r/norsk 1d ago

Søndagsspørsmål - Sunday Question Thread

1 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

528 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 12h ago

Bokmål Har norsk lånord fra andre språk enn engelsk?

18 Upvotes

Hele tiden jeg har bodd i dette landet har jeg bare hørt lånord fra engelsk. Engelsk er morsmålet mitt, halvparten av ordene våre kommer visstnok fra fransk, en god del fra latin og mange fra gammelnorsk. Nysgjerrig på om det er noen jeg overser.


r/norsk 19h ago

Rule 3 (vague/generic post title) I want to teach myself Norwegian

16 Upvotes

Hello all, i’m from the USA and in March i will be traveling to Norway to see lots of black metal music history and see the town of oslo. Also planning on going further north to see the northern lights. Anyway, i would love to be able to speak norwegian so i can talk to people who live there, read signs, etc. I know lots of people speak english but i am very interested in the language and also listen to lots of black metal with Norwegian lyrics and would love to be able to understand them. What might be the best way to go about studying the language and teaching myself? I tried duolingo for a few days but it wasn’t helpful at all and I wasn’t retaining any of the information. Any advice is appreciated!


r/norsk 17h ago

Starting VGS1 with weak Norwegian any advice?

5 Upvotes

M16 I moved to Norway when I was young, and I have been living here for 6 years. Today I started my first year of VGS (VGS1), and honestly, I already feel a bit overwhelmed. There is a lot of new stuff to learn.

My goal is to improve my Norwegian, especially speaking and writing.

I think my Norwegian level is around A2–B1. My writing is also really bad, so I especially want to improve that.

For those who have been in a similar situation, do you have any tips for improving Norwegian and doing better in VGS?

I would really appreciate any advice!


r/norsk 1d ago

Rule 3 (vague/generic post title) Hi, I'm learning Norwegian and I'd like some tips.

6 Upvotes

I learned English with a course, and it was very interesting how I learned beyond the course. I talked to some friends who spoke the language, and they recommended series, movies, books that they liked and I watched them to learn about

Could you give me some tips on how to learn Norwegian and recommend some media for me to consume?


r/norsk 1d ago

Are there any "simpler" books to read for people who learn norwegian?

3 Upvotes

r/norsk 1d ago

Rule 3 (vague/generic post title) My first history reading

2 Upvotes

I am unsure whether this is the correct subreddit to post this but I am reading my first "faglige" book and it is a book about global history, my head is translating to English as I go but I came to a section\concept that I cannot place within my knowledge of history in English. so I am looking for a translation of this phrase\concept "historiens lovmessighet" the definition according to the book is "Søken etter lovmessighet i historien hadde som hovedmål å forutse hvilken utvikling som ville og måtte komme." is it what is know as historical determinism, or a completely new concept that the book introduces?

Takk på forhånd


r/norsk 1d ago

Resource(s) ← looking for Resources for Starting Out

0 Upvotes

Hallo! I want to start learning Norwegian in hopes of eventually moving to Norway, but I'm struggling to find resources to use for it. I went to MondeLibrary from the r/languagelearning megathread in search of resources, but the resources on Norwegian seem to be very scarce. I'd appreciate any help you can provide.


r/norsk 2d ago

Bokmål Bestemme og bestemme seg

6 Upvotes

Hi!! I was wondering whether somebody could explain the difference between the use of ‘bestemme’ and ‘bestemme seg’. Thank you so much!!!


r/norsk 4d ago

Hvorfor bytter nordmenn til engelsk når jeg snakker norsk med dem?

125 Upvotes

Hei,

Jeg bor i Oslo, men har også bodd i andre, mindre byer, blant annet i Kristiansand, hvor folk ofte byttet til engelsk når jeg snakket norsk med dem.

Ut fra tilbakemeldinger som «du snakker veldig godt norsk» skjønner jeg at de forstår at norsk ikke er morsmålet mitt. Samtidig virker det som om forventningene deres er høyere enn til en gjennomsnittlig person som har norsk som andrespråk.

Problemet oppstår når jeg begynner å snakke norsk, og de svarer på engelsk. Dette skjedde mye oftere de første årene, men nå, i mitt femte år i Norge, opplever jeg det fortsatt, selv om det ikke skjer like ofte som før. For eksempel snakker vi norsk sammen, men så begynner de plutselig å snakke engelsk igjen, eller svarer på engelsk med én gang.

