
en type a type
en regel a rule
et tilfelle a case, an occurrence
en versjon a version
et innhold a content
en kategori a category
en del a piece, a part
et sett a set
et råd a piece of advice
et resultat a result, an outcome
en forskjell a difference
en/ei blanding a blend, a mix, a mixture
et utgangspunkt a point of origin, a beginning
et lys a light
en slutt an end
en utsikt a view
et mørke a darkness, a dark
en stemme a voice

Education 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å jukse to cheat
å misforstå to misunderstand
å oversette to translate
å påstå to claim, to allege, to say
å undervise to teach, to instruct
(til) tross (for) in spite of, despite
ifølge according to
et kurs a course, a class
et notat a note
et essay an essay
en studie a study
en diskusjon a discussion
en/ei forklaring an explanation
et eksempel an example
en idé an idea
en karakter a grade, a mark
en vanske a difficulty
en/ei oppgave an exercise, a task
en kalkulator a calculator
et mål a goal, a target
en professor a (full) professor
et universitet a university
en/ei forelesning a lecture
en presentasjon a presentation
en/ei side a page
kunnskap (m) knowledge
et dokument a document
en romkamerat a roommate

Simple Past 3 4 · 2021-09-03 ^

Simple Past

The simple past is used in a nearly identical way to how it is used in English. The vast majority of verbs in the simple past end in either -te or -et, such as spiste and snakket, which mean ate and spoke, respectively.

Although there is no conjugation in the simple past, or anywhere in Norwegian, there are several irregular past forms, but they are similar to the ones that exist in English.

Norwegian English
var was, were
hadde had
drakk drank

Watch out for two verbs in particular, å se and å si, as they are ridiculously easy to confuse in the past tense. Here they are in the present tense, as a review.

Norwegian English
Jeg ser noe. I see something.
Jeg sier noe. I am saying something.

The past tense forms of these verbs are tricky for many reasons. They are each very, very common and they only have a circle above the a to distinguish them! If you imagine this circle to be an eyeball, it will go a long way to remembering that means saw and that sa means said.

Norwegian English
Jeg så noe. I saw something.
Jeg sa noe. I said something.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lay (intransitive)
sto stood
satt sat (intransitive)
laget made
hang hung (intransitive)
husket remembered
begynte begun, started
la laid (transitive)
satte sat, placed, put (transitive)
hjalp helped
levde lived
glemte forgot
hengte hung (transitive)
bestemte decided
ble became
fløy flew
leide rented
føltes felt
tørket dried
sluttet stopped, quit, ceased
forsøkte tried
lot let, allowed, permitted
falt fell
rakk was enough
fulgte followed
pleide used to
fantes was, existed
spilte played
havnet ended up

Reactions 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
å motstå to resist
å reagere to react
å skremme to scare
å fornærme to insult
å bry to care, to bother
å tilgi to forgive
å gråte to cry
å krangle to argue, to fight
å kaste to throw
å angre to regret
å hate to hate
å bryte to break
å nøle to hesitate
å riste to shake
au ouch, ow
for what, such
fryktelig terribly, awfully
nervøs nervous
lei tired
fornøyd content, pleased
vellykket successful
sur sour, grumpy
merkelig peculiar
forståelig understandable
en/ei sorg a sorrow
en frykt a fear
en tåre a tear
en/ei glede a joy, a happiness
et smil a smile
en/ei forventning an expectation
gråt (m) crying
en latter a laughter
en effekt an effect
en/ei endring a change, an alteration
en reaksjon a reaction

Numbers 2 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Ordinal Numbers

With one notable exception, all adjectival ordinal numbers have the same spelling regardless of gender or number. All but one of them have an -e ending.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en første stol a first chair
den første stolen the first chair
Feminine ei første bok a first book
den første boka the first book
Neuter et første bord a first table
det første bordet the first table
Plural første hus first houses
de første husene the first houses

The one exception is annen, which we introduced in the Determiners chapter as meaning second or other. Watch how it operates below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en annen stol a second chair
den andre stolen the second chair
Feminine ei anna bok a second book
den andre boka the second book
Neuter et annet bord a second table
det andre bordet the second table
Plural andre hus second houses
de andre husene the second houses

Keep in mind that annet is pronounced like the British or Boston pronunciation of the word aunt. It can also mean else, as in noe annet or something else.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
andre (the) second
tredje (the) third
fjerde (the) fourth
femte (the) fifth
sjette (the) sixth
sjuende (the) seventh
åttende (the) eight
niende (the) ninth
tiende (the) tenth
ellevte (the) eleventh
tolvte (the) twelfth
trettende (the) thirteenth
fjortende (the) fourteenth
femtende (the) fifteenth
sekstende (the) sixteenth
syttende (the) seventeenth
attende (the) eighteenth
nittende (the) nineteenth
tjuende (the) twentieth
forrige (the) previous, (the) last
et århundre a century
en rekkefølge an order

Computers 5 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å installere to install
å oppdatere to update
å lukke to close
å slette to delete
å klikke to click
å slå på to turn on, to switch on
å lagre to save
å slå av to turn off, to switch off
å trykke to press, to push
tilgjengelig accessible, available
en/ei fil a file
en bruker a user
en/ei utgave a version, an edition
et tastatur a keyboard
et program a program
en konto an account
et uhell an accident
en/ei innstilling a setting
hodetelefoner (m) headphones
programmering (m/f) programming

The News 4 · 2020-06-17 ^

Vocabulary
leste read
reddet saved, rescued
å spre (seg) to spread
å påvirke to influence, to impact, to affect
kritisk critical
hovedsakelig mainly
en krig a war
en/ei nyhet a piece of news
en debatt a debate
en politiker a politician
en konflikt a conflict
en president a president
en/ei krise a crisis
en/ei sak a case, a matter
en/ei kilde a source
en/ei mening an opinion
en journalist a journalist
en informasjon a piece of information
et klima a climate
en artikkel an article
en kanal a channel
en/ei presse a press
en situasjon a situation

Nightlife 5 · 2020-06-17 ^

The Other Feminine Ending

By now, you're well aware that Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and also that grammatical gender is unrelated to biological gender.

However, certain nouns, the majority of which are professions, do have an optional feminine ending which takes its cue from biological gender.

We teach very few of the feminine versions in the course, as they're quickly disappearing from contemporary Norwegian in favor of their neutral (previously masculine) counterparts. In this skill, you will learn one that is still common, *en/ei venninne, the word for a female friend - a girl friend, just not in the romantic sense.

The "-inne" ending present in "venninne" is one you will recognize in other word pairs with the option to differentiate based on biological gender, a few of which have been listed below. The split is still observed for titles of nobility, but becoming obsolete for profession titles.

Neutral/Male Female English
bestyrer bestyrerinne manager
beundrer beundrerinne admirer
gud gudinne* god/godess
greve grevinne** count/countess
hertug hertuginne** duke/duchess
keiser keiserinne** emperor/empress
maler malerinne painter
sanger sangerinne singer/songstress
skuespiller skuespillerinne actor/actress

*still common
**still observed

The ending persists through all declensions of the noun:

Indef. Sing. Def. Sing. Indef. Plur. Def. Plur.
en venninne venninnen venninner venninnene
ei venninne venninna venninner venninnene

Vocabulary
drakk drank
smilte smiled
sang sang
danset danced
å flørte to flirt
full drunk
bakfull hung over
en kø a queue, a line
en bar a bar
alkohol (m) alcohol
en fyr a guy, a fellow
en klubb a club
en drink a drink
en taxi a taxi, a cab
en konsert a concert
en/ei venninne a girlfriend, a female friend
en hamburger a hamburger
en bartender a bartender

Verbs 1 · 2019-05-16 ^

Vocabulary
å eie to own
å låne to borrow
å følge to accompany
å bytte to change, to exchange, to swap
å starte to start, to begin
å passe to fit, to suit
å vekke to wake up
å forstå to understand
å rulle to roll
å gjette to guess
å bygge to build
å kunne to be able, to know
å stoppe to stop, to quit, to cease, to halt
å få til to make (something happen)
å kjenne igjen to recognize
å bære to carry
å legge to lay
å tvinge to force
å forlate to abandon, to leave
å advare to warn
å stjele to steal
å utsette to postpone
å tømme to empty
å dytte to push
å forbli to remain, to stay
å spille to play
å stå på spill to be at stake
å oppleve to experience
å gjemme to hide
å anbefale to recommend
å være nødt til to have to, to need to, to be required to

Comparison 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Comparison

Comparisons, in the grammatical sense, are adjectives that express a relationship between two nouns. Some of them are irregular, just like in English. Luckily, irregular comparisons in Norwegian are mostly cognates with English ones.

For example:

god bedre best
good better best

Just like in English, there are two ways to form comparisons in Norwegian:

A special ending is added to the adjective.

kald kaldere kaldest
cold colder coldest

The word "more" or "most" is added, particularly for longer adjectives.

religiøs mer religiøs mest religiøs
religious more religious most religious

Be careful, though, since sometimes one language has a special ending where the other language does not.

viktig viktigere viktigst
important more important most important

Keep in mind that all these comparison adjectives still behave like adjectives. This means they'll usually take an -e ending in the definite or plural forms.

  • Boka er viktig.
  • Denne boka er viktigere.
  • Den boka er viktigst.
  • Det er den viktigste boka.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lignet resembled, was alike
mer more
enda even
jo ... jo ... the [comparative] the [comparative]
like alike, similar
yngre younger
større bigger
lettere lighter
varmere warmer
færre fewer
nyere newer
lengre longer
mindre smaller
kaldere colder
verre worse
eldre older, elder
penere prettier
tidligere earlier, previously
-ere comparative suffix

Verbs: Present Perfect 3 · 2019-08-06 ^

Present Perfect

Present perfect is used to talk about the past when the time is uncertain.

  • Jeg har bodd i Oslo.
  • I have lived in Oslo.

It is also used to talk about actions or states that started in the past, that have not completed and that stretch into the present and/or the future.

  • Jeg har bodd her i tre år.
  • I have lived here for three years.

Finally, it is used when talking about the future when one action ends before another begins.

  • Når jeg har spist, skal jeg ringe deg.
  • When I have eaten, I will call you.

What we have to do to express present perfect in Norwegian, is to create a form of the verb, called the past participle. Then we combine this with the present form of ha, which is har.

  • Du har vasket hendene. (You have washed your hands.)
  • De har kjørt bil. (They have driven a car.)
  • Hun har levd lenge. (She has lived a long time.)
  • Jeg har solgt henne en avis. (I have sold her a newspaper.)
  • Jeg har bodd i et hus i Oslo. (I have lived in a house in Oslo.)

This probably looks complicated, and to be perfectly honest, it is. There are three different basic ways to construct present perfect in Norwegian, and they look like this:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present Perfect English Translation
1 -et/-a å vaske har vasket/vaska have washed
2 -t å kjøre har kjørt have driven
-d å leve har levd have lived (as in being alive)
3 -dd å bo har bodd have lived (as in making one's home somewhere

Group 1

This group is easy which is good since most of the verbs in Norwegian belong to it. The past participle is the same as the simple past.

