Learing Norvegian

SITE: PRONUNTIE IN NORVEGIANA: HTTP://NO.THEFREEDICTIONARY.COM/NEI

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, 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 decided to teach it
where it is most natural to use it, with words such as jente meaning girl, for example.

Pronouns
Norwegian pronouns are very straightforward and correspond well to English ones:

Singular Plural

jeg I vi we

du you, singular dere you, plural

han, hun, det he, she, it de they

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

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 Singular Plural

du er you are dere er you are

han, hun, det er he, she, it is de er they are

Although not as common as det, den is used to mean it or that when referring to a masculine or
feminine subject, and not a neuter one.

Pronunciation
As a general rule, words are spelled as they're pronounced in Norwegian. One exception is words
beginning with hv, such as hva, meaning what. In this word, the h is silent.

In addition, there are several letters and letter combinations that are pronounced differently from
English.

Norweg. IPA, Notes

A [], very open

B [b]

C [s] or [k] depending on word, very rare

D [d], silent in consonant clusters

E [e] or [], [] 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, [] before two consonants

J [j], like the y in yes or yellow

K [k]

kj, ki, ky [], like the sharp h in human

L [l]

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 Norweg. IPA, Notes

M [m]

N [n]

O [u] like the oo in soon, but longer, [] before two consonants

P [p]

R [], tap, like the tt in North American butter; some in Norway use [],
the so-called French R

rs [], r + s combinations produce sh sound, even between words

S [s]

skj, ski, sky, [], like the sh in ship or shell

sl

T [t], silent after an e sometimes, ex. det

U [], like the ew in new, but more closed

V [v]

Y [y] or [], like the e in email, but more closed

Norwegian also has three special vowels, , and .

- Similar To IPA

the a in add or apple []

no real equivalent, but not far from the vowel sounds [] or []

in bird or earth

the o in open or old [o] or []

Special Notes on Common Words

Norweg. Meaning Pronunciation

jeg I yai, rhymes with English guy

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 Norweg. Meaning Pronunciation

er am, is, are r, similar to English are but with tapped r

det it, that deh, silent t

de they dee

H in front of v is silent.

How about "who is this?" - That would be "hvem er dette". "This" is "dette" for neuter nouns and
"denne" for masculine nouns.

Keep in mind that Norwegian has no verb conjugation, so "is," "am," and "are" are all the same
word: er. Det means "it," so "Hvem er det" means "Who is it?"

Norwegian uses consonant mutations in any case where the letter "r" is combined with an
alveolar/dental consonant. Doesn't even have to be in the same word. The r + d in "er det?" turns into
a voiced retroflex stop. Look it up on wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiced_retroflex_stop) to
hear the sound file.

"Hvem" is both who and whom

When a word starts with hv, the h is not pronounced

You actually heart a voiced retroflex stop / /. It's because of consonant mutation between the
letters r and d.

Actually, there isn't any r-sound in this sentence. There's a thing in Norwegian where as if the
letter "r" is combined with certain consonants (doesn't even have to be in the same word, as you can
see here in "er + det", r is sort of combined with "d" to create a new sound. So the recipe goes r +
d/t/n/l/s = retroflex consonant. The sound you heard here is a voiced retroflex stop / /.

Yes! Norwegian has no verb conjugation, meaning is, am, and are are all the same word: er
(sounds like the English word are, no?). This holds true for all verbs.

When the letter g comes at the end of the word in Norwegian, it isn't usually pronounced. You can
pronounce it if you want, though. Here the g is pronounced as more of a 'y.' The Duolingo
pronunciation is quite authentic.

I remember it as if you dont like something you may say 'Ikk' similar to 'yuck', yuck i do NOT want
that.

H is always silent in front of a consonant, but always pronounced in front of a vowel. (H este
ntotdeauna tcut n faa unei consoane, dar ntotdeauna pronun at n fa a unei vocale.).

