Copyright 2014 Werner Skalla. All rights reserved.

Published by Skapago KG, Furth im Wald, Germany.

1st edition published in May 2014
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted by law, without the prior written permission of the Publisher.
Requests to the Publisher for permission can be addressed to nils@skapago.eu.
Picture credits:
All photos Daniela Skalla except:
Chapter 11 map of Europe: kebox Fotolia.com
Chapters 17, 19, 21 background images for exercises: Elmastudio https://www.fickr.com/photos/elmastudio
Chapter 18 breads: Daniel Mock Fotolia.com
Chapter 18 sliced bread: womue Fotolia.com
Chapter 19 telephone: 2fake Fotolia.com
Chapter 22 silhouettes of people: kritchanut Fotolia.com
Chapter 24 couple on Trolltunga in Norway: Alex Koch Fotolia.com
Chapter 25 competition on ski: Ruslan Kudrin Fotolia.com
Chapter 25 50 kr bill: Sandnes Fotolia.com
Chapter 25 Norwegian money (background image for exercises): S-Christina Fotolia.com
Chapter 26 roasted lamb chops: Gresei Fotolia.com
Cover designed by Mnica Gabriel after winning a contest on 99designs
Cover image: To Come, published by Geir Tnnessen at https://secure.fickr.com/photos/nuddaladden/10883470573/ under a Creative Com-
mons BY 2.0 licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)
ISBN: 978-3-945174-00-5
The Mystery of Nils
Part 1 Norwegian Course for Beginners
Learn Norwegian. Enjoy the Story.
Written by
Werner Skalla
Story based on an idea by
Sonja Anderle
Co-created by teachers & students at Skapago
Jan Blomli Borgar Emanuelsen Bohlin Martin Lhndorf
Sbastien Le Martelot Anna Myrer Audun Heggdal Pedersen
Clemens Ptsch Tyra Meininger Saudland Joachim Schnberger
Alexandr Svezhenets Daniela Syczek Marit Ruud Talseth
Dominik Timmermann

Photography & illustrations by
Daniela Skalla
Norwegian texts reviewed by
Richard Fjellaksel Runar Werningsen Jenssen
Anders Kristiansen Yngve Nordgrd
English texts reviewed by
Pilla Leitner
Rebecca Rrmark
Nina Sokol
published by
Skapago Online Language School
www.skapago.eu
Contents
Chapter Page Grammar Topics Conversation Topics
Lets get started 8
1 13 verbs and pronouns, sentence order jeg forstr ikke
2 17 genders, numbers 1-10 hello and goodbye, breakfast
3 23 two verbs in one sentence, questions, den/det thanks
4
29
sentence structure, defnite article, indefnite det, ques-
tion words
furniture, how to present yourself and make small
talk
5
41
numbers, personal pronouns objects, belonging to
someone
like/ vre glad i, family
6
47
refexive verbs, belonging to someone (part 2), two verbs
in one sentence, preteritum (past tense)
time, days of the week
7 55 from one to many, noe/noen, telling someone what to do in the kitchen, daily routine
8 61 adjectives, defnite article (plural), sentence structure where is ... ?
9 67 kjenne/ vite, man, irregular adjectives talking about yourself, a busy day, colors
10 73 liten, mange/mye, verken/eller, owning things (and people) the body, at the doctors
11 85 hvilken, adjectives (defnite form), future, slags food, what to buy where, countries
12 97 denne/dette/disse, moving/not moving, past tense giving directions
13 105 time, perfektum (present perfect) being polite, eating out
14 113 comparing: harder, better, faster, stronger, enn/som work at home
15 119 synes/tro, adverbs, kommer til ... media
16 125 annen, noen and nouns, saying the date (ordinal numbers) weather, seasons, months and important events
17 133 som hva vet du om Norge?
18 139 subordinate clauses, kanskje, noe(n) clothes
19
145
main clauses and subordinate clauses, getting rid of som,
hos/med/ved
telephone and alphabet
20 151 langt/lenge, no article, getting rid of at hobbies and leisure, small talk (part 2)
21 159 bank, post, politi
22 167 s-verbs hvem sier hva om seg selv?
23 173 burde, sin transport
24 181 love and feelings
25 185 konomi
26 191 s lifestyle and diet
Word list 197
Key to the exercises 211
Irregular verbs 223
Grammar in a nutshell 224
Pronunciation 226
Vocabulary index 227
Grammar index
228
Congratulations!
You have decided to learn Norwegian:
a great idea!
www.skapago.eu/Norwegian
People to Help You
It might be difcult for you to learn a new language all on your
own. Personally I believe you should get support from a teacher.
Now, you might accuse me of being biased and just want to sell
you our courses since Skapago is an online language school.
So Ill be the frst to admit that other schools have great
teachers, too, so feel free to get in touch with one of our
competitors.
Our teachers will talk to you through Skype and use
a video conference, so you can join our live individual
classes wherever you are in the world. They have co-
created this book, and you can schedule a free demo
lesson here: www.skapago.eu
Things to Help You
You will fnd texts from the book as audio fles,
pronunciation explanations on video, additional exercises,
a vocabulary trainer, tests and much more most of it for
free, at www.skapago.eu/nils.
6
Mistackes
You wont believe how many
times we read through this book
before we dared to publish it.
Still, we cannot guarantee that
the book contains no mistakes.
Should you fnd one, please send
an e-mail to:
nils@skapago.eu. Nils will send a
personal thank you message!
The Best Norwegian
Textbook Ever?
When we started working on this book, our ambition was
to make the best Norwegian textbook ever, but well, lets
keep our feet on the ground. Let us know what you think!
Are there exercises you dont like, explanations you dont
understand, texts that are boring, images you fnd ugly?
If you have comments or ideas for improvement, or if you
just want to say hello to Nils dont hesitate and send an
e-mail to:
nils@skapago.eu
7
Ernas drm
En mann kommer langs veien.
En turist? Nei.
Erna kjenner mannen. Han smiler.
Det er mannen fra stasjonen.
Hun smiler ogs.
Mannen gr forbi.
Hun roper eter ham. Men han hrer ikke.
Han forsvinner.
Adressen. Hun m skrive adressen!
Hvor er adressen?
N ser hun tre personer:
En gut han spiser sjokolade.
Ei dame hun gir ei bok til en mann.
Erna tenker:
Nei, ikke spis sjokoladen!
Ikke gi ham boka!

Erna vkner. Hun m le.
Men hun tenker: Hva med adressen?