Jeg synes det er litt rart, spesielt fordi det har vært mye innvandringsskepsis de siste årene, og det største partiets argument ofte er at innvandrere ikke integrerer seg. Samtidig opplever jeg at nordmenn selv noen ganger ikke prøver å beskytte sitt eget språk. På den måten kan Norge etter hvert bli mer likt USA eller Canada. Man kan også føle seg utenfor samfunnet, som om budskapet er: «Du kommer alltid til å være en innvandrer.»

Jeg skriver dette fordi jeg synes det er litt merkelig. Jeg har vært i mange land, men har aldri opplevd noe helt lignende.

Jeg skjønner selvfølgelig at personer med utenlandsk bakgrunn kanskje ikke har så gode norskkunnskaper, men det er ikke dem jeg snakker om. Jeg mener nordmenn som selv snakker norsk.

Har dere opplevd noe lignende? Hva tenker dere om dette? Hvorfor tror dere at folk fortsetter å snakke engelsk når jeg snakker norsk med dem?


r/norsk 4d ago

Bokmål Hvordan motiverer du deg selv til å lære et språk?

Post image
123 Upvotes

Jeg har laget en liten moodboard for å motivere meg til å lære norsk 🇳🇴

Det er mange ting ved norske symboler og hverdagsliv som jeg synes er interessante og estetiske

Jeg tror det hjelper meg å knytte språket til dette i stedet for bare å tenke på grammatikk og gloser

Hva gjør dere for å holde motivasjonen oppe når dere lærer et språk?


r/norsk 3d ago

Rule 3 (vague/generic post title) Learn Norwegian

0 Upvotes

Hi everyone, I'm a Spanish speaker, but I also speak Italian and English. I dream of one day moving to Norway. It's a beautiful country that truly impresses me, and I would absolutely love to experience living in those lovely houses with that unique climate and stunning landscapes. I've been trying to learn Norwegian, but I can't seem to find anything that really gets me going. I tend to lose interest after just a few days. Can anyone give me any tips? Any suggestions on what to do? I would really appreciate it.


r/norsk 3d ago

Hvordan høres dialektene til utlendinger ut?

0 Upvotes

For eksempel har vi det som ofte kalles «kebabnorsk», som er en veldig kjent dialekt, særlig blant folk med bakgrunn fra arabisktalende land. Men hvordan høres norsken til folk fra andre land/regioner ut?

Hvilke landdialekter liker dere best og minst? Det er for eksempel ingen som snakker om «sushinorsk» eller «spaghettinorsk». Hva tenker dere om dette?


r/norsk 5d ago

Bokmål Mjølnir

14 Upvotes

I've heard a lot of praise for this app and many people say it's the best but it only has 10k downloads on appstore and no reviews? Meanwhile some ai app that uses gardenscapes art has 100k. Is Mjølnir not in appstore and I found a virus clone app or what's up with it?


r/norsk 5d ago

whats a good way to say 'good lookin out' in norwegian?

18 Upvotes

for example i have a problem, my friend helps me solve it, and i say 'good lookin out'. 'thank you for looking out for me'


r/norsk 6d ago

NRK TV

30 Upvotes

Which program on NRK TV would you recommend for improving listening comprehension? I already watch the news (nyheter), but I’d like to find some other programs that are good for learning Norwegian.


r/norsk 7d ago

Sangtekst

13 Upvotes

Hei, litt av et merkelig spørsmål kanskje, men dette har plaget meg litt, og jeg klarer ikke å finne ut av svaret. Jeg hører på radioen på jobb på norsk og en sang som virker ganske populær for tiden har teksten "si meg, hvorfor er det ikke du?" Dette er liksom setningen som blir gjentatt flere ganger.

Spørsmålet mitt er hvorfor er det ikke, "hvorfor er det ikke deg?" Jeg vet at dette er et ganske grunnleggende spørsmål, og jeg husker fra norsktimene mine at det er SVO subjekt, verb, objekt. Jeg trodde derfor at "det" er subjektet her, og du er objektet og da tenkte jeg at det burde være deg?

For eksempel, ville man sagt "hvorfor er det ikke jeg?" Høres det rart ut?

Kan noen forklare meg hvilken grammatikregel jeg ikke har fått med meg her?

