r/norsk • • 12h ago

Søndagsspørsmål - Sunday Question Thread

2 Upvotes

This is a weekly post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

Question Thread Collection


r/norsk • • Aug 14 '20

Some Norwegian resources and other helpful stuff

533 Upvotes

Probably missed a lot of resources, some due to laziness, and some due to limit in max allowed post size. Will edit as necessary.

Courses, grammar lessons, educational books, etc.

Duolingo (from A1 to A2/B1)

duolingo.com is free to use, supported by ads. Optional pay for no ads and for a few more features.

The Norwegian course is one of the more extensive ones available on Duolingo. The volunteer content creators have put a lot of work into it, and the creators are very responsive to fixing potential errors. The audio is computer generated.

You learn words and constructed sentences.

If you use the browser version you will get grammar tips, and can choose if you want to type the complete sentences or use selectable word choices. The phone app might or might not give access to the grammar tips.

A compiled pdf of the grammar tips for version 1 can be found on Google drive. (The Norwegian course is currently at version 4).

Memrise (from A1 to A2/B1)

memrise.com is free to use. Optional pay for more features.

A few courses are company made, while several others are user made. No easy way to correct errors found in the courses. Audio is usually spoken by humans.

You learn words and constructed phrases.

Learn Norwegian on the web (from A1 to A2/B1)

Free to use. Optional books you can buy. Made by the University in Trondheim, NTNU. Audio is spoken by humans.

A complete course starting with greetings and ending with basic communication.

FutureLearn (from A1 to A2/B1)

Free to use. Optional pay for more features. Audio and video spoken by humans. Made by the University of Oslo, UiO. Or by the University in Trondheim, NTNU.

Can be done at any time, but during their scheduled times (usually start of the fall and the spring semester) you will get help from human teachers.

CALST — Computer-Assisted Listening and Speaking Tutor

CALST is free to use. Made by the University in Trondheim, NTNU. Audio is spoken by humans.

Choose your native language, then choose your Norwegian dialect, then continue as guest, or optionally register an account.

Learn how to pronounce the Norwegian sounds and differentiate similar sounding words. Learn the sounds and tones/pitch.

Not all lessons work in all browsers. Chrome is recommended.

YouTube

Clozemaster (at B1/B2)

clozemaster.com is free to use. Optional pay for more features.

Not recommended for beginners.

Content is mostly user made. No easy way to correct errors in the material. Audio is computer generated.

You learn words (multiple choice).

Printed (on dead trees) learning material

  • På vei (A1/A2)
  • Stein på stein (B1)
  • Her på berget (B1/B2)
  • Ny i Norge (A1/A2)
  • The Mystery of Nils (A1/A2)
  • Mysteriet om Nils (B1/B2)

Grammar and stuff

Online grammar exercises (based on printed books)

/r/norsk FAQ and Wiki

Dictionaries

Bokmålsordboka/Nynorskordboka — Norwegian-Norwegian

The authoritative dictionary for Norwegian words and spelling.

Maintained by University of Bergen (UiB), and Språkrådet (The language council of Norway) that has government mandate to oversee the Norwegian language.

  • Also available as a free phone app.
  • Lists all acceptable inflection/conjugation/declension spelling forms of words, so some find it confusing.
  • Does not show pronunciation since Norwegian has no official way to pronounce words.
  • Does not list slang words, former spelling of modern words (except if it's in the etymologi) nor newly imported words.

Lexin — Norwegian-Norwegian-English-sort-of

Maintained by OsloMet.

  • Mainly intended for immigrants/refugees to Norway, so has some of the most common immigrant languages as option.
  • Lists the most common (often conservative) inflection patterns.
  • Computer generated voice with standard East-Norwegian dialect.
  • Choose any language other than bokmål or nynorsk and it usually shows English too.

Det norske akademis ordbok — Norwegian-Norwegian

Maintained by Det norske akademi for språk og kultur, a private organisation promoting riksmål, which is NOT allowed officially.

