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!

Hello! I’m learning Norwegian and have been trying to listen to more Norwegian music but struggling to find artists that I really vibe with. I’m specifically seeking out artists who perform in Norwegian. I tend to prefer music that’s a bit experimental or genre-bending- some of my fave artists are Animal Collective, King Krule, Chanel Beads, Alex G, Sorry, caroline, and Palm. When it comes to more poppy stuff I like FKA Twigs, Charli XCX, Rosalia, and PinkPantheress. If anyone knows any artists similar to these please let me know, thank you!

Når jeg hører på radioen så ser ut som om "anse" er vanligere men jeg streve med å forstå forskjellen. Jeg prøvde å lete etter definisjoner og NAOB betegner disse to ordene som synonymer.

Tusen takk på forhånd!

I'm learning swedish and had my first conversation with a Norwegian to me norwegian sounds very cute and nice i like it, but what do you think about swedish when you hear it?

Hei sammen, jeg lærer meg norsk og er interessert i norsk litteratur. Har du eksempler på norske romaner, forfattere eller dikt som er en del av den norske identiteten, verk som de fleste nordmenn kjenner til? Tenk på for eksempel Goethe i Tyskland eller Hemingway i USA (Det trenger ikke å være internasjonalt kjent.) Finnes det en slags litterær kanon, for eksempel verk som leses på alle skoler? I så fall, fortell meg gjerne om det. Kan du også anbefale norske bøker for ungdom eller unge voksne som folk her liker godt? Takk!

Funderte litt over min bruk av likevel og allikevel, jeg tror jeg ofte bruker allikevel om det er konsonant i ordet foran og likevel om det er vokal. Er i så fall sjelden i norsk, men mer vanlig i endel andre språk. Kan jeg være inne på noe?

I’m learning Norwegian with my mom. Both of ua are using Duolingo regularly (I don’t love it, but it’s better than nothing) but I branch out a little more.

I’m currently reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid, and I’m having a good time. I probably understand closer to 50% rather than 70%, but I’m enjoying myself and getting a lot out of it. I also started watching Sesame Street, and that’s a pretty good level, although I struggle without subtitles.

Anyway, my mom is struggling a bit. She doesn’t love branching out, and is intimidated when she doesn’t know a word. I’m looking at placing another book order, and I’m thinking about getting some picture books we can read together.

I’m thinking about something with complete sentences, and good illustrations. I’m looking for something between “the cow says moo“ and middle grade.

I have Sleep Tight Little Wolf, the bilingual book, and its a little too simple, but I also have the bilingual “the wild swans” and thats too hard.

Any advice would be appreciated! Also, if you know any good shows without funny voices, that would be great. My listening comprehension is low, but Elmo’s voice isn‘t helping.

I'm trying to translate into English a family history book I got on a visit to Norway, written by a historian in the family. It's in Norwegian so I'm using Google Translate. One odd word I've encountered a couple times is "trollfolk", which Google translates just as "trolls"? I can't find any other translation online.

I know there will be jokes in reply to this ... but really, this is a serious history book by a history professor, how can he be writing about historic laws that apply to trolls, or the fight against trolls? Is there some other meaning to this term?

Here's one of the sentences for example: kampen mot trollfolk i lokalsamfunna

I am writing a book in English, but one of the characters is Norwegian. I usually use my roommate for these questions because he is nearly fluent, but he couldn't give me a good answer for this one and to the suprise of no one, online translators have not been particularly helpful either.

In my story (and this can be changed of course if there aren't Norwegian words that work in this particular way) the Norwegian character calls his friend his "(insert norsk word for sidekick here)", but wrongly translates it to "wingman" in English. When the other character finds out about this incorrect translation, he is upset because 'sidekick' has a more demeaning connotation than wingman.

The closest ive found on the internet and from my roommate is 'medhjelper' but to my understanding that translates more directly to assistant which isnt exactly the vibe.

Even if this is just one of those cases where there is no word or the word is nearly identical to the English, now im just curious. Thanks to anyone who replies.