Ernas dream
A man is coming down the road.
A tourist? No.
Erna knows the man. He is smiling.
It is the man from the station.
She is smiling, too.
The man is passing by.
She calls for him. But he does not hear her.
He disappears.
The address. She must write the address!
Where is the address?
Now she sees three people:
A boy he is eating chocolate.
A woman she is giving a book to a man.
Erna is thinking:
No, do not eat the chocolate!
Do not give him the book!
Erna wakes up. She must laugh.
But she is thinking: What about the address?
Lets get started!
I will now present the frst Norwegian text to you. It is far more difcult than you might expect, and the
goal is by no means that you should learn the words in the text. All I want is to give you a frst impression
of what Norwegian sounds and looks like. Listen to it (for audio fles go to www.skapago.eu/nils) several
times and read along with the text. Then, try to guess as much as you can without looking at the English
translation.
After that, feel free to use the English translation. The text is a prologue to the story which will run
through the book.
How much of the text did you understand?
Nothing at all
Dont worry.
In chapter 1, well start from scratch! Weve
never had a student who has not been able to
learn Norwegian. Make sure you dont ask too
much of yourself, so take a break whenever
you need it.
A bit
Norwegian is not as complicated as you
might initially have anticipated, is it?
Most of it
Probably you have learned a similar language
before, or your mother tongue is German,
Dutch, Swedish, or Danish.
Great! Learning Norwegian will be easy for
you.
Three funny letters:
, ,
They are at the end of the alphabet
(so dont look under A if you need
a phone number in lesund). The
Pronunciation overview at the end of
the book tells you how to pronounce
them.
Lots of similar words
In English and Norwegian there are
a lot of words that are fairly similar.
After all, the vikings invaded Britain
in the Middle Ages, which means that
a lot of Norwegian words came into
the English language.
Norwegian
pronunciation
... might sound a bit weird to you.
In the word lists starting from
chapter 1, we will indicate irregular
pronunciation, and you can fnd an
overview at the end of the book.
We will also provide pronunciation
videos. For more information, see
www.skapago.eu/nils.
Before you move on
Some things you might notice when you compare the Norwegian and the English version of the text:
9
Ready for chapter 1?
You are going to meet
Erna, an 84 year old Norwegian lady
Lise (48), her daughter
Susanne (8), Lises daughter, as well as the rest of Lises family
many other people from diferent regions in Norway
... and, of course, Nils!
But who exactly Nils is you will have to fnd out for yourself.
Enjoy the story, and enjoy learning Norwegian!
10
hva [va] what
gjr [jr] do
du you
jeg [jj] I
lager make
en a
en gave a present
til for, to
hun she
har has
en bursdag a birthday
er is
det [de] that/it
nisse mythical Norwegian
creature. Here: doll of this
creature
forstr [fr-] understand
ikke not
ja yes
trenger needs
liten little
en venn a friend
derfor [drfr] therefore
sitter sits
og [] and
arbeider works
n now
nesten almost
ferdig [] done
Lise: Erna, hva gjr du?
Erna: Jeg lager en gave til Susanne.
Hun har bursdag.
Lise: Hva er det?
Erna: Det er en nisse.
Lise: Jeg forstr ikke. En nisse?
Erna: Ja. Susanne trenger en liten venn.
Derfor lager jeg en nisse.
Erna siter og arbeider. N er hun nesten ferdig.
1
Erna siter og arbeider.
13
Verbs and Pronouns
Time for some grammar!
A verb is a word that tells you what someone does: eat, sleep, work, fy, love
... these are all verbs.
A pronoun is a word that replaces a person or a thing: I, you, he, she ...
When we combine pronouns and verbs, we basically only allow certain
endings, e.g. I drink he drinks
jeg I
du you (one person)
han he
hun she
vi we
dere you (several persons)
de they
But in Norwegian, things are easier! We have only one form for each verb and
each tense. So regardless of who does what, we always use the same form for
the verb.
In the present tense, this form usually ends with an -r.
Some remarks about the pronouns:
Norwegian has two ways of saying you: for one person you say du for
several persons you say dere.
There is a pronoun for things, too, but you will learn about that in chapter 3.
In Norwegian sentences,
the verb is always the
second piece of information
you get. This is the most
important rule in Norwe-
gian sentence structure.
So, if nothing else sticks in
your mind, remember this!
Jeg forstr ikke. I don't understand.
Kan du gjenta? Could you repeat that?

Jeg snakker bare litt norsk. I speak only a little Norwegian.
Hva betyr ... p engelsk? What does ... mean in English?
Jeg forstr ikke.
Sentence Order
15
Hun har bursdag.
Susanne trenger en liten venn.
Derfor lager jeg en nisse.
Any Verb Rest
information
1 Fill in the gap.
Erna ____ en gave til Susanne. Susanne ___ bursdag. Det ___ en nisse.
Lise forstr _____ . Erna sitter ____ arbeider. Hun er nesten ______ .
2 Make sentences. Use all the words.
a) Lise ikke forstr
b) Erna nesten ferdig er
c) venn trenger Susanne en liten
d) lager Erna bursdag Susanne har gave en og
3 Change the following sentences: start with N ...
This will change the word order.
Example: Erna er nesten ferdig. N ...
N er Erna nesten ferdig.
a) Hun lager en gave til Susanne. N ...
b) Susanne har bursdag. N ...
c) Susanne trenger en liten venn. N ...
d) Erna arbeider. N ...
e) Erna er nesten ferdig. N ...
16
2
Susanne vkner. Er det onsdag i dag? Nei, det er torsdag
allerede! Og hva betyr det?
Selvflgelig! Hun har bursdag. N er hun te r gammel.
Lise kommer.
Lise: God morgen, Susanne. Gratulerer med dagen!
Susanne: God morgen. Tusen takk!
Lise: Vi spiser frokost n. Skolen begynner snart.
Susanne str opp. Hun spi-
ser frokost: et egg, et rund-
stykke og ei brdskive med
ost. Hun drikker en kopp
varm sjokolade.
vkne to wake up
onsdag Wednesday
i dag today
nei no
torsdag [] Thursday
allerede already
bety to mean
selvflgelig [sellflgelli] of course
tte eight
et r a year
tte r eight years
gammel old
komme [] to come
god [go] good
en morgen [mrn] a morning
god morgen good morning
gratulerer med dagen happy birthday
tusen thousand
takk thanks
tusen takk thanks a lot
vi we
spise to eat
(en) frokost [-kst] breakfast
skolen (the) school
begynne [bejy-] to start, to begin
snart soon
st opp to get up
et egg an egg
et rundstykke [runns-] a roll
ei brdskive [br-] a slice of bread
med [me] with
(en) ost cheese
drikke to drink
en kopp [] a cup
varm warm, hot
(en) sjokolade chocolate
en kopp sjokolade a cup of hot chocolate
Gratulerer med dagen!