  • Lists slang words and archaic spelling variants of words.
  • Uses a very conservative spelling and inflection variant.
  • Lists a Norwegianised pronunciation guide for words, using upper class/Western-Oslo dialect.

Ordnett — Norwegian-English/English-Norwegian

Maintained by a book publisher.

  • Also available as a phone app.
  • Costs $$$ money $$$. Possibly a lot of money.
  • Has dictionaries for a several languages commonly learned by Norwegians, for example English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Polish, Russian, Chinese, Arabic, Swedish.

Online communities

Facebook

Discord

Discord is a web-browser/phone/windows/mac/etc-app that allows both text, voice and video chat. Most of the resources in this post were first posted here.

If you are new to Discord its user interface might be a bit confusing in the beginning, since there are many servers/communities and many topics on each server.

If you're new to Discord and you try it, using a web-browser until you get familiar and see if this is something you enjoy or not is recommended.

If you use a phone you will need to swipe left and right, long-press and minimise/expand categories and stuff much more than on a bigger computer screen, which probably adds complexity to the initial confusion of a using an unfamiliar app.

Some Norwegian servers:

Newspapers

Media

Podcasts

Various books

Various material for use by Norwegian schools

Various (children's) series

NRK TV

Children's stuff with subtitles

Brødrene Dahl

Youth stuff

Other stuff without subtitles

Grown up stuff

For those with a VPN (or living in Norway)

For those living in Norway

Visit your local library in person and check out their web pages. It gives you free access to lots of books, magazines, films and stuff.

Most also have additional digital stuff you get free access to, like e-books, films, dictionaries, all kind of magazines and newspapers.

Some even give you free access to some of the paid Norwegian languages courses listed above.


r/norsk • • 23h ago

Bokmål Anyone demotivated to learn because norwegians say stuff like "why even bother" or they cringe at you saying/writing things or only answer in english?

14 Upvotes

My contact with norwegian people is limited to only online interactions, so it might be very different from real life. But if someone has a norwegian name or says something and I join the conversation in norwegian, then they would ask if I am norwegian to which I reply no.

Then they would be like "why did you write in norwegian, did you learn it?" Why would you even learn it it's useless, we all speak perfect english anyways 🤣" and there's also the speaking, which is worse... if you happen to have an accent, not even thick, just a smudge of italian or russian, people would switch to english before even saying anything.

It really just feels like a mix of gatekeeping combined with shaming. Some days I'm really excited to learn something new on mjølnir, or continue the series of my saved youtube videos or podcasts while I eat or clean. Then something like this happens I don't touch it for like a week. It's fine if people don't care I'm doing it for myself because I like it and keeps my brain excercised. But kinda being laughed at or insinuating that I'm weird for learning a small language which its natives all speak english anyway is not ok... What exactly is this behaviour?


r/norsk • • 2d ago

"Jeg vil gjerne ha" eller "jeg vil gjerne få"

13 Upvotes

Hva er egentlig forskjellen mellom de to variantene, hvis det er noen? Hvordan brukes de?


r/norsk • • 3d ago

I need help reading a Norwegian signature, please. 🙏

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42 Upvotes

FYI, it's at least 100 years old. I'd really appreciate whatever information you can provide! It's an artist signature or notation on an art lithograph.


r/norsk • • 3d ago

Bokmål A1: Trying to understand possessive pronouns

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30 Upvotes

I'm struggling to understand this example because it only references a house in relation to ownership. I asked Claude "So why does this even exist as a rule then? Wouldn't every sentence scenario be "min/mi/mitt noun", to which it said technically yes if you wanted to. Is there something I'm not understanding about when I would place the possessive pronoun after the noun?


r/norsk • • 4d ago

Nynorsk Oslofolk og nynorsk

36 Upvotes

Nå er dette ren nysgjerrighet og ikke ment som noe sånn direkte kritikk eller lignende. Er denne posten innafor?