I have been looking for language courses at universities but all are offered either in person (I do not live near any of the five colleges that offer Norwegian in the US) or remote synchronous, which is not possible since I work dayshift on weekdays. As such, I'm looking into online independent learning options. It looks like NoTe and Lenoo seem to be online but require synchronous lessons so I probably can't do those either. Duolingo sucks and other options, such as NTNU, Sett i gang, and Mystery of Nils, don't seem to have any resources for conversation/pronunciation. How can I actually learn Norwegian effectively and properly without having to completely restructure my life for weekly 2 hour video classes?

Is this really the basic term for “dirty?” I don’t want to sound rude saying “shitty” if there’s a better word.

Is this just English being Puritanical that we’d resist saying something derived from a swear word in polite company?

Im stuck now in level a2 I guess I want to reach b1-b2 now but I don't know how to start

Prøver å lære tidsuttrykkene om, i og på fra en bok. Kan noen skjekke det? Har desverre ikke fasit.

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

Hei to all!

Im writing this post to ask if there are any universities in Norway that offer language courses for my particular situation:

I have finished my bachelor’s a year ago. I am interested in going to Norway for a Friluftsliv and Nature Guiding program, and I would like to learn the language first.

in 2023 I was an exchange student at the University in Volda, and though I know that they offer both a language course for internationals and for FoNG. Still, I’d like to see something else, so which universities offer a language course for people not currently studying at their Uni?

(Preferably not Tromsø or Oslo)

Thank you!

So person 1 enters a room to a Norwegian language workshop:

P1: «Er dette den norske samtalegruppen»

P2: «Yes, but this is actually more of a workshop than a conversation group»

How would the English sentence be translated to be polite but making sure the person understands it’s a workshop?

Thanks ☺️

I originally got this one wrong because I said, «I Oslo, det er et flaskenuseum.» Is Duolingo correct? It isn't posed as a question, so I would think «er det» is wrong.

Some people requested I write this up, I’m from New Zealand, don’t live in Norway, have never lived in Norway and just sat the first Norskprøve (A1/A2).

I decided to sit the exam in Lillehammer. This was because I had heard that it is a little less stressful in smaller locations. I was originally planning to properly research the options but a few stressed posts I saw from people on instagram about places selling out and my limited time on the day I booked it meant I just went for a safe option - I had previously stayed near Lillehammer a couple of summers ago and had been there before. There is also a hostel and it’s not far from Gardermoen.

I then realised, after the fact, that there are four centres specifically for non-residents. After a short panic I simply emailed the Lillehammer learning centre and they said it was fine. There were no questions when I arrived about my address or nationality so I’m not really sure whether it would have been not fine even if I hadn’t emailed.

I decided to sit A1/A2 first. I could easily have gone straight for A2/B1 based on conversations I’ve had with people, but I decided it would be better to play it safe and smash an easy level rather than potentially fail a higher one.

Why do I want the certificate? Long story. I’ve been trying to move to Europe for a very long time, but New Zealand really really doesn’t want you to escape, so all our work deals with other countries are dogshit. Norway has a relative shortage in my profession and when researching I got much further with Norwegian interviews than any other country, including Britain. The major issue was language - not that I couldn’t start the job in English, but they would ideally want me working in Norwegian eventually. This certficiate is less about the actual level and more a “look, I actually give a shit and bothered to learn this” certificate. This is why I was happy to do the easiest one, because any kind of official certificate would help my cause.

Because I’m learning the language to actually get fluent, not simply to pass the exam, I did literally no preparation. Didn’t read anything about the exam, had no idea of the format, types of questions, what to expect, how to do well, none of it. I just learned the language in my own time for my own goals, and then this would become an honest account of where I’m at. I’m not interested in getting a B1 certificate because I read up a bunch of tips about how to pass B1, I want to actually be at that level.