We use the suffix -et in this course, since it is the most common form in writing and there are a few cases where it is also the only allowed form. In speech, the suffix -a is common and in some dialects the only one used.

Group 2

This is the other big group. The past participle is formed by adding a -t. If the stem ends in v, g or a diphthong (ai, au, ei, oi, øy) we use a -d.

Group 3

In this group we find single syllable words such as tro, , , bry og spå. They get the ending -dd or -tt such as ha.

Keep in mind when forming the present perfect that there are no built-in progressive forms in Norwegian. The present perfect covers both the progressive and non-progressive meanings of the verb.

Norwegian Eng. Non-Progressive Eng. Progressive
Jeg har lest boken. I have read the book. I have been reading the book.
Han har spist for mye. He has eaten too much. He has been eating too much.

All the difficulties aside, good luck learning the Norwegian present perfect skill!


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
har have
tatt taken
fått received
hatt had
blitt become
hørt heard
gitt given
lest read
sett seen
ringt called, phoned, ringed
spist eaten
dratt gone, left
bodd lived, resided
gått walked, gone
sagt said
vært been
gjort gone
sendt sent
begynt begun, started
skrevet written
satt set, put, placed
spurt asked
ligget lain
mistet lost, dropped
stengt closed, shut
snakket talked, spoken
kommet come

Passive Voice 5 · 2019-08-29 ^

The Passive Voice

There are two ways to form the passive voice in Norwegian:

You can form the passive with the verb bli, which usually means to become. You combine the conjugated verb with the past participle, just like in English. This is the more usual, less formal way of forming the passive, and the most likely to be spoken.

Norwegian English
Eplet blir spist. The apple is eaten.

The other way to form the passive is with an -s ending on a verb. This method is more abstract, more formal, and more likely to appear in written texts.

Norwegian English
Eplet spises. The apple is eaten.

Either passive form can be combined with future constructions (and the bli-form with past constructions) to change the tense of the passive verb.

Norwegian English
Eplet ble spist. The apple was eaten.
Eplet skal bli spist. The apple will be eaten.
Eplet skal spises. The apple will be eaten.

Vocabulary
å bli to be
å flyttes to be moved
å velges to be chosen
å brukes to be used
å stoppes to be stopped
å repareres to be repaired
å ses to be seen
å leses to be read
å kalles to be called
å bygges to be built
-s passive suffix
av by
ranet robbed
tegnet drawn
påkjørt run over, hit (by a vehicle)
stoppet stopped
skadet hurt, harmed, injured
fjernet removed
mottatt received
erstattet replaced
behandlet treated

Adjectives 2 7 · 2019-08-29 ^

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives change for gender, number, indefinite and definite forms. Let's take a look at adjectives joined to nouns by the phrase to be, starting with the adjective stor, which means big or great.


The Indefinite Form

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine En stol er stor. A chair is big.
Feminine Ei bok er stor. A book is big.

So far, so good. There is no change to the adjective in either masculine or feminine form.

Gender Norwegian English
Neuter Et bord er stort. A table is big.
Plural Hus er store. Houses are big.

As you can see above, the neuter noun changes the spelling of stor to include a -t ending, and the plural noun changes stor to include an -e ending. This pattern applies to most adjectives in the indefinite form, as shown below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en stor stol a big chair
Feminine ei stor bok a big book
Neuter et stort bord a big table
Plural store hus big houses

Many adjectives ending in -ig or -sk, like viktig and norsk, do not sound pleasant with a -t ending. This is why we do not add a -t to these specific adjectives in the neuter form.

Norwegian English
et viktig brev an important letter
et norsk hus a Norwegian house

We do still add the -e ending in the plural form, however!

Norwegian English
viktige brev important letters
norske hus Norwegian houses

The Definite Form

The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same.

Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e.

In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen the big chair
Feminine den store boka the big book
Neuter det store bordet the big table
Plural de store husene the big houses

Missing Endings in Old and Famous Names

As students of Danish may be aware, the postfixes after the nouns above are absent in Danish, and as a legacy of Danish colonialism, some Norwegian phrases lack the noun endings shown in the table above. These words are generally famous titles or institutions, such as The White House or The French Academy. See how they operate below.

Norwegian English
Det franske akademi The French Academy
Det hvite hus The White House

Note that det hvite huset can also mean the white house, just not the one the US President lives inside.


Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
lur clever
sann true
kjent famous, (well-)known
klar clear
forsiktig careful
død dead
stille silent
gyldig valid
ordentlig proper
sjelden rare, uncommon
nødvendig necessary
gal crazy
flink good (at something)
mett full, satiated
skarp sharp
rotete messy, untidy
populær popular
våt wet
myk soft
vant used (to something)
tørst thirsty
ryddig tidy
favoritt favorite
u- assorted negative adjectives

The World 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Nations & Nationalities

The words for most countries and nationalities are very similar to their English equivalents, with a few notable exceptions, as shown below.

Norwegian Etymology English
Tyskland Deutschland Germany
Østerrike Österreich Austria
Frankrike Frankarîki France
Hellas Ελλάς Greece

In addition, several more countries' names end in -ia in Norwegian than they do in English.

Norwegian English
Tyrkia Turkey
Spania Spain
Italia Italy
Storbritannia Great Britain

Nationalities are not that straightforward, but a base of the country name are usually found in the nationality, with the exception of "a Greek, from Greece", en greker, fra Hellas.

If the nationality adjective ends in -sk one special rule applies, it will not become -skt for neuter nouns.

En norsk mann, ei norsk dame, et norsk barn, flere norske personer.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
forent united
Tyrkia Turkey
Israel Israel
Egypt Egypt
Palestina Palestine
Sør-Afrika South Africa
Saudi-Arabia Saudi Arabia
Asia Asia
Iran Iran
Kina China
India India
Japan Japan
Korea Korea
Brasil Brazil
Canada Canada
Mexico Mexico
Amerika America, USA
[city names] A selection of capital cities
en stat a state
mais (m) corn, maize
en pyramide a pyramid
en vårrull a spring roll
et krydder a spice, a seasoning

Employment 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å søke to apply
å tjene to earn, to serve
å forfremme to promote
jobbet worked
midlertidig temporary
arbeidsledig unemployed
komplisert complicated
et byrå a bureau
en vikar a temporary worker
en referanse a reference
en/et CV a CV, a résumé
en evne an ability
en søker an applicant
en attest a letter of recommendation
et forslag a suggestion
en søknad an application
et intervju an interview
en ordre an order, a command
en pause a pause, a break
en/ei stilling a position

Contrast 3 · 2021-09-03 ^

Comparison

Comparisons, in the grammatical sense, are adjectives that express a relationship between two nouns. Some of them are irregular, just like in English. Luckily, irregular comparisons in Norwegian are mostly cognates with English ones.

For example:

god bedre best
good better best

Just like in English, there are two ways to form comparisons in Norwegian:

A special ending is added to the adjective.

kald kaldere kaldest
cold colder coldest

The word "more" or "most" is added, particularly for longer adjectives.

religiøs mer religiøs mest religiøs
religious more religious most religious

Be careful, though, since sometimes one language has a special ending where the other language does not.

viktig viktigere viktigst
important more important most important

Keep in mind that all these comparison adjectives still behave like adjectives. This means they'll usually take an -e ending in the definite or plural forms.

  • Boka er viktig.
  • Denne boka er viktigere.
  • Den boka er viktigst.
  • Det er den viktigste boka.

Vocabulary
å sammenligne to compare
aller (the) very (superlative adjective)
nest (the) second (superlative adjective)
forholdsvis relatively
ulik unlike, different
størst biggest, largest
færrest fewest
varmest warmest, hottest
-est -est, most (superlative suffix)
flest most (countable nouns)
minst least
penest prettiest
kaldest coldest
eldst oldest, eldest
yngst youngest
fremst foremost, in the front
annerledes different
en/ei sammenligning a comparison

Present Perfect 2 4 · 2020-03-25 ^

Present Perfect

Present perfect is used to talk about the past when the time is uncertain.

  • Jeg har bodd i Oslo.
  • I have lived in Oslo.

It is also used to talk about actions or states that started in the past, that have not completed and that stretch into the present and/or the future.

  • Jeg har bodd her i tre år.
  • I have lived here for three years.

Finally, it is used when talking about the future when one action ends before another begins.

  • Når jeg har spist, skal jeg ringe deg.
  • When I have eaten, I will call you.

What we have to do to express present perfect in Norwegian, is to create a form of the verb, called the past participle. Then we combine this with the present form of ha, which is har.

  • Du har vasket hendene. (You have washed your hands.)
  • De har kjørt bil. (They have driven a car.)
  • Hun har levd lenge. (She has lived a long time.)
  • Jeg har solgt henne en avis. (I have sold her a newspaper.)
  • Jeg har bodd i et hus i Oslo. (I have lived in a house in Oslo.)

This probably looks complicated, and to be perfectly honest, it is. There are three different basic ways to construct present perfect in Norwegian, and they look like this:

Group Suffix Infinitive Present Perfect English Translation
1 -et/-a å vaske har vasket/vaska have washed
2 -t å kjøre har kjørt have driven
-d å leve har levd have lived (as in being alive)
3 -dd å bo har bodd have lived (as in making one's home somewhere

Group 1

This group is easy which is good since most of the verbs in Norwegian belong to it. The past participle is the same as the simple past.

We use the suffix -et in this course, since it is the most common form in writing and there are a few cases where it is also the only allowed form. In speech, the suffix -a is common and in some dialects the only one used.

Group 2

This is the other big group. The past participle is formed by adding a -t. If the stem ends in v, g or a diphthong (ai, au, ei, oi, øy) we use a -d.

Group 3

In this group we find single syllable words such as tro, , , bry og spå. They get the ending -dd or -tt such as ha.

Keep in mind when forming the present perfect that there are no built-in progressive forms in Norwegian. The present perfect covers both the progressive and non-progressive meanings of the verb.

Norwegian Eng. Non-Progressive Eng. Progressive
Jeg har lest boken. I have read the book. I have been reading the book.
Han har spist for mye. He has eaten too much. He has been eating too much.

All the difficulties aside, good luck learning the Norwegian present perfect skill!


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
sittet sat
laget made
tenkt thought
smakt tasted
truffet met, hit
forsøkt tried, attempted
lagt laid
stått stood
fulgt followed
kjøpt bought
betalt paid
forlatt left, abandoned
valgt chosen
villet wanted
hengt hung, hanged
fortalt told, said
hoppet jumped
tvunget forced
solgt sold
tillatt permitted, allowed
åpnet opened
bestilt ordered
skjedd happened, occurred
stanset stopped, halted
presentert presented
stilt put, set, placed, asked
kjent known
burde should
antatt assumed, presumed
sluttet quit, stopped, ceased
vasket washed, cleaned
drukket drunk

The Garden 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å vanne to water
å plante to plant
å plukke to pick
å så to sow
moden ripe
en/ei bie a bee
et bær a berry
en/ei rose a rose
en kompost a compost
et blomsterbed a flowerbed
et frø a seed
en port a gate
en busk a bush
en spade a shovel
en gartner a gardener
et bringebær a raspberry
en/ei urt an herb
en bukett a bouquet
et drivhus a greenhouse
en basilikum a basil
en sommerfugl a butterfly

Presence 1 · 2019-03-12 ^

Adjectives of Presence

The adjective ending -full is used to indicate the presence of a quality or thing. It's a component of words like smakfull, tasty, håpefull, hopeful, and verdifull, valuable.