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 very difficult for me to differentiate the sound of hun and han. is there any moment where I can
listen to both right next to each other?
(Han : http://forvo.com/word/han/#no Hun : http://forvo.com/word/hun/#no)

kvinne - (/kn/) "Kvin-neh."

what is the difference between jente and jenta? - jente = girl, jenta = the girl

-r + d- it's (Voiced retroflex stop). R + t/d/n/s/l create retroflex consonants.

I am not quite sure what you mean by hard, but the R assimilates with the following consonant
if it is a T, D, N, L or S. The resulting consonant is a retroflex. In front of most other consonants, it has
a tendency to be silent. (This does not apply for all dialects)

Retroflex video learning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRegrgHDLq4

Hva er han? - What is he?

Hva har han? - What does he have?

when to use et and when to use en ? - It depends on the grammatical gender of the word.

Masculine nouns: en
Feminine nouns: ei
Neuter nouns: et
the article in Norwegian is different depending on the grammatical gender of the noun which
follows it. en is for masculine nouns, ei/en is for feminine nouns, et is for neuter ones. Since eple is a
neuter noun, the article going with it has to be et.

dere /=/ they. It means "you all" or "you (plural)". If you were addressing a class of children you
would say "Dere har et eple." (You all have an apple). But if you pointed at someone out of the window
who was holding an apple, you would say "De har et eple." (They have an apple.)

'vm..i'? Question: Is de pronounced as a retroflex d followed by an i? Answer: Yes, in this

case it is. This is because the r in er makes the following d a retroflex. If it were alone, de
would be pronounced as a normal d followed by an i. This almost always happens with r+d (as in
this case), r+s, r+t and r+l, r + n.

Adding 'er' makes it plural kvinne = a woman (singular) kvinnn ee r e = women (plural) gutt = a boy
guttee r e = boys

German has five distinct ways of plural formation, -er among them. While Norwegian is much
more homogenous in the formation of the indefinite plural, there are exceptions to the "just add -er"
rule, for example ku - kyr (cow - cows), mus - mus (mouse - mice), tiger - tigre (tiger - tigers), datter -
dtre (daughter - daughters), bok - bker (book - books).
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 Source: http://mylanguages.org/norwegian_plural.php and https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plural

Question: jente...girl jenter...girls jenta... the girls how do you say "the girls. Ansewer: ei jente (a
girl), jenter (girls), jenta (the girl), jentene (the girls)

Questio: It says in the guide to pronounce the e in er as , but Duolingo doesn't seem to
pronounce it like that--it pronounces it more like "ur" such as in the English word "burn" but with a
tapped r. Is it supposed to be like that? (Specifically for these words, jenter (and) gutter?) Thanks in
advance. Answer: The VERB " vre" conjugated to "er" is pronounced as "r". Pronounce the "e" as
the "a" in "had". Actually, all the "" in norwegian is pronounced as the "a" in "had" (or at least close to
it. If you want to try getting it better, open your mouth as wide as you can and try, without moving your
tunge or mouth, to say the "a" in "had"

"den" and "det" are use to refer to things, animals and ideas, sometimes even about people ("det"
can be used to refer to "barnet" (="the child") for instance). "den" is used to refers to nouns in
masculine/feminine/common. "det" to "neuter".

here is a distinction between use of den (it) and use of han/hun (he/she). When den occurs
as a subject it is used to refer to a previous subject of common gender (for instance, we have already
been talking about an elk, en elg, and now it is drinking water; if we do not have something to refer to
with den, det is used because it is gender neutral, like it). Memorising gender in Norwegian is the
same as in French or Spanish or Portuguese, certain nouns have certain genders, and aside from
people and animals of specific gender (en man, ei jente, ei katte/en katt), one simply must learn
the gender with the noun. If you know the gender of the noun, you know whether you would use den
or det to refer to it, much like knowing if.

Hva What Har has Gutter boys

Har to have Er am Dere you

Hvem Who Barn child De they

Han man Vi we Og and

Hun woman

Tips and notes

DEFINITE FORMS

The definite form, the man, the woman, et cetera, is formed by attaching the indefinite article onto the
end of the noun. This ending is called a postfix or a suffix.