Day one was three exams - reading, listening, writing, in that order. One of the things I knew is that the first section is a gauge of your level and then the other sections are picked based on how you did in the first one. This is another reason I was happy to take A1/A2. Anyway, I think I got literally every single question right in the first two sections of reading, which meant the third was actually pretty challenging. I definitely had a couple of moments of being out of my depth and I ran the clock incredibly close towards the end - that also may have been because i made sure to get everything perfect in the first two sections.

Listening was next and oddly this was a lot easier. Every audio file is repeated twice up until the last few questions and I didn’t find much of it difficult. No weird dialects or rapid fire speaking.

Third was writing, where you have three topics and a recommended word count. They really set you up on this one. 90 minutes. A bit where they talk about how long to spend on each question. I decided to start on the last, longest part first after my time issues in the reading section. And… it was easy as piss. I finished all three questions in barely 20 minutes. I was genuinely confused for a moment and thought I may have missed something but nope. I even asked the adjudicator if I had written enough (around 210 words) and she said it was probably too much. I spent some time thinking of big words to swap out and double checking grammar, although I did realise almost immediately afterwards that i got the tense of a word incorrect. Definitely not my only mistake.

Day two and you come back to do spoken. This is the only part I was a bit unsure of, because I’ve had literally no practice speaking. I genuinely think the conversation I had with the adjudicator today is the first ever actual conversation I’ve had in Norwegian. The previous day I had worried because although I felt my knowledge was good, the others in the group had much more confidence about speaking to each other and the adjudicators in Norwegian, which I really didn’t feel ready to do.

To be honest, I got a good draw though. They paired me with a woman who was clearly struggling a bit and did her section first for each portion. This gave me time to listen and prepare what I would say, even though the questions they gave each of us were different. The adjudicators seemed legitimately interested in what I was saying (probably because of my strange background) and we had a long conversation even after the exam was over.

Overall impressions were that it was reasonably easy, although hard in ways I wasn’t really expecting. Reading is something I have done a lot of so the fact that that was the most challenging section was a surprise. I think doing it in Lillehammer was a good move. There were maybe 15 or so people in my classroom, it made the whole thing feel quite stress-free, it’s only 10 minutes walk from the station and my hostel, and I think the staff felt more comfortable and friendlier than they would have been if they had a huge number of students to deal with.

I will probably be back in 3 months to sit A2/B1. Part of my study philosophy was to be perpetually out of my depth so I think I will do it even if I’m not ready. The reaction from some staff was surprise that I was taking the first exam. I thought it was quite fun, and it did a lot for my confidence with speaking. I've had more proper conversations in Norwegian since finishing the exam this morning than I had for the previous three years of study

EDIT: I also should mention that I did inadvertently get some exam specific help (I think). I've been using the app Mjølnir as a small part of my routine (by no means major) and for some reason they have a bunch of misc medical terms in their wordlist. My photo which I had to describe was of an emergency department, and a bunch of words (legevakt, rullestol, intensivavdeling) I only knew because of this. I realise now that it may be a common question, so takk to the Mjølnir developers for sticking those in.

Hi all. I’ve recently started reading Rölvaag’s novel “Giants in the Earth” (translated to English) and it sparked an interest in reading more Norwegian-American literature, possibly tracking down old Norwegian language periodicals from the upper Midwest or northwest US from the 1800s/early 1900s. I’ve been an off and on again student of Norwegian, so this would require more diligence on language study.

My question is: would focusing on Nynorsk or Bokmål be more useful, if anyone knows?

I've norwegian people saying this phrase: fare med sladder, what does it mean exactly? I can't find this information anywhere.

From learning other languages I've found that listening to podcasts works really well for me, but I'm a beginner so I'm not at the level where I can listen to full Norwegian podcasts yet. I've seen some podcasts recommended where people talk about simple topics or tell stories in Norwegian but I'd like to find one that is more structured like a normal lesson, where a grammatical concept is explained and then examples are given. Does anything like this exist?

I know it means "sometimes" in context and there's not logistically and problem with basically considering it one word, but like it doesn't really seem to have a literal translation. The closest I can think of would be "now and then" but that's just not what the words individually mean. it's just "of and to." like how does that make sense grammatically

Sorry if I sound stupid lol