Har sett mye snakk om at Oslofolk ikke forstår andre dialekter rundt omkring i landet. Både her på Reddit, og både blant kollegaer og generelt.

Det fikk meg egentlig til å lure på om det faktisk har seg sånn at en stor andel av Oslo folk ikke klarer å forstå nynorsk skriftspråk og dialekter fra andre steder i Norge. Jeg er født og oppvokst i Oslo sjæl og snakker det man kanskje fra gammelt av ville sett på som fra østkanten. Og har veldig lite problemer med å forstå hva andre sier uansett dialekt. Jeg kan jo forstå slang som er veldig spesifikt til forskjellige områder, siden jeg selv har opplevd at folk fra f.eks. nord Norge ikke forstår min slang som kanskje er spesifikt knyttet til Oslo området.

Hvis det har seg sånn at Oslofolk faktisk ikke forstår dialekter ordentlig, hva er egentlig grunnen? Føler man blir utsatt for dialekter og skriftspråk så fort man åpner nyhetene, hører på radio, ser på tv osv…

EDIT: når jeg skrev innlegget skulle det handle mest om nynorsk i seg selv, men når jeg redigerte teksten ble det om dialekter istedenfor. Glemte å endre tittel fra «nynorsk» til «dialekt» før det ble postet.


r/norsk • • 5d ago

Bokmål LGBTQ term for "in the closet" in norwegian

75 Upvotes
Er hun i skapet? - Is she in the closet?

Is the phrase "i skapet" used as the lgbtq terminology "in the closet" too or is it just the literal meaning of being inside a closet? How do you say someone is closeted sexuality or genderwise?


r/norsk • • 5d ago

Nynorsk Bryr folk som lærer seg norsk seg om nynorsk?

25 Upvotes

Som me alle veit, so er hovudfokuset til dei fleste som lærer seg norsk, bokmål. Kanskje med unntak av dei som bur eller flyttar til ein nynorskstad, men bokmål er nok eit stort fokus for dei som gjer det òg. Men eg lurer bare på om nokon av dei som ikkje flyttar til ein nynorskstad tar seg bryet med å læra seg nynorsk? For selv om det er eit offisielt språk, so tvilar eg på at nokon som bur i, til dømes Oslo, møter på nynorsk i kvardagen sin.

Eg har vakse opp kun med bokmål (den einaste grunnen til at eg skriv det her på nynorsk, er for å sjekka om eg framleis har det i meg, for eg har ikkje brukt språket sidan skuledagene mine), og eg brukar aldri nynorsk, og skal eg vere heilt ærleg, so hadde eg sannsynlegvis ikkje gidde å lært meg det om eg var ny her i landet.


r/norsk • • 5d ago

Bokmål Learning Norwegian as my second foreign language

20 Upvotes

Hello, I am thinking of learning a second foreign language (Greek is my native, English is my second). After contemplating a lot with myself, I decided that Norwegian seems a pretty interesting choice. I have dreams of moving to a more advanced country in the future and Norway is a strong contender.

What do you think? Is it hard?


r/norsk • • 6d ago

Bokmål Question about writing and punctuation

4 Upvotes

I am trying to improve my learning of Norsk, and part of that has been working on my reading and writing. As part of that I proof my work with Google Translate.

Occasionally the translations will include a hyphen, usually where a break in a sentence would be, whether it’s a comma, semi-colon, or period.

Is the use of hyphens actually a thing in Bokmål, or is it just an artifact of google probably using an AI program for the translations?


r/norsk • • 6d ago

Spørsmål om ingen!

10 Upvotes

Hi everyone! So quick question the g in ingen everytime I try to look it up to see if the g is pronounced it just says no but then the next thing will say yes it just blends with the n but obviously both can’t be true. So the question is it is pronounced? Because when I listen to songs I hear a very distinct g sound when I hear the word spoken but I’ve always made it silent. In fact the first time I heard the word spoken outside of my head I thought it was a different word entirely. So thank you look forward to the answers!


r/norsk • • 6d ago

Bokmål I generated free norwegian dictionaries for e-readers. Would be happy for feedback.