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 Indefinite Definite

en mann a man mannen the man

et barn a child barnet the child

Although the t is pronounced as such in the phrase et barn, it turns silent in the definite form, barnet,
which is pronounced more like barneh. This is the case with all neuter nouns in the singular definite
form. Be sure to drop the t sound, otherwise you might sound rather Swedish.

For feminine-classified nouns, there is one irregularity in the definite form:

Indefinite Definite

ei kvinne or en kvinne a woman kvinna or kvinnen the woman

ei jente or en jente a girl jenta or jenten the girl

Both jenta and jenten are appropriate translations for the girl. These same endings apply to all
feminine nouns. Please consult the tips and notes section for the first lesson if you would like a review
of the Norwegian grammatical genders.

Question: What is the difference between "Den" and "Det", do they both mean "It" ? Answer:
They both mean "it", but "den" is referring to a masculine/ feminine word and "det" to a neuter.

There should never be a need to put "er" before a verb

Question: I'm not hearing the -en in mannen very strongly... is it actually pronounced like this, or
is the auto-pronounce thing just not doing a good job on it? Answer: It's not very strong in this dialect,
but if you practice you'll be able to recognize the difference between 'mann' and 'mannen'. 'mannen' is
kinda like "man'n".

Question: I guess I'm having trouble understanding... If mannen and kvinnen are man and
woman respectively, what is the difference between mann and mannen vs kvinne and kvinnen?

Answer: (en) kvinne = (a) woman (indefinite singular)

kvinnen = the woman (definite singular)

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(en) mann = (a) man (indefinite singular)
mannen = the man (definite singular)

We use suffixes instead of articles to make the definite singular in Norwegian.

Question: So what are the plurals... (some) women, the women, (some) men, the men ?

Answer: kvinner = women (indefinite plural)

kvinnene = the women (definite plural)

menn = men (indefinite plural)

mennene = the men (definite plural)

Mark that the declination of "en mann" has an irregular vowel change (a > e), just like in English.

Question: So there isnt a word for "the"?....Mannen=The man?

Answer: "Mannen" consists of the root "mann", and the definite suffix "-en".
It's the suffix that translates to "the", rather than having a separate definite article.

When a definite noun is modified by an adjective, "the" is translated by "den/det/de" as well as being
present as a suffix. This is often referred to as "double determination":

the house = huset

the red house = det rde huset

Question: How does the plural work? Does every noun have their own plural or is it gender
different?

Answer: Most nouns have a standardised (undermined) plural, which is: -er. Determined: -ene

En stol - a chair

Stoler - chairs

Stolene - the chairs

There are, however, exception:

En mus - a mouse

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Musa/-en - the mouse

Mus - mice

Musene - the mice

Et hus - a house

Huset - the house

Hus - houses

Husene - the houses

En mann - a man

Mannen - the man

Menn - men

Mennene - the men

Ei/en gs - a goose

Gsa/-en - the goose

Gjess/gjser - geese

Gjessene/gjsene - the geese

And so on... Use this site: http://www.nob-ordbok.uio.no/ for a complete list of Norwegian words. This
site is official

Helpful tip for Norwegian course beginners: Question words that begin with a question word (Hvor,
hva, hvordan, etc..) Examples: Hvor bor du? (Where do you live?) Hvordan gr det? (How are you?)
lit. "How goes it?" Questions without a question word begin with the verb! Examples: Bor du i norge?
(Do you live in Norway?) Snakker du norsk? (Do you speak Norwegian?)
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 Question: How do I know when to use en or et to say 'a'?

Answer: There's no general rules, you just have to remember... And once you remember that it is
"et barn" you'll also know that all compounded word ending in "barn" also becomes et. But chances
are it's "en" if the noun is recently imported (most technical implements are recent imports, ruter/router,
svitsj/switch, kltsj/clutch, fryser/freezer). Just beware of compounded words like "kjleskap" = fridge,
which is "et kjleskap" as "skap" is neuter.

