Norwegian Language/Lesson I

Foreword

This page is a lesson on Bokmål, the more commonly spoken of the two forms of norwegian. This page covers basic use of pronouns and conjugation of verbs in the present, the use of modal auxiliaries, and how to hold a basic conversation.

Conversation

person	Norwegian	English
Sven	Hallo, Hva heter du?	Hello, what is your name?
Kari	Hallo, Jeg heter Kari, og du?	Hello, my name is Kari. And you?
Sven	Jeg heter Sven.	My name is Sven.
Kari	Hvordan har du det?	How are you?
Sven	Jeg har det bra, hva med deg?	I am well, what about you?
Kari	Det går bra.	It's going well.
Sven	Bra, jeg må dra nå!	Good, I must go now!
Kari	OK, ha det bra!	OK, good bye!

Pronouns

Personal Pronouns are as follows for their English equivalents.

English	Norwegian
I	Jeg
You	Du
He	Han
She	Hun
It	Det
We	Vi
Plural you	Dere
They	De

Nouns

Nouns describe a person, place, or thing.

Basics

In the norwegian language, there are three genders for nouns: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The indefinite singular (unconjugated) forms of the nouns are represented similarly the way they are represented in english.

• En stol. Masculine, a chair.
• Ei jente. Feminine, a girl.
• Et bilde. Neuter, a picture.

Cases

Cases for each verb differs, but they follow the same rules.

• Indefinite singular: Article before the noun.
• Definite singular: Article is attached to the end of the noun.
• Indefinite plural: A modified form of the article (see below) is attached to the end of the noun.
• Definite plural: The suffix -ene is attached to the end of the noun.

Below is a table of the different noun cases in norwegian, with the english equivalents in parentheses.

Form	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
Indefinite Singular	En stol (A chair)	Ei jente (A girl)	Et bild (A picture)
Definite Singular	Stolen (The chair)	Jenta (The girl)	Bildet (The picture)
Indefinite Plural	Stoler (Chairs)	Jenter (Girls)	Bilder (Pictures)
Definite Plural	Stolene (The chairs)	Jentene (The girls)	Bildene (The pictures)

Exceptions

Depending on the speaker, the feminine article may be replaced with the masculine article. For example in the definite singular case, one might say jenten instead of jenta.

In the case of a neuter noun, in which the noun itself has only one syllable, for instance 'house'; et hus. The indefinite plural is simply drops the article. Houses would be 'hus', planes (et fly) would become 'fly', and so forth.

Verbs

The infinitive form of verbs will typically follow this form (å)+(verb)+(letter e) å is one of the many ways to say 'to' in norwegian for example: the infinitive of the verb, 'to play' is 'å spille' The e is simply a platform for conjugation.

Conjugation

Simple conjugation in the present tense does not change for the pronoun it is used in conjunction with. The strong and weak verbs which will be covered in lesson are conjugated the same way for the present tense. Conjugation for the present tense is adding the letter -r to the word and dropping the å at the beginning of the infinitive.

English	Norwegian
I play.	Jeg spiller.
You play.	Du spiller.
He plays.	Han spiller.
She plays.	Hun spiller.
It plays.	Det spiller.
We play.	Vi spiller.
You(plural) play.	Dere spiller.
They play.	De spiller.

Irregular

As in nearly all languages there are irregular verbs, verbs that are conjugated differently from the rest of the verbs in the language. Some of the more common ones in Norwegian are.

• Å Være, to be
• Å Vite, to know
• Å Gjøre, to do

Their present tense forms are as follows

English	Norwegian
I am.	Jeg er.
I know.	Jeg vet.
I do.	Jeg gjør.

Modal Auxiliaries

Modal auxiliaries, or modal verbs, are words that appear before verbs in order to change the mood of necessity or probability. Some common examples in english include; can, shall, will, must, and may. The sentence structure of these is also similar to the english equivalent. Jeg kan spise mat. I can eat food. The sentence is formed by the subject, the modal verb, the infinitive form of the verb dropping the -å stem, and then the object. Negation is achieved by adding ikke directly after the modal verb. For example: Jeg kan ikke spise mat. I cannot eat food. Other modal auxileries and their english counterparts are as follows:

Norwegian	English
Skal	Shall/have to
Må	Must
Vil	Will/want to
Kan	Can

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