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5 Upvotes

Hi there, I’d like to share a reading resource I built.

I’m from Germany, and my English is not perfect. When I read Norwegian books on my e-reader, I often meet words I don’t know. There are a few dictionaries to download, but most of them are small or only Norwegian -> English. I understand most English words, but not all of them. I looked for a Norwegian -> German dictionary for e-readers and couldn’t find a good one: they were missing inflected forms and many words.

I’m a developer, so I built my own, and I publish them for free:

  • Bokmål → English, German, Spanish, Polish and Ukrainian, about 90,000 entries each
  • Workss with Kindle, Kobo, KOReader and the Yomitan browser extension
  • the base form and its forms, also for inflected words like gikk or trærne
  • free

Yes, the entries are written by AI and checked automatically. A translator like DeepL or the free word lists can’t produce this kind of structured dictionary, so this was the only way for me to make it. There will be mistakes. It’s not meant to replace a official dictiionary, but to help you keep reading without reaching for a translator every few pages.

I’d be happy about your feedback here in the comments (in case you try and use it)

I hope it helps someone!

Website: TapDict


r/norsk • • 6d ago

Bokmål Hallo alle sammen. Kan jeg få sanger/artister jeg kan lytte til for å lære meg? Tusen takk.

9 Upvotes

r/norsk • • 6d ago

Stein på stein B1

0 Upvotes

Hei! Har noen lytteoppgavene fra den nyeste utgaven av boken? Forlagets nettsted og nettmateriell fungerer ikke lenger i det hele tatt, ikke engang for folk som bor i Norge og har et norsk nummer, så jeg ser etter lytteoppgaver fra kapittel 8 til slutten, opp til kapittel 15 👀


r/norsk • • 7d ago

Søndagsspørsmål - Sunday Question Thread

6 Upvotes

This is a weekly post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

Question Thread Collection


r/norsk • • 8d ago

Can a Norwegian L2 speaker read novels and newspapers in Swedish and Danish, as well as Nynorsk, fairly easily? What about the other way around?

12 Upvotes

r/norsk • • 8d ago

Bokmål Å eller og

17 Upvotes

I løpet av livet mitt har jeg vært inne på språkrådets sider flere ganger og lest om hvordan bruke og og å. Dessverre er det lite konkrete eksempler, så jeg føler ikke jeg helt får det jeg trenger.

På barneskolen fortalte ingen meg noen gang at jeg måtte lese gjennom rettede innleveringer og (?) forsøke å lære fra mine feil, så jeg gjorde aldri dette. Jeg hadde uansett store vansker med å lese min egen håndskrift, og lærerens for den saks skyld. Jeg fikk ikke noe hjelp hjemme, og jeg sleit med kraftig angst og udiagnostisert autisme, samt utviklet depresjon i ung alder. Jeg hadde vanskeligheter med å kommunisere, så jeg turte aldri å spørre læreren om noe, og selv hvis jeg hadde klart å spørre hadde jeg nok ikke på det tidspunktet klart å formulere noe vettugt. Norsk var nok et av mine svakeste fag, mens jeg gjorde det utmerket i engelsk.

Jeg tar som hovedregel at når jeg skal gjøre en ting og en annen ting, eller at jeg i fortid gjorde en ting og en annen ting, skriver jeg "og". F.eks jeg skal gå på kjøkkenet *og* spise. Er dette feil? Skal det egentlig være "å" der? Jeg tror nå det skal være å der, men ved andre eksempler som jeg ikke helt klarer å komme på her og nå er jeg usikker. Noen ganger skriver jeg "og å spise" der hvor det er mulig, men det passer ikke alltid grammatisk.

Rett gjerne på min bruk av og og å i denne posten om du mener jeg har brukt dem feil.