17
Genders
As you can see, Norwegian cups are male, slices
of bread are female and rolls are neutral. Sounds
weird? Well, it is. But thats just the way this
language works. So, in Norwegian we have three
translations for the English word a:
en (for male people / things)
ei (for female people / things)
et (for neutral people / things)
That means: you cannot say et kopp its just
wrong. It has to be en kopp, because cups are
male.
How can you possibly know that a cup is male
and not female or neutral? Unfortunately you
cant. You have to learn the gender of every sin-
gle word by heart. Sorry! Perhaps you know this
concept from another language, like German,
French, Spanish, or Russian.
So if this has not been confusing enough, here
is something else: Female Norwegian words
(and only the female ones!) can also be male!
So you can say en brdskive instead of ei
brdskive, but you cannot say ei kopp instead
of en kopp.
Why is that so? My advice is best not ask. But, if
you really, really want to know, you will have to
read about Norwegian language history. 18
en
et
ei
kopp
brdskive
rundstykke
male
female
neutral

Numbers 110
0 null
1 en
2 to
3 tre
4 fre
5 fem
6 seks
7 sju (you can also say: syv)
8 tte
9 ni
10 ti
Hello and Goodbye
god morgen good morning
god kveld [kvell] good evening
hei hello
god natt good night
ha det [ha de] bye
ha det bra good bye
19
20
et rundstykke a roll
et brd [-] a bread
(en) ost cheese
et eple an apple
(et) smr butter
en salami a salami
(en) honning [] honey
et egg an egg
(en) kafe cofee
(en) te tea
(ei) frokostblanding breakfast cereals
(ei) melk milk
(en) juice [as in English] juice
(et) syltety jam, marmalade
20
1 Put in the right article (en, ei or et).
a) ___ gave
b) ___ egg
c) ___ brdskive
d) ___ rundstykke
e) ___ kopp
2 Answer the questions.
a) Er det onsdag i dag?
b) Er Susanne ni r gammel?
c) Hva spiser Susanne?
3 Hva spiser du til frokost?
4 Connect the numbers.
0 en
1 fre
2 tte
3 tre
4 ni
5 fem
6 sju
7 to
8 null
9 seks
5 Use personal pronouns.
An example (et eksempel): Erna og Susanne snakker. De snakker.
Du og jeg arbeider.
Martin har bursdag.
Du, Erna og Susanne vkner.
Lise sitter.
Erna, Susanne og Martin spiser.
Du og Lise kommer ikke.
Susanne og jeg str opp.
21
22
Erna: Gratulerer med dagen, Susanne! Du m f en
klem.
Susanne: Takk. Fr jeg en gave ogs?
Erna: Ja, selvflgelig. Her er den.
Susanne: Hva er det?
Erna: Vil du ikke pne den frst?
Susanne: Er det en smartelefon?
Erna: Jeg forstr ikke. Hva er en smartelefon?
Susanne: Det er en telefon. Du kan ikke bare ringe, men ogs
sende e-post, g p Inter-
net og ta bilder.
Erna: Te-post? Hva betyr te-
post?
Susanne: E-post, bestemor. Elek-
tronisk post.
Erna: Men det koster mye, ikke
sant?
Det er en nisse, Susanne.
3
23
mtte, present
tense: m
to have to
f to get, to receive
en klem a hug
ogs [s] also
her [] here
den it (only masculine/
feminine nouns; see
grammar explanation)
ville, present tense:
vil
want
pne to open
frst frst
en telefon a telephone
en smarttelefon a smartphone
kunne, present
tense: kan
can, to be able to
bare only
ringe to call (by phone)
men but
sende [senne] to send
(en) e-post [] (an) e-mail
g to go/to walk
p on, at, in
p Internett on the internet
g p Internett to surf the internet, to
go on the internet
ta to take
et bilde a picture
bilder pictures
ei bestemor a grandmother
elektronisk electronic
koste [] to cost
mye much, a lot
sant true
... ikke sant? ... right? / ... isnt that
right?
Susanne svarer ikke. Hun vil ikke vente.
Erna: Det er en nisse, Susanne. Han heter Nils.
Susanne: Aha.
Erna: Er du ikke glad?
Susanne: Jo.
Men det er ikke sant. Erna fler det. Hun er lit trist.
Susanne er ikke glad. Det kan hun se. Men hvorfor
ikke? Er en telefon s mye bedre?
Two Verbs in One Sentence
You learned about verbs in the frst chapter.
When you have two verbs in one sentence, the
second verb will be used in a form called the
infnitive, which is the basic form of the verb, the
one you would fnd in a dictionary, without any
special ending.
If English is your frst language, this might be
confusing. The word wait is just the same in I
wait and I have to wait, isnt it? But replace I with
he, and you will see the diference:
he waits
he has to wait
This -s ending is actually the same as the Nor-
wegian -r ending except in Norwegian, we use
it for all the personal pronouns, not only for he/
she/it. 24
svare to reply, to answer
vente to wait
hete to be called (name)
Han heter Nils. His name is Nils.
aha aha, I see
glad [gla] happy
jo yes (after a question
with ikke)
fle to feel
litt a little
trist sad
se to see
hvorfor [vorfr] why
s so
bedre better
Hun vil ikke vente.
Det kan hun se.
Jeg vil spise.
Questions
We have two types of questions. Lets start with the ones where you can answer yes or no.
In these questions, the verb comes frst.
ja - jo
When you answer a question with yes and the question contains the word ikke (not), then
you cannot respond with ja you have to use the word jo.
For those of you who know German: the Norwegian jo is the same as the German doch.
25
In questions with question words, we have the question
word frst (pretty logical, isnt it?).
Fr jeg en gave ogs? Ja.
Vil du ikke pne den frst? Jo.

Verb
Hva er det?

Verb
Question word
den/det
When we talk about people, we use han for male and hun for female.
Of course we can talk about things, too, but remember, in Norwegian
even things have a gender!
Therefore, we have two diferent words for the English it:
We use den for feminine and masculine things.
Susanne vil ha en telefon. Den koster mye.
We use det for neutral things.
Susanne vil ha et rundstykke. Det koster ikke mye.
