Learn to Speak Norwegian

Learn Norwegian Phrases, Vocabulary and Grammar

The Norwegian language is a North Germanic language spoken by about 5 million people. Norwegian is very closely related to Danish and Swedish, as well as English. The grammar is quite simple to master, and some say it is the easiest language for English speakers to learn. Thanks to the free recordings by a native speaker, you can listen to Norwegian pronunciation while you read the vocabulary words and sample sentences.

There are two types of written Norwegian, Bokmål and Nynorsk. This tutorial includes Bokmål only. Thanks to Dan for helping with this tutorial and Celine for the recordings!

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4. Nouns & Cases

Nouns in Norwegian (Bokmål) have two genders, masculine and neuter, which adjectives must agree with when modifying nouns. Technically there is a third gender, feminine (which Nynorsk retains), but since feminine nouns can be written as masculine nouns, I'm including feminine nouns in the masculine category. There are two indefinite articles that correspond with these genders: en for masculine nouns and et for neuter nouns. In the vocabulary lists, a noun followed by (n) means that it is a neuter noun and it takes the indefinite article et. The majority of nouns in Norwegian are masculine, so they take the indefinite article en.

The only case of nouns that is used in Norwegian is the genitive (showing possession), and it is easily formed by adding an -s to the noun. This is comparable to adding -'s in English to show possession. However, if the noun already ends in -s, then you add nothing (unlike English where we add -' or -'s). Olavs hus = Olav's house

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5. Articles & Demonstratives

 

There are two indefinite articles (corresponding to a and an): en and et. En is used with most of the nouns (words denoting people almost always use en), but you will just have to learn which article goes with which noun. The definite article (the) is not a separate word like in most other languages. It is simply a form of the indefinite article attached to the end of the noun. Note that en words ending in a vowel retain that vowel and add an -n instead of adding -en. And et words ending in -e just add -t. Furthermore, the t of et as an indefinite article is pronounced; however, the t is silent in the definite article -et attached to the noun. (For feminine nouns, the indefinite article is ei and the definite article that is attached to the noun is -a. In theory, this gender does still exist in Bokmål, but in practice, it is rarely used and the feminine nouns are inflected like masculine nouns, i.e. add -en instead of -a for the definite form.)

Articles

En words (masculine)
Indefinite		Definite
en fisk	a fish	fisken	the fish
en baker	a baker	bakeren	the baker
en hage	a garden	hagen	the garden

Et words (neuter)
Indefinite		Definite
et vindu	a window	vinduet	the window
et barn	a child	barnet	the child
et hus	a house	huset	the house

 

 

Demonstrative Adjectives

masculine	denne dressen	this suit	den dressen	that suit
neuter	dette skjerfet	this scarf	det skjerfet	that scarf
plural	disse skoene	these shoes	de skoene	those shoes

Notice that the noun that follows a demonstrative adjective must have the definite article attached to it.
(The feminine form of demonstratives is identical to the masculine; denne and den.)

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6. Subject & Object Pronouns

 

jeg	I	meg	me
du	you (singular)	deg	you
han	he	ham	him
hun	she	henne	her
den	it (masc.)	den	it
det	it (neut.)	det	it
man	one	man	one
vi	we	oss	us
dere	you (plural)	dere	you
de	they	dem	them

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7. To Be & to Have

The present and past tenses of verbs in Norwegian are very simple to conjugate. All the forms are the same for each personal pronoun. The infinitive of the verb to be in Norwegian is være, and the conjugated present tense form is er and the past tense is var. The infinitive of the verb to have is ha, and the conjugated present tense form is har and the past tense is hadde.

være - to be
I am	jeg er	I was	jeg var
you are	du er	you were	du var
he is	han er	he was	han var
she is	hun er	she was	hun var
it is	den er	it was	den var
it is	det er	it was	det var
one is	man er	one was	man var
we are	vi er	we were	vi var
you are	dere er	you were	dere var
they are	de er	they were	de var

 

ha - to have
I have	jeg har	I had	jeg hadde
you have	du har	you had	du hadde
he has	han har	he had	han hadde
she has	hun har	she had	hun hadde
it has	den har	it had	den hadde
it has	det har	it had	det hadde
one has	man har	one had	man hadde
we have	vi har	we had	vi hadde
you have	dere har	you had	dere hadde
they have	de har	they had	de hadde

 

To form the future tense of verbs, just add skal (am/is/are going to) or vil (will) before the infinitive. Jeg skal være = I'm going to be; hun skal ha = she will have; etc. (In simple sentences, either skal or vil are fine to express future actions, but in longer and more complex sentences, it is better to use vil.)