It has a direct equivalent in the English -ful, but as you can see from the examples above, it doesn't always translate that way.

Vocabulary
betydningsfull meaningful
hatefull hateful
smakfull tasty
verdifull valuable
håpefull hopeful
talentfull talented
smertefull painful

Industry 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Oljeeventyret

Oljeeventyret, literally the petroleum fairy tale, is a word used to describe how we struck oil and the fairy-tale-like effect it had on what was then a country still rebuilding its economy after wartime. 1969, the year when the first oil well was found in Norwegian territory, is but a generation ago.


Important Industries

While it's been in decline for a few years already, the oil and gas industry is still Norway's most lucrative industry by far. Another important industry is the fishing industry, closely followed by the metal industry. All told, a little over 230,000 people work in the industry sector. Not a huge number, at less than 10% of the country's total workforce, but the value created is substantial.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
bygger build
produserer produce
arbeidet worked
å øke to increase
å utvikle to develop
elektrisk electric, electrical
automatisk automatic
fornybar renewable
et metall a metal
en fabrikk a factory, a plant
en ressurs a resource
en industri an industry
en arbeider a worker
en energi an energy
et produkt a product
et kraftverk a power plant
en leverandør a supplier
en fase a phase
et system a system
en prosess a process

Thought 5 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å illustrere to illustrate
å lyve to lie
å foreslå to suggest
å oppfinne to invent
å ombestemme seg to change one's mind
å tåle to tolerate, to bear, to put up with
å late som to pretend
å våkne to wake up
utenkelig unthinkable
omtenksom considerate
mystisk mysterious, mystical
uvitende ignorant
en tanke a thought
et minne a memory
en/ei mening a meaning
en verdi a value
en årsak a reason
en/ei mulighet an opportunity
en forståelse an understanding
et formål a purpose
en/ei enighet an agreement
et samhold a unity, a togetherness, a camaraderie
en fremgang a step forward, a success
en/ei beslutning a decision
et emne a topic, a subject
en hjerne a brain
en opplysning a piece of information

Theater 2 · 2019-09-04 ^

Vocabulary
kreativ creative
dramatisk dramatic
latterlig ridiculous
morsom funny
en scene a stage, a scene
et teater a theater
en tragedie a tragedy
et skuespill a play
en dramatiker a dramatist, a playwright
underholdning (m/f) entertainment
oppmerksomhet (m/f) attention
en kino a cinema, a movie theater
en/ei rolle a role
et drama a drama
en regissør a director
en vits a joke
en humor a humor
en komiker a comedian, a comedienne
en komedie a comedy

The Museum 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
å samle to collect
å høre til to belong
historisk historic, historical
original original
klassisk classical, classic
middelalderen the Middle Ages
vikingtiden the Viking Age
en samling a collection
et museum a museum
en gjenstand an object
en opprinnelse an origin, a source
en vakt a guard
en statue a statue
et galleri a gallery
et maleri a painting
en/ei utstilling an exhibition
et kunstverk an artwork, a work of art
en arkeolog an archaeologist
en original an original
et armbånd a bracelet
en vase a vase

Amounts 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Amounts

Since the words relating to numbers and amounts are often confused, we've compiled a small list for you:

tall = the generic word for (cardinal) numbers
siffer = digit, not the kind you have on your hands
antall = number of something; quantity of countable noun
mengde = an amount of something; a quantity of an uncountable noun,
nummer = used for a number in an order, and for identification numbers, phone numbers, etc.
ordenstall = ordinal number with ordinal ending

Context Examples

Hva er yndlingstallet ditt?
What is your favorite number?

Tallet hadde fem siffer.
The number had five digits.
It was a five-digit number.

Et firesifret tall
A four-digit number

Et stort antall studenter
A large number of students

Antallet må økes.
The number must be increased.

Nedbørsmengden er stabil.
The amount of precipitation is stable.

Han er nummer fire.
He is number four.

Husnummeret vårt er 86.
Our house number is 86.

Vi trenger ditt fødselsnummer.
We need your social security number.

Hun kom på fjerdeplass.
She came in fourth place.

"Fjerde" er et ordenstall.
"Fourth" is an ordinal number.


Large Numbers

There are a couple of things to pay attention to when expressing large numbers. Firstly, when translating "five million" or "eight billion" to Norwegian, you need to use the plural: fem millioner and åtte milliarder respectively.

Another thing to note, is that a comma is used to separate decimals in Norwegian, 5.2 becomes 5,2. So, if you're looking to make large numerals more easily readable, you need to use spacing for that instead.

Norwegian 10^X Numeral
million 10^6 1 000 000
milliard 10^9 1 000 000 000
billion 10^12 1 000 000 000 000
billiard 10^15 1 000 000 000 000 000

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å begrense to limit
å gjenstå to remain
å legge til to add
å trekke fra to subtract
per per
delvis partially, in part
hundrevis hundreds
tusenvis thousands
halv half
dobbel double
verdt worth
halvveis halfway
til sammen in total
et antall a number (of something)
en million a million
en milliard a billion
et flertall a majority
en halvpart a half
et mindretall a minority
et gjennomsnitt an average
en rest a rest, a leftover, a remainder

Children 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
å adoptere to adopt
å krype to crawl
å sovne to fall asleep
å ta vare på to take care of, to look after
lekt played
sovet slept
Xåring X-year-old
gravid pregnant
det var en gang once upon a time
en bleie a diaper
en/ei barnevogn a baby carriage/stroller/buggy/pram
et lam a lamb
en leke a toy
en valp a puppy
en kattunge a kitten
en/ei dokke a doll
en/ei barnebok a children's book

Modal Verbs 2 · 2020-12-04 ^

Modal Verbs

Below are four modals from previous lessons:

Norwegian English
kan can, be able to
vil want to, will (willing to)
have to, need to, must
la let, allow

And here are the new modals introduced in this chapter:

Norwegian English
skal shall, will (regardless of willingness)
bør should, ought to
får may, get to, be allowed to
tør dare to

All of the modal verbs above also have forms in the simple past, as shown below:

Norwegian English
kunne could, was able to
ville wanted to, was going to (willing to)
måtte had to, needed to
skulle should, was going to (regardless of willingness)
burde should have, ought to have
fikk got to, was allowed to
lot let, allowed
turte dared to

One of These Verbs Is Not Like the Other...

The first rule of Modal Club is that a modal is followed by a bare infinitive, i.e. an infinitive without the infinitive marker "å".

Jeg vil danse.
Hun må dra.
Vi skal gifte oss.

However, the verb tør is the exception to that rule. The infinitive marker is optional following tør.

Han tør ikke (å) bli med.

Verbs: Past Perfect 3 · 2019-08-29 ^

Past Perfect (aka Pluperfect)

Oh dear, yet another tense. But do not worry! There is no new form of the verb to learn. The past perfect is identical to the present perfect, except for one small thing. The auxillary verb ha is in the past tense, hadde rather than in the present tense, har.

The challenge is to know when to use it. The past perfect is used to talk things that happened before some other thing in the past.

  • Da jeg hadde spist, gikk jeg på skolen.
  • When I had eaten, I went to school.

The past perfect is also used in indirect speech, when someone said something about the past in the past. That sounds confusing, but hopefully the following example will help:

  • Hun sa at hun hadde gått på skolen.
  • She said that she had gone to school.

What we have to do to express past perfect in Norwegian, is to create a form of the verb, called the past participle, our friend from the present perfect. Then we combine this with the past form of ha, which is hadde.

  • Du sa at du hadde vasket hendene. (You said that you had washed your hands.)

  • Hun visste at de hadde kjørt bil. (She knew that they had driven a car.)

  • Da hun døde, hadde hun levd lenge. (When she died, she had lived for a long time.)

  • Da jeg hadde solgt henne en avis, gikk hun. (When I had sold her a newspaper, she left.)

  • Før det hadde jeg bodd i Oslo. (Before that, I had lived in Oslo.)


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
hadde had
gått walked, gone
hørt heard
ringt called
kommet come
gitt given
tatt taken
klart managed, been able to
skåret cut, carved
funnet found
skrevet written
visst known
levd lived
dødd died
trodd believed
glemt forgot, forgotten
oppdaget discovered

Philosophy 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Philosophy


Livsløgn

A livsløgn is a personal favorite untranslatable philosophical concept, invented by the Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen in the play Vildanden, or The Wild Duck. A løgn is a lie or an untruth, and the prefix livs- means of life. Therefore, a livsløgn is commonly translated as a life-lie. Ibsen defined a livsløgn as the central delusion we have in life that keeps us happy. It could be anything ranging from the conviction that you will become a famous Hollywood actor to the belief that your ex-spouse will change his/her mind and remarry you. Once the lie is exposed as such, a person is left without hope for the future, and becomes only a shell of a human being.

Philosophy is not a science for the faint of heart.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å diskutere to discuss
å innse to realize
å misbruke to abuse
å lure to wonder, to trick
klok wise
ærlig honest
fornuftig reasonable
vis wise (a little more profoundly than "klok")
ærlig talt honestly
en teori a theory
en filosofi a philosophy
en erfaring an experience
en/ei løgn a lie
en filosof a philosopher
en fornuft a reason, a common sense
en/ei sannhet a truth
en eksistens an existence
menneskeheten (m/f) humanity
en/ei makt a power, a might
et faktum a fact
en/ei virkelighet a reality
en/ei samvittighet a conscience
en vilje a will
et sinn a mind
en kraft a power
en bevissthet a consciousness

Verbs Review 12 · 2019-08-29 ^

What is Verbs Review?