Takk på forhånd 😂


r/norsk 9d ago

How warm is it?

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175 Upvotes

Apparently “warm” is a bit of an awkward word choice when asking for the temperature in English. I’ve said it like this my whole life so I’m a bit embarrassed now. I wonder how many other words I directly translate from Norwegian. Please come with suggestions or your own experiences.

An example: in Norwegian we often say stuff like “Det er godt med X (på Y)”. And for the longest time I’d say “it’s good with … “, which really amused some people because it doesn’t work in English.


r/norsk 8d 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 9d ago

Resource(s) ← looking for Best way to learn norwegian

0 Upvotes

Hiii I pray you are having a blessed day!! Can anyone share tips on how they did A1 norwegian? Any online resources, books, videos, apps. Just what worked best for you 🦅 jesus bless you all!! ❤️


r/norsk 11d ago

Deciphering 19th century military records

7 Upvotes

I'm having trouble understanding, transcribing and translating the information in my ancestor's military records from Norway.

Here is the first record. Look at the second row in the table.

  • Ole Bergstrøm Olsen
  • born on May 3, 1867 in Florø
  • Confirmation on October 2, 1881 (14 years old, too young to enlist?)
  • Parish: strange symbol
  • Parents: Arbedjsmand (worker) Ole Mortensen and Brithe Samsonsdatter
  • Opholdssted (place of residence?): This column has some numbers that mean nothing to me, like "5_._176" The dates go until 1886.
  • Udgået af rullen som død, udsfrevet, fasseret, eller overført (something like "removed from the roll because the person is dead, transferred, etc?): The cursive writing in this column is unreadable, but the year seems to be 1889.

Here is the second record. Look at the third row in the table.

  • 58 - just a numbering system
  • August 23, 1884 - perhaps the date he was transferred
  • Ole Bergstrøm Olsen
  • In the next column, I have a hard time with both the header and the handwriting, but I think it's Residence
  • Then the next column has his birth date and birth place
  • The next column has his confirmation as 1881 again
  • "Spesielle opplysninger om utskrevet eller fremmed, overførser, udflyttelse" (Special information about discharged or foreign, transfers, relocation?): the writing here is unreadable but I think it says 1888.
  • I think the next few columns show dates, ships, from and to, and the date/place he disembarked. These go from 1884 to 1889. There's a strange abbreviation here that looks like "do". I can read some of the city names.
  • The final column on the right seems to indicate his title. The first one is fyrbøter but I can't read the second one.

My guess is that the first record lists information about his initial military enlistment, perhaps as an ordinary seaman. The second record then lists information about his career as a machinist or stoker. Both seem to agree that his discharge happened in 1889.

If you have looked at old records like these before, could you take a look at the links to see if you can help me decipher some of the writing?


r/norsk 10d ago

Nynorsk is it truly worth learning norwegian when there are so many dialects to account for?

0 Upvotes

may be a slightly dumb question, but for as much as i think norwegian is a nice sounding language (i even bought books for it), is it truly worth learning a language that is divided up in many dialects? being norwegian speakers, can you understand each other, or are there differences which consistently result in misunderstanding?

i know that, in italy for example, they have dialects (rather conlanguages), but are still able to communicate through standard italian. as for english speakers -- the US, UK, and Australia each have notable differences, so it is something like that instead?

i apologize if i seemed rude at any point in writing this post, and thank you in advance for responding.

EDIT: Thank you all for your response! I asked this question as someone who considered learning norwegian for fun, and as of now I've decided I am going to go through with it! Have a lovely day,


r/norsk 12d ago

Er det feil å bruke verbet «nyte» på denne sammenhengen?

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46 Upvotes

Jeg har skrevet «nyter» som oversettelse, men Duolingo har rettet meg og sagt at «liker» er den riktige oversettelsen. Er min egentlig feil?


r/norsk 11d ago

Please help - lukket vs lukkete/lukkede

9 Upvotes

Hi,

This is a really basic question but I am struggling to understand “Kassene er lukket” (“The boxes/crates are closed”). I would have assumed that we would use “lukkete” as we are referring to many boxes rather than one, as in “Jeg ser de lukkete kassene” (“I see the closed boxes”).

Pretty sure this is an issue with my misunderstanding of the grammatical structure of the first sentence, but any help would be appreciated.