Sometimes we dont know which word it is actually referring to. Then
again, we do not know the gender of this thing either. In this case we
use det: For example it rains (what is it referring to here? We have no
idea ...) translates to Norwegian det regner.
In Norwegian there is no simple word for
please. This might seem a bit rude, but on
the other hand, Norwegians have many
expressions for thank you. In addition to
the ones in the box, you might want to
remember:
Takk for maten! = Thanks for the meal!
(Its polite to say this after a meal in a Nor-
wegian home.)
Takk for sist! = Thanks for last time!
(This is something you say when you meet
someone again after a while. A while can
actually be a week, a month or a year ...)
Gratulerer med
dagen!
Takk!
Tusen takk!
Mange takk!
Takk skal du ha!
Thanks
26
Happy birthday!
Thanks!
Thanks a lot!
1 Answer the questions.
a) Hva fr Susanne?
b) Hvorfor er Erna trist?
c) Hvorfor er Susanne ikke glad?
2 Answer the questions with ja or jo.
a) Er Erna trist?
b) Fr Susanne en gave?
c) Spiser hun ikke frokost?
d) Koster en smarttelefon mye?
3 Put in det or den.
a) Koster en smarttelefon mye? Ja, ___ koster mye.
b) Har du et rundstykke? Ja, her er ____ .
c) Spiser Susanne ei brdskive? Ja, hun spiser ___ .
d) ____ er torsdag i dag.
e) Hva er ___ ? ____ er et egg.
4 Put in the verbs in the correct form (infnitive or present tense).
a) vente: Susanne vil ikke ____ .
b) vente: Susanne ____ ikke.
c) ha: Susanne vil ikke ____ en nisse.
d) spise: Hun ____ et rundstykke med ost.
e) gratulere: Erna ____ .
f ) pne: Susanne ____ en gave.
g) forst: Erna ___ ikke.
h) spise: Kan jeg ___ et rundstykke?
i) st: Jeg vil ikke ___ opp.
j) svare: Susanne ___ ikke.
k) koste: En telefon ___ mye.
27
5 Connect the words in the left column with the correct words in the right column, so that
you create meaningful sentences.
Susanne pner ikke sant.
Jeg forstr ei brdskive.
Hun spiser r gammel.
Det er en gave.
En telefon bare litt norsk.
Susanne er tte koster mye.
Kan du ikke.
Gratulerer med dagen.
Erna drikker en kopp kafe.
Jeg snakker gjenta?
28
Susanne ser p Nils. Hun er skuet. Hva skal hun
gjre med en nisse? Hun vil s gjerne ha en smarte-
lefon.
Hun ser ut av vinduet. Hva skal hun gjre n?
Leke med nissen?
Hun tar Nils i hnda.
Hei sier hun.
Nils svarer ikke.
Jeg heter Susanne. Jeg kommer fra Norge. Hva
heter du?
Nils svarer ikke.
Hvor kommer du fra? Kom-
mer du fra skogen?
Nils sier ingenting.
Hvor gammel er du?
Nils svarer ikke.
Du er kjedelig.
N vil hun ikke leke med Nils
lenger.
Hvor skal hun sete nissen? Ikke
p senga, i hvert fall. P bordet og
p kommoden er det ikke plass.
Men kanskje i et skap eller p en
stol? Ja, Nils kan site p en stol.
Eller ved vinduet? Nei, han kan site ved siden av
dra.
4
Han kan site ved
siden av dra.
skufet disappointed
skulle, present tense:
skal
will, shall
gjre [j-] to do
gjerne [jr-] gladly; here: so much
ha to have
hun vil gjerne ha she would like to have
ut out
av [a] of, from
et vindu a window
leke to play (with a toy)
ei hnd [hnn] a hand
hei hello, hi
si, present tense: sier to say
Hva heter du? Whats your name?
fra from
Norge [] Norway
hvor [vor] where
hvor kommer du fra? where do you come from?
en skog a forest
ingenting nothing
hvor gammel how old
kjedelig [-li] boring
ikke ... lenger not ... any more
sette to put
ei seng a bed
hvert [vrt] any
i in, at
i hvert fall in any case, at least
et bord [bor] a table
en kommode a chest of drawers
(en) plass place, space
kanskje maybe
et skap a cupboard, a wardrobe
eller or
en stol a chair
ved [ve] at, by
ved siden av next to
ei dr a door
29
Sentence Structure
Norwegian is an easy language when it comes to endings (you
dont believe me? Go to your local bookstore and open a Rus-
sian, German, or French grammar book). However, in Norwe-
gian sentence structure is really important. That is why we will
go over it again and again. Imagine a Norwegian sentence like
you would a train. In every coach only certain pieces of infor-
mation have booked a seat. The frst coach is pretty open to
almost everyone. However, the second coach is always reserved
for the verb.
Often in a sentence, there are a lot of other elements, but
not every sentence has to have all of them. Some sentences
have only what we call a subject (a person or a thing doing
something) and a verb (the action that is being done). This is
the minimum of what every Norwegian sentence must have.
It can run without the other elements in this case, the other
coaches simply remain empty.
Very often the subject is the frst element in the sentence,
but not necessarily. If it is not, it has to be in the third coach
(after the verb) because the verb must be in the second coach!
This is probably the most confusing part for you if English is
your frst language.
Look at it from another perspective: if you only have a sub-
ject and a verb in a sentence, the subject must come frst. Why?
Well, otherwise the verb would come frst, and the verb MUST
always come second.
30
Right now we are not going to bother too much with the coaches that come after the verb. Thats why Ive only put one coach
after the verb. All those other coaches are pretty important, too, but right now I dont want to confuse you.
One more thing: the frst piece of information can actually be extremely long. For example:
P bordet og p kommoden er det ikke plass.
P bordet og p kommoden frst coach (additional information about a place, answers the question where?)
er verb, in the second coach
det subject
Linking Sentences Together
With og we can link sentences. When the subject is the same, we dont have to repeat it:
Erna sitter. Erna arbeider.
Erna sitter og (Erna) arbeider.
To sum up: if you think this is wayyyy too difcult, all you need to remember for now is:
The verb is the 2nd piece of information you get.
31
32
In Norwegian we have no simple word for the. Instead, we put
the the at the end of the word it belongs to, as you can see in the
following example:
a window et vindu
the window vinduet
If you come from a country where there is no diference between
a window and the window (like Russia, Poland and so on), this
might be a little complicated. Basically the diference here is as
shown in the image: if we mean any window, we say et vindu (a
window). If we are talking about a certain window (for example
the only one in the room, or a window we have just mentioned
before), we say vinduet (the window).