Verbs Review is a set of action words using all the constructions and tenses introduced thus far. It is a grammatical review for the intermediate learner.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
da then
den the one, (impersonal) he
under during, in
uten at without (that)
noen gang ever
på grunn av because of, due to
å snu to turn around
å treffe to meet, to hit
å skifte to change
å kjenne to know, to feel, to be familiar with
å innføre to introduce, to put into place, to import
å erstatte to replace
å like to like
å anta to assume, to presume
å tillate to allow, to permit
å sjekke to check
å unngå to avoid
å avbryte to interrupt
å forvente to expect
å lytte to listen
å vare to last
å spare to save
å godta to accept
å bevege (seg) to move
å mangle to lack, to miss
å senke to lower
å dekke to cover, to deck
å blande to blend, to mix
å forberede to prepare
å distrahere to distract
å inneholde to contain
å gjøre ferdig to finish, to complete

Space 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å utforske to explore
å etablere to establish
å lyse to illuminate, to light (up)
ytre outer
uendelig endless, neverending
utenomjordisk alien, extraterrestrial
enorm enormous
beboelig habitable
et univers a universe
en galakse a galazy
en bane an orbit
en satellitt a satellite
et teleskop a telescope
et solsystem a solar system
astronomi (m) astronomy
tyngdekraft (m/f) gravity
verdensrommet space
et romskip a spaceship
en astronaut an astronaut
et mysterium a mystery
en romstasjon a space station
en base a base

Destiny 7 · 2020-11-07 ^

Destiny

Welcome to what's arguably the gloomiest skill of the Norwegian course. Whether you're looking to acquire a mild depression or a full-blown existential crisis, we've got you covered!

Jokes aside, there's probably a reason the term Nordic noir exists. It's cold, dark, and inhospitable here for half of the year, and when you haven't seen the sun for two months, you might be forgiven if you start pondering the meaning of life. Norwegians are also an earnest people; we don't like to sugarcoat things, and darker subjects are less of a taboo around these parts than in many other western countries.


Suicide Prevention

Each year, between 500 and 600 people commit suicide in Norway. That's between 500 and 600 people too many.

Never be afraid to reach out, neither for help nor to help.

The suicide hotlines listed are open 24/7 and can be called free of charge from Norway. In case of emergency, you can also call 113 for immediate medical assistance.

Organization Phone Number
Mental Helse (+47) 116 123
Kirkens SOS (+47) 22 40 00 40

To Kill a Mocking Bird, To Murder a Man

In English, a distinction is made between to kill and to murder. A similar distinction can be made in Norwegian, but it's not as strict.

Å drepe is the general word for to kill. It can be used for killing animals, for accidental human deaths, but also for premeditated murder.

Å myrde is the equivalent to to murder, only used for premeditated or intentional murder of another human being.

The corresponding nouns are et drap and et mord. Unless you're dealing with a compound that requires one or the other, you can't go wrong when using å drepe or et drap, as these cover the entire spectrum.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)

Norwegian English
å drepe to kill
å lide to suffer
å bringe to bring
å begrave to bury
å våge to dare
å sørge to mourn
å ende to end
å avslutte to finish, to close, to conclude
evig eternal
endelig final
tilfeldig random
lykkelig happy
heldig lucky, fortunate
en/ei ære an honour
en ende an end
en død a death
en/ei grav a grave
et drap a kill, a murder
en skjebne a destiny, a fate
et selvmord a suicide
et tap a loss
en/ei sjel a soul
en begravelse a funeral
en skatt a treasure
en/ei lykke a luck, a happiness
en tilfeldighet a coincidence

Passive Voice 2 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

The Passive Voice

There are two ways to form the passive voice in Norwegian.

You can form the passive with the verb bli, which usually means to become. You combine the conjugated verb with the past participle, just like in English. This is the more usual, less formal way of forming the passive, and the most likely to be spoken.

Norwegian English
Eplet blir spist. The apple is eaten.

The other way to form the passive is with an -s ending on a verb. This method is more abstract, more formal, and more likely to appear in written texts.

Norwegian English
Eplet spises. The apple is eaten.

Either passive form can be combined with future constructions (and the bli-form with past constructions) to change the tense of the passive verb.

Norwegian English
Eplet ble spist. The apple was eaten.
Eplet skal bli spist. The apple will be eaten.
Eplet skal spises. The apple will be eaten.

Vocabulary
å økes to be increased
å elskes to be loved
å nektes to be denied
å trykkes to be printed
å kritiseres to be criticized
[s] assorted passive verbs
født born
elsket loved
avhørt questioned
trykket printed
produsert produced

Future 3 · 2019-08-29 ^

Future

Let's talk about the future. There are three different ways to express future in Norwegian.


The Present Tense

The present tense can be used to talk about the future, especially when it is certain. To make sure it is about the future we include some adverb specifying the time. For example:

Jeg reiser i morgen.

I am leaving tomorrow.

Although the same kind of constructions exist in English they are a bit more common in casual Norwegian.


Skal & Vil

It is also possible to use the auxillary verbs skal and vil and the infinitve. In Norwegian, skal and vil are the equivalent of the English verbs shall and will, as in I shall or I will. Note that skal does not sound anyway near as formal as shall in English.

Jeg skal ta eksamen til våren.

I shall take the examination this spring.

Det vil snø i fjellet.

It will snow in the mountains.

This construction can be used "modally" as well to express desire and obligation.

Du skal gjøre leksene dine først.

You shall do your homework first.

Jeg vil ikke gå!

I do not want to go!


Kommer til

The third way is to use kommer til with the infinitve of the verb. Kommer til is a bit hard to translate directly, but the closest equivalent would be going to. It is often used when making predictions about what is probably going to happen. In other words, often about things that you can't control.

Jeg tror at det kommer til å regne i morgen.

I think it is going to rain tomorrow.

Hun kommer nok ikke til å like gaven.

She is probably not going to like the gift.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
skal shall, am going to
vil will, am going to
å følge to follow
å bestille to order
å skynde seg to hurry
å skje to happen
å lete to search, to look
å henge to hang
å fungere to work, to function
å hvile to rest
å gifte (seg) to marry, to get married
å slutte to stop, to quit
å oppnå to achieve
å påvirke to influence, to impact, to affect
å invitere to invite
overmorgen the day after tomorrow
en/ei stund a while

Sports 7 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
vant won
tapte lost
å delta to participate, to take part
å sparke to kick
å dykke to dive
et lag a team
en idrett a sport
en spiller a player
en vinner a winner
en kamp a match, a fight
en trener a coach, a trainer
volleyball (m) volleyball
basketball (m) basketball
golf (m) golf
tennis (m) tennis
ishockey (m) ice hockey
en bane a field, a pitch, a track
en/ei turnering a tournament
en deltager a participant
en/ei ski a ski
et løp a race
et steg a step
en verdensmester a world champion

Exercise 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Vocabulary
svømt swum
løp ran
å trene to exercise, to train, to work out
å svette to sweat
å løfte to lift
å tøye to stretch
aktiv active
svett sweaty
sterk strong
sliten tired
svak weak
en aktivitet an activity
trening (m/f) exercise, training
en garderobe a locker room
et treningssenter a gym
styrke (m) strength
en øvelse an exercise
en muskel a muscle

Weather 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
regnet rained
å blåse to blow
å varsle to forecast
å skinne to shine
å snø to snow
mild mild
ekstrem extreme
solbrent sunburned
glatt slippery, smooth
en sky a cloud
en vind a wind
et regn a rain
en regnbue a rainbow
kulde (m/f) cold
varme (m) warmth
et værvarsel a weather forecast
et termometer a thermometer
en meteorolog a meteorologist
et lyn a lightning
hagl (n) hail
en/ei tåke a fog
nedbør (m) precipitation
et uvær a storm, a bad weather
en torden a thunder
en frost a frost
en/ei tørke a drought
en/ei hetebølge a heatwave
en temperatur a temperature
en istapp an icicle
et snøskred an avalanche
en snøstorm a snow storm

Games 4 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å slå to beat
å tape to lose
vunnet won
å beseire to defeat, to beat
å trekke to pull, to draw
å nå to reach
en tur a turn, a go
et nivå a level
flaks (m) luck
en terning a die
sjakk chess
et kortspill a card game
et brettspill a board game
en alv an elf
en dverg a dwarf
et skjold a shield
et oppdrag a quest, a task
et videospill a video game
en/ei belønning a reward
en/ei øks an axe
en bue a bow
et sverd a sword
en ridder a knight
et rollespill a role-playing game
en trollmann a vizard

Literature 3 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å rime to rhyme
å beskrive to describe
norrøn (Old) Norse
uleselig illegible, unreadable
et sitat a quote
en serie a series
en tittel a title
en litteratur a literature
en bestselger a bestseller
en helt a hero
en figur a figure, a character
en/ei myte a myth
en skurk a villain, an antagonist, a bad guy
en/ei fortelling a story, a tale
et dikt a poem
en/ei gåte a riddle
en leser a reader
en/ei novelle a short story
en tegneserie a comic
en tekst a text
en kritikk a criticism, a critique, a review
en dialog a dialogue
et kapittel a chapter
en hovedkarakter a main character

Abstract Objects 2 6 · 2021-09-03 ^

Abstract Nouns

One can often recognize an abstract noun through one of several endings. Below is a sampling of them.

Ending Grammar Notes Example
-ing usually feminine regjering government
-het usually feminine kjærlighet love
-sjon usually masculine versjon version
-else usually masculine beskrivelse description
-tet usually masculine aktivitet activity
-skap usually neuter vennskap friendship

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
en one, you (indefinite pronoun)
en fordel an advantage, a plus
et tillegg an addition
en hensikt an intention
en respekt a respect
en/ei ulempe a disadvantage, a drawback, a minus
en bevegelse a movement
en innflytelse an influence
et unntak an exception
en orden an order
en mangel a lack, a shortage, a shortcoming
en/ei handling an act, an action
en interesse an interest
en konsekvens a consequence
en hemmelighet a secret
en/ei plikt a duty
en hendelse a happening, an occurrence
en oppførsel a behavior, a conduct
en/ei utfordring a challenge
en påminnelse a reminder
en overraskelse a surprise
en ro a calm
tilgang (m) access
et forsøk an attempt
en skygge a shadow
en/ei taushet a silence
en/ei svakhet a weakness
et hensyn a consideration
en opplevelse an experience

Religion 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Religion

Norway is a country with an interesting religious history. It is a society that was Christianized relatively late in comparison to the rest of Western Europe, beginning in the 11th century with the martyrdom of St. Olaf.

Along with Denmark, Sweden, and large swaths of Northern Germany, Lutheranism became the state religion of Norway in the first half of the 16th century, and most Norwegians remain nominally Lutheran to this day.

Even though Lutheranism dominates Norwegian religious history, most Norwegians are somewhat if not entirely secular, with a sizable percentage of the population subscribing to atheism or agnosticism. The unaffiliated make up the second largest religious group after Lutheran Protestants.

Islam and Roman Catholicism each are practiced by about 2.5% of the Norwegian population. There are many houses of worship for these religions and for several smaller communities as well, including from the Buddhist, Hindu, Sikh, Bahá'í, and Jewish religious traditions.


Capitalization

Yep, you guessed it, we don't capitalize religions either, nor are the adjectives derived from them capitalized.

Norwegian English
kristendom Christianity
en kristen a Christian
kristen Christian

Gud will be capitalized when referring directly to God in the Abrahamic religions, such as in passages of the Bible or Quran, as it's then used as a proper noun, a name. However, gud should not be capitalized when referring to gods in general or to god as a concept.


The Other Feminine Ending

By now, you're well aware that Norwegian nouns have grammatical gender, and also that grammatical gender is unrelated to biological gender.

