This list is a guide to basic Norwegain grammar. The list is not extensive but based on grammar you should learn in a sequence. Look at the words in the Vocabulary section for translation of individual words.
Grammar 1 - Most basic grammar in Norwegian. Read this instruction together with Vocabulary 1.
Present Tense in Norwegian is generally made by simply adding "-r"
to the infinitive form of the verb.
With infinitive form: Han kan spise mye is. (He can eat a lot of ice cream)
With the present tense: Han spiser mye is. (He eats a lot of ice cream)
The Verb does not change
in Norwegian based on whether it is in 1st or 3rd person or whether it is in singular or plural.
Basic word order - In simple phrases the word order is similar in Norwegian and English. However, in many instances the verb comes before the noun in Norwegian phrases in some tenses, like the present tense. The most simple form of which this happens is in questions:
Q: Hva heter du?
A: Jeg heter Thomas.
Q: Spiser du?
A: Ja, Jeg spiser.
Another situation this happens is when auxiliary, time related, words is first in the phrase.
- Han vasker gulv for øyeblikket. (He washes floor at the moment)
øyeblikket vasker han gulv. (At the moment he washes floor)
This also happens if you change "for øyeblikket" with "Nå, på fredag, i morgen etc"
Ikke comes after the verb.
Q: Spiser du?
A: Nei, Jeg spiser ikke.
Grammar 2 - Second phase grammer, nouns. Read this instruction together with Vocabulary 1
Wheras verbal grammar is much easier than what you will find in English, the nouns are somewhat trickier. Particularly difficult is to know which of the three genders, male, female, neutral each word is. In Norwegian the three geners are called, hankjønn, hunkjønn and intetkjønn respectively.
The nouns are conjugated in the following manner
The difficulties are, as seen above, in the singular tense (and 'Flertall ubestemt' for some words in Intetkjønn). In 'Entall Bestemt', with the form of 'the car', Hankjønn has the ending -en, Hunkjønn has the ending -a and Intetkjønn has the ending -et. In 'Flertall Ubestemt' Hankjønn, Hunkjønn and majority of Intetkjønn words have the ending -er. The exceptions with Intetkjønn are short one syllable words like brev, spill, barn, glass etc.
||En Bil (a car)
||Bilen (the car)
||Bilene (the cars)
More sections will follow shortly - For private lessons try my Online Norwegian Classes.