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