However, certain nouns, typically profession names, do have an optional feminine ending which takes its cue from biological gender.

We teach very few of the feminine versions in the course, as they're quickly disappearing from contemporary Norwegian in favour of their neutral (previously masculine) counterparts. In this skill, you get to learn one of the few pairs whose gendered forms still stand strong: "gud" (gender neutral, previously reserved for male deities) and "gudinne" (strictly for female deities).

The "-inne" ending present in "gudinne" is one you will recognise in other word pairs with the option to differentiate based on biological gender, and we will list a few below. The split is still observed for titles of nobility, but becoming obsolete for profession titles.

bestyrer - bestyrerinne
beundrer - beundrerinne
gud - gudinne (still common)
greve - grevinne (still observed)
hertug - hertuginne (still observed)
keiser - keiserinne (still observed)
maler - malerinne
sanger - sangerinne
skuespiller - skuespillerinne
venn - venninne (still common)

The ending persists through all declensions of the noun:

en sangerinne - sangerinnen - sangerinner - sangerinnene


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
Tor Thor
Odin Odin
Frøya Freyja
hellig holy
jødisk Jewish
religiøs religious
muslimsk Muslim
hinduistisk Hindu
buddhistisk Buddhist
kristen Christian
katolsk Catholic
protestantisk Protestant
åndelig spiritual
ateistisk atheist
en/ei bønn a prayer
et tempel a temple
en religion a religion
en/ei gudinne a goddess
en moské a mosque
en synagoge a synagogue
en pave a pope
en synd a sin
et helvete a hell
en kirkegård a graveyard, a churchyard
en djevel a devil
en mytologi a mythology

Music 7 · 2019-08-29 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å øve to practice
å inspirere to inspire
å begeistre to thrill, to excite, to enthuse
å imponere to impress
sunget sung
musikalsk musical
en lyd a sound
en fiolin a violin
et instrument an instrument
en/ei fløyte a flute
en sanger a singer
en/ei tromme a drum
et publikum an audience
et verk a piece, a work, an opus
et bidrag a contribution
en melodi a melody
en rytme a rhythm
et vers a verse
et refreng a refrain
en komponist a composer
en sal a hall
en symfoni a symphony
et orkester an orchestra
et volum a volume
en tilhører a listener
en musiker a musician
en/ei begeistring an excitement, an enthusiasm
[assorted genres] jazz, rock, opera, funk, blues...

Emergency 6 · 2019-08-29 ^

Emergency


Fire!

You've already learned the general term for fire as a concept and a controlled resource, ild

In this skill, you'll be learning en brann, which is an uncontrolled, destructive fire. Hopefully, you'll never need to, but the fire department's number is 110 in Norway.

You can also call 112 (police) or 113 (medical assistance), and they'll patch you through to the right department. 112 is actually a standard emergency number used throughout the EU states, so you might as well commit it to memory if you're planning to travel in Europe. Most mobile phones will now patch you through if you use 911 as well, so if you blank on the number, just call the one that comes to mind.

The third term for a fire is for bonfires specifically, et bål. Note that you may only make bonfires out in the woods between September 15. and April 15. This is a precaution against forest fires during the drier summer months.


Police!

As mentioned above, the police department emergency number is 112. Norwegian police officers do not carry firearms outside of severe crisis situations, and police brutality is almost unheard of, so you should never be afraid to seek help or make contact.


Medical Assistance!

Should you ever need urgent medical assistance while in Norway, the emergency number is 113. As much as we'd love for you to practice your Norwegian, you can absolutely switch to English when making an emergency call, if that's more comfortable for you.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å rope to yell
å brenne to burn
å brekke to break (in two)
å krasje to crash, to collide
galt wrong
svimmel dizzy
en nød an emergency, a (dire) need
en/ei hjelp a help
en skade an injury, a damage
en/ei bremse a brake
en/ei ulykke an accident
en sykebil an ambulance
et sykehus a hospital
en brann a fire
en kontroll a control
en brannbil a fire engine, a fire truck
en nødutgang an emergency exit
et lik a corpse
en fare a danger
et behov a need
en katastrofe a catastrophe
et jordskjelv an earthquake
et hjerneslag a stroke
en omstendighet a circumstance

Art 5 · 2020-05-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å skape to create
å tegne to draw
å male to paint
kunstig artificial, fake
talentfull talented
briljant brilliant
kunstnerisk artistic
en kunst an art
en kunstner an artist
håndverk (n) handiwork, crafts
en tusj a marker
en prikk a dot
en/ei tegning a drawing
et mønster a pattern
en detalj a detail
en pensel a paint brush
et design a design
et geni a genius
en dans a dance
en/ei maling a paint
et kamera a camera
en/ei ramme a frame
en bakgrunn a background

Politics 8 · 2021-06-13 ^

Politics

Norway is a centrally governed constitutional monarchy with a unicameral legislature in Oslo. The Norwegian Constitution was signed and dated on May 17, 1814. For this reason, Norwegians celebrate May 17th as their national holiday. The Constitution itself, which is still in use today, ranks among the oldest in the world.


Parliamentary Parties of Norway

The following is a list of parties that are currently represented in the Storting, also called the Norwegian Parliament.

Norwegian English Ideology
Arbeiderpartiet Labour Party Social Democracy
Høyre Conservative Party (lit. Right) Liberal Conservatism
Fremskrittspartiet Progress Party Right-Wing Populism
Kristelig Folkeparti Christian Democratic Party Christian Democracy
Senterpartiet Centre Party Centrism
Venstre Liberal Party (lit. Left) Social Liberalism
Sosialistisk Venstreparti Socialist Left Party Democratic Socialism
Miljøpartiet De Grønne Green Party Green Politics
Rødt Communist Party (lit. Red) Marxism & Socialism

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å fatte to get, to make (a decision)
å bidra to contribute
å representere to represent
å føre to lead
å samarbeide to cooperate, to collaborate
å styre to steer, to govern
å forsvare to defend
å planlegge to plan
politisk political
ansvarlig responsible
en tale a speech
et parti a party
et valg an election
en stemme a vote
et samfunn a community
en motstander an opponent
en streik a strike
en strategi a strategy
et fremskritt a progress
et hat a hate
et mangfold a diversity
en nasjon a nation
politikk (m) politics

Health 10 · 2021-06-13 ^

Implied Possessives

In Norwegian, as in many other languages, body parts generally do not carry possessive pronouns. Instead, we use the definite form for all pronouns. Øyet can mean the eye, my eye, or your eye, etc. The person's body in question should be intuited from context.

This is especially common when speaking about one's own body parts


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å nyse to sneeze
å spytte to spit
å kutte to cut
å svelge to swallow
å puste to breathe
å reise seg to stand up, to get up, to rise
døv deaf
blind blind
tykk thick, fat
sunn healthy
tynn thin, skinny
fysisk physical, physically
en hals a throat, a neck (front)
en/ei helse a health
en tannlege a dentist
et syn a sight, a vision
et kne a knee
en/ei linse a (contact) lens
en pasient a patient
en sykepleier a nurse
en mage a belly, a stomach
en rygg a back
en operasjon an operation
en menstruasjon a period, a menstruation

Media & Communication 6 · 2019-12-24 ^

Mixed Messages

In this course, you will learn no less than three different nouns that translate to a message. Hopefully, this brief overview will help nuance their usage for you.

Et budskap is the actual message you're trying to communicate - the point you want to get across. For example, a film might seemingly be about a budding romance in 18th century France, but the message the director is trying to get across could be deeper and more universal. Perhaps the film is really about how we project our own insecurities onto others?

En beskjed is the more mundane sort of message. On a train, you may hear Dette er en beskjed til alle passasjerer, this is a message/notice for all passengers, over the calling system. It can also be written down, on a post-it note you leave for your spouse on the kitchen counter, for example. Å gi beskjed is to give notice - to let someone know.

En melding holds more or less the same meaning as en beskjed, but it's also the word we use specifically for text messages. Send meg en melding"means text me.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å bekrefte to confirm
å fylle to fill
å motta to receive
å foregå to be going on, to be happening, to take place
å gjelde to pertain to, to deal with, to be a matter of
å høres to sound
å fjerne to remove
å abonnere to subscribe
kontroversiell controversial
et søk a search
et medium a medium
en tilstand a condition
en talsperson a spokesperson
en post a post
et skjema a form
en beskjed a message
et frimerke a postage stamp
en/ei underskrift a signature
et postkort a postcard
en/ei postkasse a mailbox
et postkontor a post office
en lytter a listener
en plakat a poster
en kommentar a comment
en kjendis a celebrity
et inntrykk an impression
en/ei melding a message
et blad a magazine
en/ei spalte a column
en reklame an advertisement, a commercial
en brosjyre a brochure
en/ei tekstmelding a text message

Illness and Injury 10 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å gro to heal, to grow
å hovne to swell
å røyke to smoke
å slite to suffer, to struggle
å forårsake to cause
å besvime to pass out, to faint
sårbar vulnerable
kvalm nauseous, sick
smittsom contagious, catching
brukket broken
smertefull painful
giftig poisonous, venomous, toxic
dødelig deadly, lethal
skadelig harmful
psykisk mental, psychological
kronisk chronic
en sykdom a disease, an illness
en smerte a pain
et blåmerke a bruise
en kur a cure, a remedy
en kreft a cancer
en/ei behandling a treatment
en/ei gift a poison, a venom, a toxin
en/ei motgift an antidote
en medisin a medicine
et rusmiddel a drug, a narcotic, an intoxicant
en angst an anxiety, an angst
en lidelse an illness, a suffering
en/ei bedring an improvement
en depresjon a depression
en infeksjon an infection
et virus a virus
en bakterie a bacterium
et hjerteinfarkt a heart attack

Government 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å stemme to vote
Stortinget the Norwegian Parliament
en/ei regjering a government
en/ei styreform a form of government
et demokrati a democracy
en statsminister a prime minister
en leder a leader
en kandidat a candidate
et diktatur a dictatorship
en diktator a dictator
en republikk a republic
et kongerike a kingdom
et parlament a parliament
en myndighet an authority
en/ei grunnlov a constitution

Online 2 · 2019-09-01 ^

Optional Latin Plurals

Some Norwegian words of Latin root have optional plural endings, much like in English. An example from this skill is et forum, a forum, which becomes either fora, fora, or foraer, forums in the indefinite plural.

The table below shows the three possible declension patterns for the word. Note the bolded forms which retain the Latin plural -a.