Next step: bear in mind that in Norwegian we have genders (see
chapter 2). That means that not only do we have three transla-
tions for the English a, we also have three translations for the
English the. Again, the gender is linked to the word, so:
neutral words end in -et
masculine words end in -en
feminine words end in -a
To make life a bit easier, you can treat female words the same as
masculine words and give them an -en ending (but never the
other way round).
Beware! For neutral words, the ending is -et but we do not
pronounce the -t. We do not pronounce it at the end of the word
det either. But the t is pronounced everywhere else in Norwe-
gian!
Defnite Article
33
Indefnite det
This section is actually quite advanced. If you have had enough
grammar for now, you can skip it.
Lets have a second look at the sentence:
P bordet og p kommoden er det ikke plass.
On the table and on the dresser there is no space.
I said that the subject was the little word det in this sentence.
When we dont know who does something in a sentence, we
simply use det. You remember det regner? Who or what is
actually raining? Well, it is raining. We dont know who that is
so we say det.
The same applies to the sentence P bordet og p kommoden
er det ikke plass.
P bordet og p kommoden is not the subject, since it tells
us where something happens, but not who does it. Who does
something here? Well, we dont know, so det. What does det do
here? It simply exists, so er.
Sounds almost a bit philosophical, huh?
Well, I did say this would be tricky stuf. But dont worry, after
more examples it will become second nature to you.
Furniture
en TV [teve] a TV
et skrivebord[-r] a desk
ei lampe a lamp
ei bokhylle a bookshelf
en komfyr a stove
en ovn [] an oven
en vask a sink
en kafemaskin a cofee machine
et kjleskap a fridge
ei dr a door
en datamaskin a computer
Learn the new words and fnd the matching picture:
How to Present Yourself and Make Small Talk
People in Norway are not very formal, so you can say hei to almost everybody, except for the King:
God dag, Deres Majestet. :-)
Hei! Hi!
Jeg heter ... My name is ...
Hva heter du? Whats your name?
Hva gjr du? What do you do? / What are you doing?
(so this could either be a question about what youre doing right now, or about your profession, de-
pending on the circumstances)
Jeg er elektriker. I am an electrician.
Hyggelig hilse p deg. [-li] Nice to meet you. (frst time you meet someone)
Hyggelig trefe/mte deg. Nice to see you. (to people youve met before)
Jeg kommer fra ... I come from ...
Hvordan gr det? How do you do?
Takk, det gr bra. Thanks, Im fne.
Takk, ikke s verst. [] Thanks, Im doing ok. (not too bad, but not perfect
either)
Det gr drlig. Not great.
Hva med deg? [dj] What about you?
God helg! Have a nice weekend!
I like mte! [lige mde] Same to you!
(But its not only used before weekends, you can also use it if someone wishes you something, like a
nice day.)
Hvor kommer du fra? Where do you come from?
Hvor bor du? Where do you live?
Hvor gammel er du? How old are you?
(Ok, you might be a bit careful with that last question ...)
36
?
Question Words
Hvor? Where?
Hva? What?
Hvem? Who?
Hvorfor? Why?
Nr? When?
Hvor gammel ...? How old ...?
Hvordan? How?

Notice that how translates to hvor-
dan, but in combinations like how
old, how much, how often ... you
say hvor gammel, hvor mye, hvor
ofte ...
37
1 You have not understood the words marked XXX. What would you ask?
Eksempel: Jeg heter XXX. Hva heter du?
a) Jeg kommer fra XXX.
b) Hun heter XXX.
c) Hun vil spise XXX.
d) Nils sier XXX.
e) Jeg sitter ved XXX.
f ) Jeg er XXX r gammel.
g) Vi kommer fra XXX.
h) De heter XXX.
2 Change the words to the defnite form.
Eksempel: en nisse nissen
a) et skap
b) en telefon
c) ei brdskive
d) en kommode
e) ei dr
f ) en gave
g) en venn
h) et egg
i) et bord
j) en kopp
k) en stol
l) et rundstykke
m) ei hnd
n) ei seng
o) et vindu
3 Defnite or indefnite form? Choose the right option!
Nils er en nisse/nissen. Susanne er ikke glad i en nisse/nissen. Hun vil gjerne ha en telefon/telefonen. Men en
telefon/telefonen koster mye.
Susanne ser ut av et vindu/vinduet. Hun tar Nils i ei hnd/hnda.
Susanne har ei seng/senga. Kan Nils sitte p ei seng/senga? Nei. Han kan sitte ved siden av ei dr/dra.
38
4 Rewrite the sentences starting with the words indicated. Watch the word order!
a) Jeg vil ikke sitte ved bordet. Ved bordet ...
b) P bordet er det ikke plass. Det ...
c) Jeg vil ikke spise et egg. Et egg ...
d) Ved vinduet sitter Erna. Erna ...
e) Hun vil ikke leke med Nils n. N ...
f ) Hun har bursdag i dag. I dag ...
5 Find a suitable reply.
Hva heter du? Takk, ikke s verst. Hva med deg?
Hvor gammel er du? Jeg er elektriker.
Hvor bor du? Ha det bra!
Hvordan gr det? I Bergen.
Hva gjr du? Jeg heter Truls.
Jeg m g. Jeg er fra Oslo.
Hvor kommer du fra? Hyggelig trefe deg! Jeg er Nils.
God helg! Jeg er 36 r.
Hei, jeg heter Irene. I like mte!
39
Dagen eter bursdagen er Susanne i stua med familien:
Mora heter Lise og er 48 r gammel. Faren heter Lars og
er 52 r gammel. Broren til Susanne heter Per og er 16 r
gammel. Og selvflgelig Susanne hun er te r gammel.
Erna er ikke der. Hun bor ikke sammen med dem.
Susanne, hvor er Nils?, spr Lise.
Jeg vet ikke.
Vil du ikke lete eter ham?
Nei, egentlig ikke. Jeg er ikke glad i ham.
Det er synd. Jeg liker Nils.
Du kan gjerne ha Nils. Jeg vil heller ha en smartele-
fon.
Susanne, du m ikke vre frekk.
En smartelefon er veldig dyr. Erna
har ikke penger til den. Det er hyg-
gelig av henne gi deg en nisse. Men
han kan vre p kjkkenet sammen
med meg. Jeg liker Nils.
Susanne gr og henter Nils. Hun gir
ham til mora.