Question: Is hrer only used in questions, or is it in the phrasing of the sentence? For example,
does "Du hrer barnet" mean "You hear the child."?

Answer: "Hrer" is the present tense form of " hre", and used in questions and statements
alike. Your example is correct. What marks this sentence as a question, aside from the obvious
question mark, is the inverted verb/subject positions. In (main clauses of) statements, the verb
occupies the second position. In questions, it either comes first, or second only to a question word
(hva/hvem/hvordan..).

http://grammatikk.com/pdf/Sentences.pdf

vi ser noe - We see something

Hva hrer du? - What do you hear?

Spiser is eating, am eating, are eating

Den it, that one, that Ser see

Leser is reading Noe something

Ei a Ris rice

Hrer hear Brev letter

Skriver is writing Meny menu

Tips and notes

VELKOMMEN!

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Common Phrases

Below is a list of common phrases in the Norwegian language, for your reference.

Norwegian English

Hei Hello

God dag Good day

God morgen Good morning

God kveld Good evening

God natt Good night

Hvordan har du det? How are you?

Hvordan gr det? How is it going?

Bare bra, takk! Just fine, thanks!

Jeg har det bra I'm doing well

Ha det bra! Goodbye!

Vi ses! See you later!

Languages and Nationalities

In Norwegian, most names of languages are derived from the name of the country, the adjective or the
nationality with the ending sk at the end. Below are a few examples.

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 Country Adjective Nationality Language

Norge - Norwa norsk - Norwe en nordmann - a norsk - Norwegian

y gian Norwegian (language)

England - Eng engelsk - Eng en engelskmann - an engelsk - English

land lish Englishman (language)

Frankrike - Fr fransk - Frenc en franskmann - a fransk - French

ance h Frenchman (language)

As you may have noticed above, Norwegians do not capitalize adjectives, nationalities or languages,
only countries. All words are capitalized if they come at the beginning of the sentence, just like in
English.

Kveld - you should hear it as "kvel". Only one syllable, though. ;) /kv l/

Morgen you should say moorn

God its pronounced like gu

Question: Doesn't 'Afternoon' the same as 'Evening' in Norway?

Answer: afternoon = ettermiddag, evening = kveld, natt = night.

Question: Is this more likely to be translated as "you are welcome" in everyday speech, or does it
just depend on context (meaning, is there another way to say "here you are")?

Answer: You can think of it as 'You are welcome [to the food I just made for you/to enter the door
I just opened for you/to this gift that I just brought you]'. I suppose you tend to use 'You are welcome'
most often as an answer to a 'Thank you', or to welcome someone inside, while 'Here you go/are'
covers the situations where you're the one offering something or being polite to someone. It's definitely
clearer when there's a bit of context! :) Some of the other accepted alternatives are:
'Be my guest!' 'Help yourself(/selves)!' 'Dig in!' 'Go ahead!'

Vr s god! (Va o gu) - Question: For the pronunciation, "s" seems to sound like "sho"
although on google translate it pronounces the word as "so", given that which pronunciation is better
and more accurate?

Answer: That's actually due to the fact that "rs" often gets pronounced "sh", e.g. "brs" ("stock
exchange") and "Mars" ("Mars"), and in this case it's the "r" from "vr" getting contracted with the "s"
from "s", and so it ends up sounding like "sh". This is the most common way to pronounce it across

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the country, although it's not as common in the Western part of Norway, where in many places there's
a guttural R.

Question: What does "takk" mean in a different context?

Answer: When you receive something, you'd say "(tusen) takk" meaning "thank you (very much)".
It's often used to express gratitude. I can't give you a long list as I don't remember 'takk's every use,
but those mentioned are the most common. "Takk" can also mean "tock", as in "tikk takk" meaning
"tick-tock" (what the clock says).