Jeg kommer ikke på noen andre konkrete eksempler på når jeg er usikker på om det skal være å eller og, men jeg kan alltids komme innom her igjen om jeg finner flere tilfeller hvor jeg er usikker!

Har du noen gode eksempler på "avanserte"/lange setninger hvor det er to hoveddeler til setningen som kunne tenkes at skulle deles med og, men andre halvdel inkluderer å gjøre noe, og derfor skal det være å?


r/norsk • • 8d ago

Gruppebetinget empati på norsk

16 Upvotes

Jeg jakter på norske ord eller konsepter som tilsvarer "Parochial altruism" og/eller "Parochial empathy"

(De betegner begrep som omtaler antropologiske fenomener hvor mennesker kan vise godvilje mot de som er "en av oss", og samtidig vise uvilje eller likegyldighet mot "de andre.")


r/norsk • • 9d ago

Rule 3 (vague/generic post title) First time learner

10 Upvotes

Hello, I am trying to learn Norwegian as an Italian speaker. I use Duolingo for now, I wanted to know if there are other ways to learn it.

I would be happy to buy books with exercises or I would love to have music in Norwegian (until now I only listened to the duo Væb from Iceland but I don’t think it’s the same thing).

Even games or series to watch are fine, until now I have only watched Vikings.

Thank you for the help and I hope to be able to learn it as fast as I can so I can show my improvement :)


r/norsk • • 10d ago

Any good Norwegian crossword puzzles?

31 Upvotes

I'm a huge fan of the New York Times crossword puzzle, IYKYK. The Norwegian crosswords I've seen will have a clue like, "animal" and the answer could be literally any animal, whereas the NYT clues are more specific or use wordplay.

Help, I'm addicted to crossword puzzles, and want to find a good one in Norwegian.


r/norsk • • 12d ago

Usikkerheten vs Uvissheten

12 Upvotes

Hei,

jeg leste en tale av kong Harald hvor han sier "Uvissheten gjør oss alle sårbare". Jeg er forvirret over forskjellen mellom (uvissheten) og (usikkerheten). Kunne det ha vært "Usikkerheten gjør oss alle sårbare"? Kan begge brukes i samme sammenhenger?

Mange takk!


r/norsk • • 13d ago

Bokmål Trying to understand how to order VERB AND SUBJECT/NOUN in sentences

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47 Upvotes

I was wondering if someone could explain how this gramatical concept works?

I have a basic understanding of the language (recently just started and have been reading a grammar book as well on the side) and was under the impression that the structure «kan jeg…» [verb then subject] was for questions such as «spiser du…» “are you eating…/do you eat….” «forstår han?» “does he understand?” etc. and that the opposite order [subject then verb] is for saying facts or statements such as «jeg løper…» “I am running…/ I run…”.

In this example it shows that in order to say “now I can read” it would follow the order of [verb then noun/subject], similar to that of a question but this is in-fact not a question. What is the reason for this ‘inconsistency’ and is there some solid rule to understand this?

I also noticed the same in a sentence I was asked to translate “In Oslo, there is a bottle museum” and it was translated to «I Oslo, er det et flaskmuseum». With my limited understanding, I would have thought that this translation would have actually meant “In Oslo, is there a bottle museum?” as a question, since I assume if I did want to ask that question, it would be done as such: «er det et flaskmuseum i Oslo?» or «I Oslo er det et flaskmuseum?»

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this and for potentially responding :)


r/norsk • • 14d ago

Hvor vanlig er dette utrykket? «å ha utserndet med seg»

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98 Upvotes

Duolingo har nettopp lært meg ordet «utseende». Én av setningene Duolingo har brukt er følgende: «Hun har utseendet med seg». Jeg lurer på hvor vanlig dette utrykket er, fordi Duolingo noen ganger lærer bort ganske gammeldagse uttrykk.

På forhånd takk!


r/norsk • • 14d ago

Søndagsspørsmål - Sunday Question Thread

3 Upvotes

This is a weekly post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

Question Thread Collection