Bra. N vil jeg se p TV med
dere. Per, vil du se p TV med oss?
Vil du ikke lete eter ham?
5
etter after
ei stue a living room
en familie a family
ei mor a mother
en far a father
en bror a brother
der [] there
bo to live
sammen together
dem them
sprre, present tense:
spr
to ask
vite, present tense: vet to know
lete etter to look for
ham him
egentlig [-li] actually
synd [synn] a pity
det er synd what a pity
like to like
heller rather
vre, present tense:
er [r]
to be
frekk bold, impudent, cheeky
veldig [-di] very
dyr expensive
penger money
hyggelig [-li] nice
henne her
gi [ji] to give
deg [dj] (to) you
et kjkken a kitchen
meg [mj] me
hente to fetch, to collect
bra good, well, fne
(en) TV television (TV)
se p TV to watch television
dere you (several people)
oss [] us
41
Numbers
alternative form Comments / Pronunciation
0 null
1 en/ei/ett en = masculine, ei = feminine, ett = neutral
2 to
3 tre
4 fre
5 fem
6 seks
7 sju syv
8 tte
9 ni
10 ti
11 elleve [ellve]
12 tolv [tll]
13 tretten
14 forten
15 femten
16 seksten [sjsten]
17 sytten [stten]
18 atten Remember: atten = 18, tti = 80
19 nitten
20 tjue tyve
21 tjueen enogtyve
22 tjueto toogtyve
30 tretti tredve
31 trettien enogtredve
40 frti frr
50 femti
60 seksti
70 sytti [stti]
80 tti
90 nitti
100 (ett) hundre
101 (ett) hundreogen og comes after hundre ...
143 (ett) hundreogfrtitre
200 tohundre
1000 (ett) tusen
1015 (ett) tusenogfemten ... even when there is no hundre
5130 femtusenetthundreogtretti Here we cannot just say hundre for one hundred. It has to be ett
hundre when we have numbers bigger than 1000.
1 000 000 en million
Some numbers have two forms:
7, 20, 30, 40.
Many textbooks call these forms
"old forms", but many young
Norwegians use them, so I prefer
"alternative forms". You can use
whichever form you prefer they
are both correct and you will hear
both of them.
There are two possibilities when
you count past twenty:
count like you would in English
with normal forms: tjueen
(twenty-one)
count like you would in Ger-
man with alternative forms:
enogtyve (one-and-twenty)
Personal Pronouns Objects
I talked about sentence structure in chapter 4 and I talked
about subjects. I said that subjects are the persons (or things)
that are doing something. Every sentence must have a sub-
ject.
Sentences can also have one (or more) objects. An object is a
person (or thing) that is not doing anything in particular but is
somehow the victim of the action that is being done by the
subject.
This might sound a bit confusing, but consider how much this
helps in avoiding a misunderstanding:
He likes her is defnitely diferent from she likes him.
Imagine the following sentence:
Susanne henter Nils.
Obviously Susanne is doing something (she gets Nils), while
Nils remains passive (he gets collected) so Susanne is the
subject and Nils is the object.
We can use pronouns (see chapter 1) for the subject and for
the object. But the form of the pronoun often changes when
the pronoun stands for an object. Look:
Pay attention to the diference between seg and ham/henne/dem:
ham/henne/dem = another person
seg = him-/herself/themselves
Instead of ham you can also use han.
Remember that you has three diferent translations in Norwegian:
du, deg, dere:

Where are you, Tom? Hvor er du, Tom?
I want to talk to you, Tom. Jeg vil snakke med deg, Tom.
Where are you, Tom and Betty? Hvor er dere, Tom og Betty?
I want to talk to you, Tom and Betty. Jeg vil snakke med dere, Tom og Betty.
Han liker henne.
Hun liker ham.
Han ser seg. Han ser ham.
Belonging to Someone
like vre glad i
broren til Susanne
Use the word til to make it clear that this is Susannes brother.
Well, actually he doesnt really belong to her, but you know what
I mean.
Dont forget that the word before til has to be in the defnite
form. You cannot say bror til Susanne.
You can use this construction both for persons and things (so e.g.
bordet til Susanne works, too).
These two expressions have the same meaning:
Jeg liker Nils. = Jeg er glad i Nils.
By the way, you can combine them with another verb, too:
Jeg liker bo i Oslo.
Jeg er glad i bo i Oslo.
44
Familie (Family)
Some remarks about family words: When we talk about
persons, we use min (my) for one person and mine for two or
more persons: min far but mine besteforeldre. You will learn
more about these words in chapter 10.
Norwegian has strange words for grandparents. Your mothers
mother is called mormor, your fathers mother farmor, and so
on.

Remember:
Stian er en gutt.
Inger er ei jente.
Lisbeth er ei dame.
Jonas er en mann.
Answer the following questions:
Hva gjr Stian?
Hvor bor han?
Hva heter kona til Jonas?
Hvor bor familien til Stian?
Hva gjr foreldrene til Stian?
Hvem er Martha?
Hva gjr en pensjonist?
Hvor gammel er Jonas?
Hvem er Ingers bror?
Hvor gammel er Lisbeth?
Er faren til Stian sykepleier?
Hvem er ssknene i familien?
en lege a doctor
en sykepleier a nurse
en student a student
en elev a pupil
en redaktr an editor
min my
ei sster a sister
studere to study
konomi business/economics
en kjreste a loved one (boyfriend or girlfriend)
som [] as/which/like
gifte [ji-] seg [sj] to marry
mine my (plural)
(beste-)foreldre [] (grand-)parents
en pensjonist a retiree
en gutt a boy
ei jente a girl
ei dame a woman
en mann a man
ei kone a wife
en mann here: a husband
et ssken a sibling
en snn a son
ei datter a daughter
45
Jeg heter Stian og kommer fra Trondheim.
N bor jeg i Oslo, men min familie bor i Trondheim.
Min familie, det er Jonas, min far, Lisbeth, min mor,
og Inger, min sster.
Min far er lege, og min mor er sykepleier. Jeg stu-
derer konomi. Min kjreste, Martha, arbeider som
redaktr. Vi vil gifte oss snart. Mine besteforeldre
arbeider ikke de er pensjonister.
1 Read the numbers.
18 80 17 27 14 93 22 46 64 98 12 16 23
836 5322 8818 312 4067 9900 2147 1987 1818 1511 951 777 787
2 Put in the right object forms of the pronouns.
a) Her kommer Per. Ser du ...?
b) Jeg er her. Ser du ...?
c) Vet du hvor Per og Susanne er? Jeg kan ikke se ...
d) Nina! Anders! Hyggelig trefe ...!
e) Her er et rundstykke. Vil du spise ...?