Indefinite Sing. Definite Sing. Indefinite Plur. Definite Plur.
et forum forumet forumer foruma
et forum forumet forumer forumene
et forum forumet fora foraene

Vocabulary
å logge to log
å laste ned to download
å redigere to edit
å kommentere to comment
et passord a password
en blogg a blog
et forum a forum
en/ei nettside a website
en/ei nettadresse an internet address, a URL
en profil a profile
en/ei lenke a link
et vedlegg an attachment
et innlegg a post, an entry
et nettverk a network
en nettleser a browser
en søkemotor a search engine
en/ei dekning a coverage, a reception

Measurements 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å måle to measure
å veie to weigh
omtrent around, roughly
overfladisk superficial
et mål a measurement
en avstand a distance
en/ei hastighet a speed
et kilo a kilo
en/ei vekt a weight
en masse a mass
en/ei overflate a surface
en grad a degree
en dybde a depth
en bredde a width, a breadth
en/ei virkning an effect, an influence, an impact
en centimeter a centimeter

Conflict 4 · 2021-09-03 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å kreve to demand
å kjempe to fight, to battle, to struggle
å falle to fall
å hindre to hinder, to prevent, to obstruct
å skyte to shoot
å herske to rule
å nekte to deny
å bombe to bomb
å beskytte to protect
å spionere to spy
å undertrykke to oppress
å frigjøre to liberate
å angripe to attack
å invadere to invade
å gjennomføre to carry out, to go through with, to implement
i hjel to death
modig brave
kynisk cynical
motsatt opposite
et våpen a weapon
sikkerhet (m/f) security, safety
en hær an army
en seier a victory
en soldat a soldier
en hevn a revenge
en kriger a warrior
et gevær a rifle
et skytevåpen a firearm
en flyktning a refugee
en borgerkrig a civil war
en revolusjon a revolution

Law 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å dømme to judge
å anklage to accuse
å mistenke to suspect
å grunnlegge to found
å skjule to hide
å innrømme to admit
å få/ha lov til to be allowed, to have permission
i etterkant av after, in the wake of
ulovlig illegal
selvstendig independent
uskyldig innocent
troverdig credible, believable
en lov a law
en/ei rettighet a right
en dommer a judge
en/ei skyld a blame, a guilt
en trussel a threat
en rett a right
et bevis a proof, a piece of evidence
en tillatelse a permission
en dom a verdict, a judgement
en domstol a court
en/ei unnskyldning an apology
en/ei straff a punishment
et vitne a witness

Present Participles 3 · 2019-08-30 ^

Present Participles

Present participles are adjectives and adverbs that end in -ing in English and -ende in Norwegian. Remember: these are adjectives and adverbs, not verbs. As such, they describe nouns and verbs.

Present participles never change spelling in Norwegian. They always end in -ende. Remember that the D is silent, so the ending sounds like eneh.

Norwegian English
døende fisk dying fish
en gående mann a walking man
den sovende babyen the sleeping baby
han snakker flytende he speaks fluently

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
levende living
sittende sitting
liggende lying
forvirrende confusing
svømmende swimming
overraskende surprisng
døende dying
løpende running
sovende sleeping
nåværende current
kommende coming, -to-be
underholdende entertaining
flytende fluent, fluently, in flux
lignende similar
snakkende talking
avgjørende decisive, crucial
gjenværende remaining
imponderende impressive
givende giving, rewarding, fruitful
passende suitable, fitting, apt
utelukkende exclusively
tilsynelatende seemingly, apparently
deprimerende depressing

Science 4 · 2020-06-18 ^

Vocabulary Tree 4
å utvikle to develop
å teste to test
å undersøke to examine, to research
å bestå to consist of, to comprise
å oppdage to discover
effektiv effective, efficient
en ekspert an expert
en forsker a scientist, a researcher
en vitenskap a science
en teknologi a technology
matematikk (m) mathematics
fysikk (m) physics
en teknikk a technique
en konklusjon a conclusion
en/ei oppdagelse a discovery
et laboratorium a laboratory
en enhet a unit
biologi (m) biology
en metode a method
en beholder a container, a canister
en forbindelse a connection
en gass a gas
en/ei væske a liquid, a fluid
forskning (m/f) research
kjemi (m) chemistry
elektrisitet (m) electricity
en oppfinnelse an invention

Crime 4 · 2021-06-13 ^

Passive Participles

Passive participles are past participles that act like adjectives. That means that unlike past participles, they are declined for gender, number, and definite or indefinite form.

Norwegian English
en stengt dør a closed door
den stengte døren the closed door
stengte dører closed doors
Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å true to threaten
å skade to hurt, to harm, to injure
å begå to commit
å pågripe to arrest
å sjokkere to shock
å overvåke to surveil
å straffe to punish, to discipline
å merke to notice
å rømme to escape
kriminell criminal
et politi a police
en forbrytelse a crime
kriminalitet (m) criminality
et gissel a hostage
en morder a murderer
vold (m) violence
en fange a prisoner, a captive
et fengsel a prison

Conditional 3 · 2019-08-30 ^

The Conditional Mood

As with many aspects of Norwegian grammar, the conditional gives the speaker several opportunities to express subtleties through linguistic options. There are two ways that the conditional may be expressed in Norwegian. There is no single word for "would", however.


Ville (+ Ha) + Past Participle

The modal verb "ville" plays a role in the first way to express the conditional, alongside (ha and) the past participle. Although this form is in the conditional perfect tense, and hence in the past, it can refer to hypothetical situations at any point on the timeline. Let's look at how it works.

Norwegian English
Han ville ha spist lunsj med henne. He would [eat/have eaten] lunch with her.
Ville du ha skrevet det samme brevet? Would you [write/have written] the same letter?

Note that in spoken and colloquial Norwegian, the word ha is quickly disappearing from the conditional altogether. The sentences above may be expressed without the word entirely.

  • Han ville spist lunsj med henne.
  • Ville du skrevet det samme brevet?

Modal + The Infinitive

One may also express the conditional using one of several modal verbs introduced earlier in the course, combined with the infinitive form. These modals include ville, skulle, kunne, burde, and måtte. See how they operate below.

Norwegian English
Var hun rik, skulle hun kjøpe et stort hus. Were she rich, she would buy a big house.
Jeg kunne spise frokost om jeg hadde mer tid. I [could/would] eat breakfast if I had more time.

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
ville would
gitt given
blitt become
spist eaten
vært been
svart answered, replied
skrevet written
var were
lest read
ringt called, phoned, rung
gjort done, made
kunne could
endret altered, changed
skadet hurt, harmed, injured

Future Perfect 1 · 2018-10-25 ^

The Future Perfect

The Norwegian future perfect is formed by combining the helping verb vil or kommer til å with the present perfect, which is ha in addition to the past participle. Take a look at some examples, which translate directly word-for-word.

Norwegian English
Jeg vil ha spist. I will have eaten.
Du vil ha lest. You will have read.
Hun vil ha funnet boken. She will have found the book.

Wilderness 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Wilderness

One seldom has to walk very far to reach what feels like untouched wilderness in Norway. However, unless you're high up in the mountains, chances are that you're actually standing on what was once someone's field, pasture, hunting grounds, or source of peat or firewood.

Originally, most of the woods in Norway consisted either of pine trees or of deciduous trees. The large areas of spruce that now dominate, and look like they've always been there, were actually planted by humans just a few generations back.


Come Warm Yourself by the Fire

By now, you've already learned the general term for fire as a concept and a controlled resource, ild. You're also familiar en brann, which is an uncontrolled, destructive fire, as well as with the number for the fire department in Norway, 110.

The third term for a fire is for bonfires specifically, et bål. Note that you may only make bonfires out in the woods between September 15. and April 15. This is a precaution against forest fires during the drier summer months.


Camping

As mentioned in the Nature skill, everyone enjoys the right of access to uncultivated land in the countryside. This means that you can also camp pretty much anywhere you want to in the woods and mountains. Just leave the spot like you found it.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å grave to dig
å kartlegge to map
å klatre to climb
vill wild
dyp deep
underjordisk underground, subterranean
en dal a valley, a dale
en/ei eng a field
en foss a waterfall
et blad a leaf, a blade
en/ei gren a branch
en/ei villmark a wilderness
en sti a path
en/ei eik an oak tree
en/ei rot a root
en/ei furu a pine tree
et ekorn a squirrel
en stamme a trunk
en/ei felle a trap
et spor a track
en hjort a deer
en jeger a hunter
en/ei stillhet a silence
en rev a fox
en/ei søle a mud
en/ei hule a cave
et nordlys polar lights (plurale tantum)
en leir a camp
et bål a bonfire
ved (m) firewood
en fyrstikk a match
en solnedgang a sunset

The City 4 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å parkere to park
å levere to deliver
offentlig public
lokal local
Oslo capital city, Eastern Norway
Bergen city, Western Norway
Trondheim city, Central Norway
Stavanger city, South-West Norway
et torg a square, a plaza
et marked a market
et nabolag a neighborhood
en/ei rulletrapp an escalator
en brannstasjon a fire station
en fontene a fountain
et sentrum a city center, a downtown
en/ei beliggenhet a location
et vandrerhjem a hostel
en jernbanestasjon a train station
en benk a bench
en garasje a garage
en innbygger an inhabitant
en politistasjon a police station
et minnesmerke a memorial
avfall (n) waste
et rådhus a city hall
en ordfører a mayor
en parkeringsplass a parking lot, a parking spot

Academics 5 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å forske to research
å studere to study
å definere to define
å løse to solve
å analysere to analyze
å fokusere to focus
grunnleggende fundamental, basic
akademisk academic
obligatorisk obligatory, mandatory
et begrep a concept, a term
en analyse an analysis
et prosjekt a project
et akademi an academy
en formel a formula
et semester a semester, a term
en definisjon a definition
en suksess a success
et seminar a seminar
en eksamen an exam
psykologi (m) psychology

Traffic 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å gå to run (used about engines etc.)
å svinge to swing, to turn
å krysse to cross
å rekke to make in time, to reach
flygende flying
gående walking, pedestrian
bensin (m) gas, petrol
et dekk a tyre
et drivstoff a fuel
en fart a speed
en tunnel a tunnel
en/ei rundkjøring a roundabout, a rotary
forurensning (m/f) pollution
et sete a seat
et trafikklys a traffic light
en passasjer a passenger
en overgang a transition
en bensinstasjon a gas station
en/ei fartsgrense a speed limit
et fortau a sidewalk
en syklist a cyclist
en snarvei a shortcut
et gatelys a streetlight
en fotjenger a pedestrian
et førerkort a driver's license
et fotgjengerfelt a pedestrian crossing

Style 6 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å krympe to shrink
løs loose
trang tight
rutete checkered
stripete striped, stripy
elegant elegant
en mote a fashion
en frisør a hairdresser
en/ei krølle a curl
sminke (m/f) make-up
et utseende a look
en hårklipp a haircut
en stil a style
en kvalitet a quality
et smykke a piece of jewelry
en/ei skjønnhet a beauty
en bart a mustache
skinn (n) leather, hide

Identity 3 · 2020-06-19 ^

Vocabulary
å oppkalle to name
å respektere to respect
felles common, mutual
moderne modern
tradisjonell traditional
gammeldags old-fashioned
selvsikker confident
selvsikkert confidently
en dialekt a dialect
en borger a citizen
en identitet an identity
en/ei maske a mask
et morsmål a mother tongue, a native language
et etternavn a surname, a last name
en legitimasjon an identification
-fil -phile, -sexual
et press a pressure
en same a Sámi person
et kjønn a gender, a sex
en fordom a prejudice
en vegetarianer a vegetarian
et individ an individual
en åpenhet an openness
et hjemland a home country, a motherland
likestilling (m/f) equality
en innvandrer an immigrant
et borgerskap a citizenship
en tradisjon a tradition
en/ei holdning an attitude

Business 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å avlyse to cancel
å minke to reduce
å importere to import
å avslå to reject
travel busy
frivillig voluntary
verdifull valuable
en skatt a tax
en/ei gjeld a debt
et tilbud an offer
en prosent a percent, a percentage
et selskap a company
et budsjett a budget
en disk a counter, a till
et kjøp a purchase
en/et kjede a chain
en handel a transaction
en tjeneste a service
et varemerke a brand
en konkurranse a contest
en/ei lønn a salary, a wage
en kontrakt a contract
en etterspørsel a demand
forretningsfolk (n) businesspeople
et skilt a sign
en ansatt an employee
et samarbeid a cooperation, a collaboration
en rabatt a discount
en kostnad a cost
et monopol a monopoly
korrupsjon (m) corruption

Food 2 11 · 2021-06-13 ^

Cooking

In this skill, you'll learn the verb lager, which translates to make. There's no separate verb for cooking, instead, we use lager mat, literally make food.