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8. Useful Words

 

sometimes	noen ganger / av og til	already	allerede
always	alltid	perhaps	kanskje
never	aldri	both	begge
often	ofte	some	noe(n)
usually	vanligvis	again	igjen
now	nå	between	mellom
and	og	a lot, many	mye / mange
but	men	of course	selvfølgelig / såklart
or	eller	a little	litt
very	veldig / svært	not at all	ikke i det hele tatt / slettes ikke / overhodet ikke
here	her	almost	nesten
there	der	really?	virkelig?
with	med	it is	det er
each other	hverandre	there is/are	det finnes

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9. Question Words

Who	hvem	How	hvordan
What	hva	How much	hvor mye
Why	hvorfor	How many	hvor mange
When	når	How long	hvor lenge
Where	hvor	Where from	hvorfra
Which	hvilken, hvilket, hvilke	What kind of	hva slags

Hvilken is used with masculine nouns, hvilket is used with neuter nouns, and hvilke is used with plural nouns.

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10. Cardinal & Ordinal Numbers

 

0	null
1	en, ett	1st	første
2	to	2nd	annen, andre
3	tre	3rd	tredje
4	fire	4th	fjerde
5	fem	5th	femte
6	seks	6th	sjette
7	sju	7th	sjuende
8	åtte	8th	åttende
9	ni	9th	niende
10	ti	10th	tiende
11	elleve	11th	ellevte
12	tolv	12th	tolvte
13	tretten	13th	trettende
14	fjorten	14th	fjortende
15	femten	15th	femtende
16	seksten	16th	sekstende
17	sytten	17th	syttende
18	atten	18th	attende
19	nitten	19th	nittende
20	tjue	20th	tjuende
21	tjueen, tjueett	21st	tjueførste
22	tjueto	22nd	tjueandre
30	tretti	30th	trettiende
40	førti	40th	førtiende
50	femti	50th	femtiende
60	seksti	60th	sekstiende
70	sytti	70th	syttiende
80	åtti	80th	åttiende
90	nitti	90th	nittiende
100	hundre	100th	hundrede
1,000	tusen	1,000th	tusende
million	million
billion	milliard
trillion	billion

"Sju" can also be written "syv" (slightly more formal), and "sjuende" as "syvende." Similarly "tjue" can be "tyve", but this does seem less common and more formal.

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11. Days of the Week

Monday	mandag	this morning	i dag morges
Tuesday	tirsdag	tomorrow morning	i morgen tidlig
Wednesday	onsdag	tomorrow afternoon	i morgen formiddag
Thursday	torsdag	tomorrow night	i morgen kveld
Friday	fredag	day after tomorrow	i overmorgen
Saturday	lørdag	tonight	i kveld
Sunday	søndag	last night	i går kveld
day	dag	yesterday	i går
morning	morgen	day before yesterday	i forgårs
afternoon	ettermiddag	week	uke
evening	kveld	next week	neste uke
night	natt	weekend	helg
today	i dag	daily	daglig
tomorrow	i morgen	weekly	ukentlig

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12. Months of the Year

 

January	januar
February	februar
March	mars
April	april
May	mai
June	juni
July	juli
August	august
September	september
October	oktober
November	november
December	desember
month	måned
last month	forrige måned
monthly	månedlig
year	år (n)
this year	i år
last year	i fjor
yearly	årlig

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13. Seasons

Winter	vinter	in (the) winter	om vinteren
Spring	vår	in (the) spring	om våren
Summer	sommer	in (the) summer	om sommeren
Fall	høst	in (the) fall	om høsten

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14. Directions

North	nord	Northeast	nordøst
South	syd	Northwest	nordvest
East	øst	Southeast	sydøst
West	vest	Southwest	sydvest

 

to the right	til høyre
to the left	til venstre
straight ahead	rett fram / frem

Frem is slightly more formal than fram.