3 Put a suitable pronoun in the gap. Again, remember to choose the right form. Here, both object and
subject forms may be necessary.
a) Maria er glad: Martin kommer til ... i dag. ... kommer kl. 07. Maria vil spise frokost sammen med ...
b) Jeg vet ikke hvor Runar og Karina er. Skal jeg ringe ...?
c) Liker du Karina? Jeg liker ikke ..., men ... liker Marthe.
d) Jan og jeg spiser frokost med Runar og Karina. ... spiser med ...
4 Write down the corresponding family member of the opposite sex.
Eksempel: brother sister
a) bror b) mor c) far d) datter
e) bestemor f ) mormor g) kone
5 What do you like or dislike (to do)? Use liker and er glad i.
Eksempel: Jeg er glad i Norge. Jeg liker ikke vente.
6 Describe Susannes family.
Susanne er ... til Per.
Per er ... til Susanne.
Per er ... til Lise.
Susanne er ... til Lars.
Erna er ... til Per.
Lise er ... til Susanne.
Lars er ... til Susanne.
Lars er ... til Lise.
Lise er ... til Lars.
46
6
Klokka er seks. Nils hrer noe. Hva er det? ja. Det er Lars,
faren til Susanne. Han lager kae. S spiser familien frokost.
Lars spiser brd med smr og syltety. Susanne spiser fro-
kostblanding med melk. Per og Lise spiser brd med ost og
skinke.
Mamma! Nils beveger seg! roper Susanne.
Nils er skremt. Han siter helt rolig n.
Susanne, n tuller du.
Nei, jeg ser det!
Per irer. S dum hun er! tenker han.
Susanne, n er det nok.
N spiser du opp, pusser
tennene, vasker deg, og s
gr du p skolen. Jeg vil ikke
hre en dum historie, sier
faren.
En dum historie? Nils er
sjokkert.
Han lever ikke? Hvorfor
tenker Lars, Lise og Per det?
Det er bare i Susannes fanta-
si, tror de. Men det stemmer
ikke. Selvflgelig lever han.
Han kan snakke, han kan g, han kan bevege seg, han kan
tenke, han kan glede seg men n er han redd. Han sluter
bevege seg og siter helt stille. Endelig er familien ferdig med
frokosten. N kan han slappe av og bevege seg igjen.
Mamma! Nils beveger seg!
ei klokke [] a clock/watch
Klokka er seks. Its six oclock.
hre to hear
noe something
(ei) skinke ham
mamma mom
bevege seg to move
rope to shout
skremt scared
helt totally
rolig [-li] quiet
tulle to kid (around), to joke
fire to grin, to smirk
dum [o] stupid
tenke to think
nok [] enough
pusse to brush/clean
tennene the teeth
vaske to wash
en historie a story
sjokkert shocked
leve to live
(en) fantasi fantasy, imagination
tro to believe
stemme to be correct
det stemmer ikke thats not correct
snakke to speak
glede seg to be happy / to look
forward
redd afraid
slutte to stop, to fnish
stille quiet, silent
endelig [-li] fnally
slappe av to relax
igjen [ijen] again
47
Refexive Verbs
Sometimes, a single person can be the
subject and the object at the same time.
For example, you can wash yourself.
We call verbs where this is possible refexive
verbs. Some of them must have an object
and if there is no other object available,
then it will refer back to the subject:
e.g., glede: Jeg gleder meg, du gleder
deg ...
Belonging to Someone (Part 2)
Instead of broren til Susanne you can also
say Susannes bror.
Notice that in the second version, bror is
in the indefnite form. The second version
sounds a bit more elegant, but in spoken
Norwegian, the frst one is more common.
If the name ends with an -s, -x, or -z, we
write: Lars far
48
Two Verbs in One Sentence Again
In chapter 3, I told you where to put verbs when there are two
in one sentence. Remember that? If not, look it up again.
Today I would like to talk about a diferent aspect. Have you
noticed that there is always this little in front of the infnitives
in the word lists? As in gjre, arbeide ...
Now. I said
the second verb in a sentence is an infnitive
the infnitive starts with an
So if you consider these two statements and you look at the
following sentence:
Han slutter bevege seg.
... then you can see that this rule applies.
But what about the following sentence?
Han kan snakke.
Obvisouly snakke is an infnitive, but it has no . Why?
The answer lies in the verb kan. Kan is a modal verb. What is a
modal verb? Well, if you ask two linguists for a defnition, then
you will get three diferent answers. I think the best one is
that modal verbs explain what we want/can/must do. In other
words, they tell us something about our relationship to the
action in a sentence. Look at the following examples (action =
go home):
Jeg vil g hjem. relationship: desire
Jeg m g hjem. relationship: obligation
Jeg kan g hjem. relationship: ability
Jeg skal g hjem. relationship: decision
Jeg br g hjem. relationship: advice
In Norwegian, the following verbs are modal verbs:
ville (jeg vil)
mtte (jeg m)
kunne (jeg kan)
skulle (jeg skal)
burde (jeg br)

and in certain situations (you will learn about these later):
f (jeg fr)
So again if you are not thrilled with all of these explanations,
all you have to do is learn these fve modal verbs by heart. You
should remember that there is no in a sentence where the
modal verb is the main verb.
49
Past tense will not be dealt with in the lesson texts until chapter
12. That means you dont have to learn it now if you feel it
would be too much for you. But if you would already like to tell
your Norwegian friends what you did yesterday, then here is
how to do it:
We are going to deal with simple past (in Norwegian: preter-
itum). Fortunately, in the preteritum we also have only one
single form for each verb:
jeg gikk, du gikk, han gikk, vi gikk, dere gikk, de gikk
That was the good news now for the bad news. How do you
fgure out what the preteritum form for a given verb is?
The verb may be irregular then you dont fgure it out at all,
you just have to know it. Here is a list of irregular verbs which
you have already learned:
jeg gjr jeg gjorde
jeg gr jeg gikk
jeg (for)str jeg (for)sto
jeg sitter jeg satt
jeg fr jeg fkk
jeg tar jeg tok
jeg ser jeg s
jeg sier jeg sa
(watch out for the diference jeg s/jeg sa!)
jeg setter jeg satte
jeg m jeg mtte
jeg er jeg var
jeg gir jeg ga
jeg spr jeg spurte
If the verb is regular, there are four possible endings, and it can
be a bit tricky to determine which is the right one:
ending et: vkne jeg vknet
arbeide jeg arbeidet
(most verbs with two consonants/infnitive ending on -te/-de)
ending te: spise jeg spiste
(most verbs with a single consonant)
ending de: leve jeg levde
(most verbs with an infnitive ending on -ve, -eie)
ending dde: bo jeg bodde
(most verbs ending on a vowel)
It might be a good idea to learn the preteritum for every single
verb even for the regular ones. In the word lists, we will in-
clude the preteritum form.