Unnskyld (nil) - http://no.thefreedictionary.com/Unnskyld

We have that one too:

Uskyld(/Uskyldighet) = innocence
Uskyldig = innocent
unnskylde = to absolve someone from blame
Unnskyld (meg) = absolve me from blame
Both "vr s god" and "vr s snill" are phrases in Norwegian. "Vr s god" is said when
someone says thank you. "Vr s snill" means please. Both of them should be written in three words

Question: What is the rule regarding the use of et versus en?

Answer: They both mean a/an. Et is used before neuter nouns, en is used before masculine (and
usually also feminine) nouns.

"Brev" is a neuter noun, so we say "et brev".

Kveld evening Elsker ('elsk) love

Natt night Beklager sorry

Dag day Snakker speak

Nei (nj) no Engelsk ('elsk) English

Vr s snill here you go/are, please Nork (nk) Norwegian

Vr s god! You're welcome / Don't Helg weekend

mention it
Ha have
Takk thank you
Hyggelig (hygl) pleasant, nice,
Tusen a thousand acceptable

Unnskyld excuse me Bra well, fine, good

Norsk (nk-Noc)- Norwegian

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 Bare (b) only, just, mere, alone,
bare, merely

Pronunciation of g ahead in

Questions

Pronunciation of g in front of:

I teach in Norwegian for foreigners, and what we tend to teach them is that g front in pronounced
ji. Eg: to give, married, gout, plaster. One donor, Gly heed! But then there are some exceptions, which
give pronounced provide. I take the key from Riksmlsordlisten as my father worked (1973): gid,
bothered, giant, Ginnungagap, gears, gearing, Gisse (female pig), a hostage, guitar, a lattice. The
exceptions are so many - in relation to the "rule" that I wonder what is the rule and what is the
exception. And what is the rule for the two pronunciation-ways?

Response:

The general rule is indeed the G front bright, anterior vowels (I, Y and in part E) and in front of the
diphthong EI pronounced "j", but it always applies only "domestic" (Germanic) word, and of which
substantially only the Nordic . The exceptions consist of what is commonly called foreign words (words
of Romanesque / Latin / Greek origin, and those are a lot of and more they are) and a few words that
we have borrowed from German. Finally pronunciation postscript image and spoken Danish became
ingrained in a few words, at least in the standard pronunciation. Recent loan from English acquired
with English pronunciation (gimmick, GIN), while older loans can be adapted to the Norwegian system:
Giggs (vessel, wagon).

The exceptions to the general rule is:

1 Front I

a) At least the following word of Scandinavian origin have pronounced "g": GID, bothered, GISS
(A) (tempting phrases for pigs), hostage. Pronunciation by "g" in GIVEN / givet must be considered
obsolete, as the molds themselves (it is givet, at a given occasion).
b) At least the following words of Dutch / German origin have pronounced "j": GIPS, transmission /
SHIFTING / SHIFT (sjuttr.)

2. Front Y

The following words are recorded preferably with optional pronunciation - "j" or "g": The fly, GYS /
shudder / gruesome / thrilled. In my opinion, both states are accepted.

3. Front E has long been using the typeface, as we write GJ in those terms.

4. Front EI standard pronunciation is "g" in Auk.

---

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 In order to deal fairly with all this one must therefore know what is homely and what is foreign, and
when it comes to obvious foreign, must rather know where they come from, what the rule is in the
relevant languages and loanwords are older or later, for example. G ahead in Italian is pronounced
"DSJ" (GIGOLO, newer loans), but that in older loans may have been the "sea" (gearing / GIRO).

Same story we have at K front I, Y and EI. I am enough of year that I can reminisce about the
preparations for the so far last edition of Norwegian pronunciation dictionary (1969), where I did not
participate, but where I often was asked by the editor (Bjarne Berulfsen) like other employees at and
near Nordic Institute at Oslo University. He was eager to bring more words under the Norwegian
system than that in my opinion was and is coverage for the standard pronunciation. He would have
GEIR, GEIRANGER, GYNT o.fl. expressed by "j", likewise Gesell GESTALT, GEVEKST GUN o.fl. He
made his will in some cases, but apparently only as optional pronunciation.

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