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15. Colors

orange	oransje
pink	rosa
purple	lilla
blue	blå, blått, blå
yellow	gul, gult, gule
red	rød, rødt, røde
black	svart, svart, svarte
brown	brun, brunt, brune
gray	grå, grått, grå
white	hvit, hvitt, hvite
green	grønn, grønt, grønne

The first three colors do not change according to gender or number to agree with the noun they modify. The rest of the colors must agree, however, and they are listed in masculine, neuter and plural forms: en grønn kjole - a green dress; et blått hus - a blue house; svarte sokker - black socks

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16. Time

What time is it?	Hva er klokken?	now	nå
It is 2.	Klokken er to.	early	tidlig
6:20	tjue over seks	earlier	tidligere
half past 3	halv fire	soon	snart
quarter past 4	kvart over fire	late	sent
quarter to 5	kvart på fem	later	senere
10 past 11	ti over elleve	in 10 minutes	om ti minutter
20 to 7	tjue på sju	in 15 minutes	om et kvarter
noon	middag	in a half hour	om en halvtime
midnight	midnatt	in an hour	om en time
in the morning	om morgenen	right now	akkurat nå
in the evening	om kvelden	at once	med en gang
It's exactly...	Den er nøyaktig...	immediately	straks
About/around 8.	omtrent åtte	At 8.	klokken åtte

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17. Weather

How's the weather?	Hvordan er været?	What temperature is it?	Hvor mange grader er det?
It's cold	Det er kaldt	It's foggy	Det er tåke
It's warm	Det er varmt	The fog is lifting	Tåken letner
It's beautiful	Det er pent	It's snowing	Det snør
It's bad	Det er dårlig	It's raining	Det regner
It's clearing	Det lysner	It's going to storm	Det blir storm
It's icy	Det er isete	There's thunder	Det tordner
It's windy	Det blåser	There's lightning	Det lyner
It's cloudy	Det er overskyet	It's freezing (cold as ice)	Det er iskaldt
It's humid/muggy	Det er fuktig	It's hailing	Det hagler

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18. Family

 

Parents	foreldre	Niece	niese
Mother	mor	Nephew	nevø
Father	far	Uncle	onkel
Son	sønn	Aunt	tante
Daughter	datter	Boy	gutt
Brother	bror	Girl	jente, pike
Sister	søster	Child / Baby	barn
Grandfather	bestefar	Adult	voksen
Grandmother	bestemor	Man	mann
Grandson	barnebarn	Woman	kvinne
Granddaughter	barnebarn	Friend (male)	venn
Cousin (male)	fetter	Friend female)	venninne
Cousin (female)	kusine

Some family words have irregular indefinite plurals: mødre (mothers), fedre (fathers), sønner (sons), døtre (daughters), brødre (brothers), and søstre (sisters)

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19. To Know People & Facts

	kjenne - to know (people/places)	vite - to know (facts)
present	kjenner	vet
past	kjente	visste
future	skal / vil kjenne	skal / vil vite

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20. Formation of Plural Nouns

 

Masculine nouns generally add -er or -r to the indefinite singular noun to form the indefinite plural, and -ene or -ne to form the definite plural. The names of jobs ending in -er only add -e and -ne in these cases. Neuter nouns that are more than one syllable form plural nouns the same way as masculine nouns. Neuter nouns that are only one syllable, however, add nothing to form the indefinite plural and either -ene or -a to form the definite plural.

Irregular plural nouns in Norwegian:

Singular	Irregular Indefinite Plural		Singular = Indefinite Plural
and	ender	duck(s)	angrep (n)	attack(s)
bok	bøker	book(s)	besøk (n)	visit(s)
bonde	bønder	peasant(s)	eventyr (n)	tale(s), story(ies)
fot	føtter	foot(feet)	feil	error(s), mistake(s)
hånd	hender	hand(s)	forhold	circumstance(s)
håndkle	håndklær	hand towel(s)	høve (n)	opportunity(ies)
kne (n)	knær	knee(s)	kreps	crawfish(es)
kraft	krefter	strength	mus	mouse(s)
ku	kyr	cow(s)	mygg	mosquito(es)
natt	netter	night(s)	sild	herring(s)
mann	menn	man(men)	sko	shoe(s)
rand	render	edge(s)	spiker	nail(s)
rot	røtter	root(s)	ting	thing(s)
sted (n)	steder	place(s)	våpen	weapon(s)
stang	stenger	bar(s)
strand	strender	beach(es)
tang	tenger	pincher(s)
tann	tenner	tooth(teeth)
tre	trær	tree(s)
tå	tær	toe(s)
øye	øyne	eye(s)