Han lager mat.
He is cooking.


Measure Words

Remember that in Norwegian, the word for of, av, is omitted where one would normally use it in English to join a measure word with another noun.

Norwegian English
en kopp kaffe a cup of coffee
et glass vann a glass of water

Neat, huh?


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å lage to make
å lage mat to cook
en fisk a fish
et kjøtt a meat
en pasta a pasta
en/ei suppe a soup
en kylling a chicken
mat (m) food
en frokost a breakfast
en ost a cheese
en frukt a fruit
en tomat a tomato
et glass a glass
en øl a (unit of) beer
et salt a salt
et egg an egg
et sukker a sugar
en pepper a pepper (not bell pepper!)

Emotions 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
savnet missed
å nyte to enjoy
å trøste to comfort
å skuffe to disappoint
sjokkerende shocking
behagelig comfortable
rasende furious
hatefull hateful
engstelig anxious, worried
ubeskrivelig indescribable
irriterende annoying
koselig cozy
fredelig peaceful
skuffende disappointing
gøy fun, funny
pinlig embarrassing, awkward
følsom sensitive
takknemlig thankful, grateful
et sinne an anger
moro (m/f) fun
en anelse an inkling, an idea
en/ei stemning a mood, an atmosphere
en klem a hug

Adverbs 3 4 · 2019-08-30 ^

Adverbs

In Norwegian, adverbs usually follow the verb.

Norwegian English
Du snakker godt norsk! You speak Norwegian well!

One exception is that adverbs of time often appear at the end of the sentence or clause.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.

Another exception is related to the V-2 Rule in Germanic linguistics, which applies to all Germanic languages... besides English. You can see a rare instance of it in English in the expression here comes the bus. This rule states that all sentences that are statements, in other words not questions, must have a verb in the second position. This allows for some flexibility in the word order for emphasis, but don't get crazy.

Norwegian English
Jeg har tid . I have time now.
Jeg har tid. I now have time.
har jeg tid. Now I have time.

The final example is a demonstration of the V-2 Rule. When the adverb moved to the front of the statement, the subject moved to the other side of the verb har. This is because Norwegian verbs refuse to move from the second position in statements.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å gå an to be possible
å legge an på to hit on, to flirt with
ellers else, otherwise
riktig really, properly, correctly
faktisk actually, in fact
derimot on the other hand
i alle fall at least
rett og slett simply, plain and simple
plutselig suddenly
knapt barely
hittil thus far, so far
tydelig clearly, clear
straks (very) soon, shortly, straight away
stadig constantly, ever more, more and more
videre further, on(ward)
samtidig simultaneously, at the same time
altså therefore, then
særlig especially
likevel still, after all
tidsnok in time
fremover forward, forth
temmelig rather
på forhånd in advance
vekk away, gone
nylig recently
derfor therefore, why
engang even
noensinne ever
forresten by the way
opprinnelig originally

Banking 2 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å undervurdere to underestimate
å anslå to estimate
å akseptere to accept
å sløse to waste, to squander
å veksle to exchange
å finansiere to finance
grådig greedy
privat private
konkurs bankrupt
et styre a board
en/ei rente an interest
en formue a fortune
en økonomi an economy
en/ei forsikring an insurance
en fattigdom a poverty
en investering an investment
et lån a loan
en avtale a deal, an agreement, an appointment
en organisasjon an organization
en regnskapsfører a bookkeeper
en børs a stock exchange
en aksje a stock
et overskudd a surplus, a profit
et underskudd a deficit, a loss
en/ei avgift a fee, a tax
en valuta a currency

The Body 5 · 2019-09-03 ^

Implied Possessives

In Norwegian, as in many other languages, body parts generally do not carry possessive pronouns. Instead, we use the definite form for all pronouns. Øyet can mean the eye, my eye, or your eye, etc. The person's body in question should be intuited from context.

This is especially common when speaking about one's own body parts


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
naken naked
et bein a bone
et ledd a joint
en negl a nail
en albue an elbow
en/ei skulder a shoulder
en tommel a thumb
et håndledd a wrist
et kinn a cheek
en/ei rynke a wrinkle
en/ei leppe a lip
en/ei panne a forehead
en/ei fregne a freckle
et øyelokk an eyelid
et øyenbryn an eyebrow
et lår a thigh
et arr a scar
en hæl a heel
en nerve a nerve
et ribbein a rib
et skjelett a skeleton
en ryggrad a spine
en/ei/et nyre a kidney
en/ei lever a liver
et bryst a chest, a breast
en/ei lunge a lung
tannkjøtt (n) gums

Cooking 6 · 2020-10-17 ^

Vocabulary
å koke to boil
å steke to fry
å krydre to season, to spice (up)
å smelte to melt
fersk fresh
smakfull tasty, delicious, tasteful
spiselig edible, eatable
raw, uncooked
et mel a flour
en smule a crumb
en sopp a mushroom
en/ei kokebok a cookbook
en/ei oppskrift a recipe
en ingrediens an ingredient
en ovn an oven
en/ei bønne a bean
en mikrobølgeovn a microwave oven
en/ei nøtt a nut
en eddik a vinegar
en hvitløk a garlic
et krydder a spice, a seasoning

Tools 4 · 2019-09-03 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
praktisk practical
en/ei sag a saw
en skrue a screw
en/ei kasse a crate
en spiker a nail
et redskap a tool
en hammer a hammer
en drill a drill
en stige a ladder
et utstyr a piece of equipment
et verktøy a tool
en snekker a carpenter, a joiner
en skrutrekker a screwdriver
strøm (m) power (electrical)
en lader a charger
en/ei ledning a power cord
en/ei lyspære a light bulb

Romance 3 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary
å kose to cuddle
å kysse to kiss
å forlove seg to get engaged
å lengte to long
å overnatte to sleep over, to stay the night
å skille to divorce
å avvise to reject
å slå opp to break up
å være utro to cheat, to be unfaithful
giftet married
romantisk romantic
intens intense
sjalu jealous
utro unfaithful
kjær dear
attraktiv attractive
et blikk a glance, a look
en/ei tiltrekning an attraction
en partner a partner
en lidenskap a passion
en samboer a cohabitant, a live-in partner

Wildlife 3 · 2021-06-13 ^

Vocabulary
å jage to chase, to hunt
å fange to catch
å jakte to hunt
en/ei fjær a feather
en vinge a wing
en pingvin a penguin
en/ei flaggermus a bat
en art a species
en tiger a tigre
en frosk a frog
en/ei padde a toad
et pattedyr a mammal

Continuous Forms 2 · 2019-03-04 ^

Continuous Forms

Thus far, we have learned that the Norwegian present tense covers both the English simple present (e.g. 'I eat') and the English present continuous ('I am eating'). While this is correct, we are going to nuance this a little bit.

In Norwegian, there are certain constructions emphasizing a continuous action - and that correspond to the English present continuous (i.e. the -ing form).

holder på is used when the continuity is strong and we want to emphasize this. It can be followed by an infinitive or by the present tense.

Jeg holder på å lære meg norsk. 'I am (in the process of) learning Norwegian.'

If the emphasis is less strong, but the markedness is still desired, we can use one of the verbs sitter/ligger/står together with another present tense verb. This is equal to the English present continuous, but different in the sense that not only does it mark continuity, it also marks the position of the subject.

Jeg ligger og leser. I am (lying) reading.

Jeg sitter og ser på tv. I am (sitting) watching television.

Jeg står og lager mat akkurat nå. I am (standing) cooking right now


Vocabulary
står is standing
sitter is sitting
ligger is lying
driver is in the process of (continuous)
holder på is in the process of (continuous)

Adjectives 3 8 · 2019-08-30 ^

Adjectives

Norwegian adjectives change for gender, number, indefinite and definite forms. Let's take a look at adjectives joined to nouns by the phrase to be, starting with the adjective stor, which means big or great.


The Indefinite Form

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine En stol er stor. A chair is big.
Feminine Ei bok er stor. A book is big.

So far, so good. There is no change to the adjective in either masculine or feminine form.

Gender Norwegian English
Neuter Et bord er stort. A table is big.
Plural Hus er store. Houses are big.

As you can see above, the neuter noun changes the spelling of stor to include a -t ending, and the plural noun changes stor to include an -e ending. This pattern applies to most adjectives in the indefinite form, as shown below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine en stor stol a big chair
Feminine ei stor bok a big book
Neuter et stort bord a big table
Plural store hus big houses

Many adjectives ending in -ig or -sk, like viktig and norsk, do not sound pleasant with a -t ending. This is why we do not add a -t to these specific adjectives in the neuter form.

Norwegian English
et viktig brev an important letter
et norsk hus a Norwegian house

We do still add the -e ending in the plural form, however!

Norwegian English
viktige brev important letters
norske hus Norwegian houses

The Definite Form

The simple thing about adjectives in the definite form is that the endings are almost all the same.

Most adjectives in the definite form end in -e.

In addition to the noun transitioning into the definite form, we place an additional word before the adjective in the definite form. This word changes depending on gender and number, as you see below.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen the big chair
Feminine den store boka the big book
Neuter det store bordet the big table
Plural de store husene the big houses

Missing Endings in Old and Famous Names

As students of Danish may be aware, the postfixes after the nouns above are absent in Danish, and as a legacy of Danish colonialism, some Norwegian phrases lack the noun endings shown in the table above. These words are generally famous titles or institutions, such as The White House or The French Academy. See how they operate below.

Norwegian English
Det franske akademi The French Academy
Det hvite hus The White House

Note that det hvite huset can also mean the white house, just not the one the US President lives inside.


Combining Possessive Pronouns with Adjectives

There are two ways to combine possessive pronouns with adjectives. The possessive pronoun can either follow the noun in the definite form or precede the adjective. Let's take a look at how this works.

