Speak Norwegian: Your Language Learning Guide

Learning a new language can be daunting, but with the right resources and approach it is also rewarding. Norwegian is the official language of Norway, spoken by around five million people, and it is close enough to Danish and Swedish that speakers of all three can largely understand each other. If you are interested in learning Norwegian but are not sure where to start, this guide is for you.

Two written standards: bokmål and nynorsk

The first thing that surprises learners is that Norwegian has two official written forms. Bokmål grew out of written Danish and is used by roughly 85 to 90 percent of the population; nynorsk was constructed in the nineteenth century from rural dialects. Courses for foreigners teach bokmål, and that is the right choice unless you are moving somewhere that uses nynorsk in schools. Spoken Norwegian, meanwhile, is a landscape of strong regional dialects, and Norwegians simply speak their own rather than a standard — which is the genuinely hard part of listening.

Why you are learning it

Before diving into specifics, it helps to be clear about your goal. You might be planning a trip, or you might need Norwegian for work. Note that many jobs do not require it at all — see whether you need Norwegian to work in Norway — but it changes your social life considerably. Set goals, practise regularly, and immerse yourself as much as possible.

From hei to ha det: basic greetings and phrases

Common greetings include hei (hello), god dag (good day) and god kveld (good evening). Other useful phrases are takk (thank you), unnskyld (excuse me) and ha det (goodbye). Practising these will make you more comfortable opening a conversation, which in Norway is the hardest part for reasons that have nothing to do with grammar — see making contacts in a shy country.

The alphabet and the three extra letters

Norwegian uses the Latin alphabet with three additional letters at the end: æ, ø and å. They are letters in their own right, not accented variants, and they have their own place in the dictionary. Getting the vowels right is most of what makes a learner intelligible — the same challenge that makes Grünerløkka difficult to say.

Listening and comprehension

Comprehension is the skill that lags, because textbook Norwegian and street Norwegian differ. Watch NRK, listen to Norwegian podcasts and music, and talk to native speakers. Norwegian television is unusually good practice because so much of it is subtitled in Norwegian. Expect to find Bergen and Trondheim harder than Oslo at first.

Pronunciation

Norwegian is a pitch-accent language: the same sequence of sounds can mean two different things depending on the tone pattern, which is why Norwegian sounds sing-song to English ears. Do not try to fix this consciously at the start. Focus on the vowels, read aloud, and copy what you hear.

Grammar

The good news for English speakers is that Norwegian grammar is comparatively simple. Verbs do not conjugate by person — jeg er, du er, han er. Word order is verb-second and fairly predictable. The parts that take work are the three genders, the definite article attached to the end of the noun (en bil, “a car”, becomes bilen, “the car”), and adjective agreement.

Taking the next step

After the basics, keep going with a formal course, authentic material such as books and news in Norwegian, or immersion through travel and Norwegian friends. Municipalities offer subsidised courses to many residents, and passing a language test matters if you are working toward citizenship. Language learning is a long process, but Norwegian rewards the effort faster than most.