Gender Norwegian English
Masculine den store stolen min my big chair
Feminine den store boka mi my big book
Neuter det store bordet mitt my big table
Plural de store husene mine my big houses
Gender Norwegian English
Masculine min store stol my big chair
Feminine mi store bok my big book
Neuter mitt store bord my big table
Plural mine store hus my big houses

In the second set of examples, notice how the adjective endings are all -e, just like in the definite form, but the nouns have no endings, just like in the indefinite form. In a sense, this second method of combining possessive pronouns and adjectives is a blending of grammar rules.


Vocabulary Tree 4
nær near, close
smal narrow
kraftig strong, powerful
grusom gruesome, terrible
selvfølgelig obvious, of course
bred wide
fjern far
barnslig childish, immature
grei okay, passable
opptatt occupied, taken, busy
avhengig dependent
utmerket exquisite, remarkable
ytre outer
høflig polite
nysgjerrig curious
beskjeden modest, reserved, shy
[-lig] adjective ending + assorted adjectives
frekk rude
indre inner
sosial social
nyttig useful
middelmådig mediocre, middling

Passive Participles 2 · 2019-03-04 ^

Passive Participles

Welcome to another lesson in the magical world of participles!

Passive participles are past participles that act like adjectives. That means that unlike past participles, they are declined for gender, number, and definite or indefinite form.

Norwegian English
en stengt dør a closed door
den stengte døren the closed door
stengte dører closed doors

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
spist eaten
åpnet opened
stjålet stolen
forsinket delayed
involvert involved
overrasket surprised
stengt closed, shut
invitert invited
forbudt illegal
forvirret confused
imponert impressed

Dessert 4 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å bake to bake
en/ei lefse a lefse
en/ei kjeks a cookie, a cracker
en kanel a cinnamon
en dessert a dessert
en pai a pie
en bolle a bun
en fløte a cream (dairy)
en krem a (whipped) cream
en baker a baker
en smultring a doughnut
et lag a layer
en deig a dough
en vaffel a waffle
et bakeri a bakery
et godteri a piece of candy, a sweet
en honning a honey

The Sea 2 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å fiske to fish
å svømme to swim
å seile to sail
å drukne to drown
å synke to sink
å omkomme to perish, to die
ombord on board, aboard
en hai a shark
en laks a salmon
en hval a whale
en torsk a cod
en manet a jellyfish
en/ei sjøstjerne a starfish
en sel a seal
en finne a fin
en/ei gjelle a gill
en/ei måke a seagull
en/ei krabbe a crab
saltvann (n) saltwater
en blekksprut an octopus
en/ei sild a herring
en/ei reke a shrimp
et skjell a shell
et blåskjell a (blue) mussel
et akvarium an aquarium
et kamskjell a scallop
en kyst a coast
en/ei havn a port
en marine a navy
en lugar a cabin
et isfjell an iceberg
en kaptein a captain
et mannskap a crew
Stillehavet the Pacific Ocean
Atlanterhavet the Atlantic ocean

Future Preterite 2 · 2019-03-04 ^

Future Preterite

The future preterite is used about time and also modally.

About time it is used about something in the past that is going to happen after something else also in the past.

Etter at de hadde stått opp, skulle de spise frokost. After they had woken up, they were going to eat breakfast.

Similarly, it is used modally in hypothetical statements:

Hvis han vant, ville han reise jorden rundt. If he won, he would travel around the world.

And also when expressing wishes and polite speach:

Jeg skulle ønske det virket I should wish it worked.

The future preterite is expressed using the auxillary verbs skulle and ville and the infinitive. That's right, the same as in the future tense except our friends skal og vil are in the past.


Vocabulary
skulle should
gått gone, walked
spist eaten
gjort done, made

Absence 2 · 2019-08-30 ^

Adjectives of Absence

You've already learned the adjective ending -full, used to indicate the presence of a quality or thing. It's a component of words like smakfull, tasty, håpefull, hopeful, and verdifull, valuable.

In this skill, you'll be introduced to the ending -løs, which is used to the opposite effect: to indicated the absence of a quality or thing. In the vast majority of cases, it translates directly to -less in English. One example would be håpløs, which translates to hopeless.

While many of these adjectives have negative connotations, as is the case for hjelpeløs, helpless, and verdiløs, worthless, that's not a requirement. Take the adjective tidløs, timeless, for example.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
håpløs hopeless
hjelpeløs helpless
grenseløs boundless, limitless
maktesløs powerless
forsvarsløs defenseless
tidløs timeless
trådløs wireless, threadless
verdiløs worthless
fargeløs colorless
smakløs tasteless, bland
målløs speechless
søvnløs sleepless
hjemløs homeless
tankeløs thoughtless
bevisstløs unconscious

Materials 3 · 2020-06-17 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å sy to sew
å strikke to knit
å smi to forge, to smith
en/ei ull a wool
en silke a silk
et stoff a fabric
et bomull a cotton
et materiale a material
et stål a steel
et jern an iron
et sølv a silver
et kobber a copper
et grunnstoff an element
en/ei leire a clay
en papp a cardboard
et pulver a powder
et mineral a mineral
en diamant a diamond
et kvikksølv a quicksilver, a mercury

Bugs 5 · 2020-07-07 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å stikke to sting
en/ei flue a fly
en/ei bille a beetle
et insekt an insect
en/ei humle a bumblebee
en/ei marihøne a ladybug, a ladybird
en øyenstikker a dragonfly
en/ei lus a louse
en flått a tick
en veps a wasp
en mygg a mosquito
en/ei loppe a flea

TEST 0

  1. Test
  2. Test

TEST 1

1. Test
2. Test

TEST 2

1. Test
2. Test

TEST 3

-1. Test
-2. Test

TEST 4

  1. Test
  2. Test

TEST 4

1. Test
2. Test

TEST 4

1. Test
2. Test

Symbols 3 · 2019-08-30 ^

Punctuation

While the punctuation system in Norwegian is, thankfully, very similar to that of English, there are a few notable exceptions.

Firstly, Oxford commas are not used. If you're genuinely afraid you'll be misunderstood, you're free to add one, but if it's just a stylistic choice you have to let it go.

Norwegian Oxford English
Hun brukte et spørsmålstegn, et utropstegn og et punktum. She used a question mark, an exclamation mark, and a period.

Punctuation in Numbers

Norwegian uses a comma ("et komma") rather than a decimal point to separate a whole number from a decimal.

Norwegian Pronunciation English
25,3 tjuefemkommatre 25.3

The Golden Rule

Punctuation is there to make the text more easily readable. It either separates distinct units of text or represents a pause that would be present in speech. Use it in a way that serves the text.


Parenthesis or Parentheses?

In Norwegian, one would say that (this word) står i parantes, using the singular noun, as we think of the two brackets as forming one parenthesis.

In English, one would say that (this word) is in parentheses, using a plural noun, as English counts each bracket as one separate parenthesis.

Keep this in mind when translating from Norwegian to English and vice versa.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
en/ei pil an arrow
en mur a wall
et kors a cross
et tegn a sign
et symbol a symbol
en metafor a metaphor
en bokstav a letter
en/ei skrift a writing
et alfabet an alphabet
en parentes a parenthesis, parentheses
et punktum a period, a full stop, a point
et utropstegn an exclamation mark
et spørsmålstegn a question mark

Fantasy 3 · 2019-08-30 ^

Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å forsvinne to disappear, to vanish
å sveve to levitate, to float (in air)
å forestille (seg) to imagine
å forvandle (seg) to transform, to turn into
å forutse to predict
ond evil, wicked
usynlig invisible
mektig mighty, powerful
udødelig immortal
en/ei heks a witch
en magi a magic
en tryllestav a wand
en fe a fairy
en ånd a spirit
en drage a dragon
en vampyr a vampire
et spøkelse a ghost
et vesen a being
et uhyre a monster
en lyssabel a lightsaber
en varulv a werewolf
en fantasi a fantasy, an imagination
en kjempe a giant
en/ei havfrue a mermaid
en skapning a creature

Language and Linguistics 6 · 2021-09-03 ^

We Heard You Like Languages, So...

Finally! Now you can geek out about languages in your learning language. It doesn't get much better than that.


Mixed Messages

You've already learned two words that translate to a message, en beskjed and en/ei melding.

Et budskap is the actual message you're trying to communicate - the point you want to get across. For example, a film might seemingly be about a budding romance in 18th century France, but the message the director is trying to get across could be deeper and more universal. Perhaps the film is really about how we project our own insecurities onto others?

En beskjed is the more mundane sort of message. On a train, you may hear Dette er en beskjed til alle passasjerer, this is a message/notice for all passengers, over the calling system. It can also be written down, on a post-it note you leave for your spouse on the kitchen counter, for example. Å gi beskjed is to give notice - to let someone know.

En/ei melding holds more or less the same meaning as en beskjed, but it's also the word we use specifically for text messages. Send meg en melding means text me.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å greie to manage, to be able to
å motsi to contradict
å uttrykke to express
å overdrive to exaggerate
å hilse to greet, to say hi
å tolke to interpret
å prate to chat, to talk
å klage to complain
å uttale to pronounce
å nevne to mention, to name
å mestre to master
å kommunisere to communicate
formell formal
tospråklig bilingual
bokstavelig literal
skriftlig written
muntlig oral, verbal
offisiell official
tvetydig ambiguous, equivocal
gjensidig mutual
et tegnspråk a sign language
et kroppsspråk a body language
et fremmedspråk a foreign language
en forkortelse an abbreviation
en vokal a vowel
en skrivefeil a writing error, a typo
en kontekst a context
et ordforråd a vocabulary
en grammatikk a grammar
et uttrykk an expression
et budskap a message
en kommunikasjon a communication
en kode a code
et synonym a synonym
en oversettelse a translation

Celebrations 8 · 2022-02-04 ^

Gratulerer!

You have reached the summit of our course mountain. We hope the view from here is wonderful, and we wish you a pleasant trip skiing down.

Please keep learning!

Med vennlig hilsen,

Aleksander, Andreas, Andrew, Gry, Leon, Linn, and Madeline


Uppercase Letters Get No Holidays

Holidays such as jul, Christmas, and påske, Easter are not capitalized in Norwegian. This also holds true for other days of note or celebration, like morsdag, Mother's Day, farsdag, Father's Day, and kvinnedagen, Women's Day.

That's right, the lowercase letters get all the fun.


Vocabulary (Tree 4)
å feire to celebrate
å invitere to invite
å pynte to decorate
å gratulere to congratulate
å underholde to entertain
nasjonal national
gyllen golden
edru sober
en/ei jul a Christmas
en/ei påske an Easter
et nyttår a New Year
en/ei gave a present
en ballong a balloon
en festival a festival
et fyrverkeri a firework, fireworks
en invitasjon an invitation
et arrangement an event
en skål a toast
et hurra a hooray, a hurrah, a yay
en sjampanje a champagne

179 skills with tips and notes

 
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