There is also a little writing rule worth remembering. We try to
avoid writing three consonants in a row in Norwegian, so when
we originally have a double consonant and we add a third
consonant, we drop one of the double consonants:
jeg begynner jeg begynte
(Notice that this verb is a bad example of the rules above: it has
two consonants, but all the same we have a -te ending.)
One last remark: a few regular verbs can belong to two difer-
ent groups, which makes it a bit easier for you since the risk of
making a mistake is automatically less. One prominent example
is lage: you can say lagde or laget.
Past Tense (Optional)
In Norway we use military time in certain instances and at
places like the railway station, etc. In this case the time reads
like this:
18.37 atten trettisju
Remember that we count up until 24 hours (to avoid misunder-
standings between a.m. and p.m.). In everyday language, its
the norm to give or take fve minutes and to count only up to
twelve (you have to fgure out whether the speaker is referring
to afternoon or morning based on the context). So, for exam-
ple, when its 17.04, we dont say four past seventeen, but fve
past fve.
We ask for the time:
Hva er klokka?
or: Hvor mye er klokka?
The answer: Klokka er ...
When you say that something happens at eight oclock, you
just say klokka tte:
Skolen begynner klokka tte.
School starts at eight oclock.
Time
15.05 Klokka er fem over tre.
15.10 Klokka er ti over tre.
15.15 Klokka er kvart over tre.
15.20 Klokka er ti p halv fre.
15.25 Klokka er fem p halv fre.
15.40 Klokka er ti over halv fre.
15.35 Klokka er fem over halv fre.
15.55 Klokka er fem p fre.
15.50 Klokka er ti p fre.
15.45 Klokka er kvart p fre.
15.00 Klokka er tre.
15.30 Klokka er halv fre.
51
Ukedager = Days of the Week
mandag Monday
tirsdag Tuesday
onsdag Wednesday
torsdag [] Thursday
fredag Friday
lrdag Saturday
sndag Sunday
i dag today
i gr yesterday
i morgen [mrn] tomorrow
p mandag this/last Monday
p mandager every Monday
52
1 Fill in the right pronoun.
a) Jeg vasker ...
b) Vi vasker ...
c) Dere vasker ...
d) Du vasker ...
e) Han vasker ...
f ) De vasker ...
g) Hun vasker ...
2 Hva er klokka?
08.00 12.00 06.00 19.00 21.00 14.00 15.30 07.30 10.30 22.30 21.15 09.15
03.10 15.50 09.45 08.55 16.50 05.05 17.25 13.40 13.00 06.40 11.35 23.25
3 Nr gjr du hva? When do you do what?
There are a few new words in this exercise. Write them down and learn them.
Kl. 06.30 ... spiser jeg frokost.
Kl. 11.30 ... begynner skolen.
Kl. 20.00 ... str jeg opp.
Kl. 08.00 ... spiser jeg kveldsmat.
Kl. 06.45 ... spiser jeg lunsj.
Kl. 16.00 ... legger jeg meg.
Kl. 22.30 ... spiser jeg middag.
4 Fill a suitable word into each gap.
Per sier:
Jeg ... Per. Jeg kommer ... Norge. Jeg er 16 ... gammel og bor i Oslo. Jeg ... p skolen. Skolen ... kl. 8, mandag til
fredag. Jeg liker skolen, men jeg er ... glad i engelsk. Jeg har ... sster. Hun heter Susanne. Hun ... bare tte r
gammel. Egentlig liker jeg ..., men hun er ofte frekk.
53
5 Find an alternative way of saying the following expressions.
Eksempel: Susannes bror broren til Susanne
a) Lises far
b) familien til Susanne
c) Ernas telefon
d) kommoden til Erna
e) Lars skap
f ) Susannes kopp
g) dra til Per
h) Kristines brd
i) kjkkenet til Lise
6 Infnitive with or without ?
a) Jeg m () vaske opp.
b) Hun slutter () fire.
c) Nils kan ikke () hre noe.
d) Vil du endelig () vre stille?
e) Nr vil du () st opp?
f ) Lars begynner () arbeide kl. 08.00.
7 Hva gjr du p mandag? Hva gjr du p tirsdag? ...
8 Past tense (optional exercise): Put the following texts into preteritum.
Klokka er seks. Nils hrer noe. Hva er det? ja. Det er Lars, faren til Susanne. Han lager kafe. S spiser fami-
lien frokost. Lars spiser brd med smr og syltety, Susanne spiser frokostblanding med melk. Per og Lise
spiser brd med ost og skinke.
---
Nils slutter bevege seg og sitter helt stille. Endelig er familien ferdig med frokosten. N kan han slappe av
og bevege seg igjen.
54
7
Eter frokost, rundt klokka sju, gr Susanne og Per til skolen. Lise
og Lars gr p jobb. Da er det helt stille i huset. N kan Nils gjre
hva han vil. Han ser seg rundt p kjkkenet. P bordet ser han
kopper, glass og tallerkener. Nils vil hjelpe lit. Han vil rydde bor-
det. Han hopper opp p bordet og tar en kopp. S hopper han til
oppvaskmaskinen, med koppen i hnda. Da hrer han plutselig et
skrik: Stopp! Er du gal? Hva driver du med?
Nils er redd. Han ser mot dra. Men han kan ikke se noen der.
Ta koppen ut av oppvaskmaskinen, sier personen. Hvem sier
det? Da plutselig ser Nils en bevegelse. En liten, brun bamse
str ved siden av kjkkenbenken og ser opp mot oppvaskmaski-
nen. Hei, sier Nils. Han er veldig usikker. Hvem er du?
Bamsen svarer ikke han gjentar
bare: Ta koppen ut av oppvaskmas-
kinen, og set den tilbake p bordet.
Men hvorfor? sier Nils. Det bor
mennesker her. De tenker: Du lever
ikke, og du kan ikke bevege deg.
Men du kan det. De m ikke vite
det. Hvorfor ikke? Set koppen
tilbake, s forklarer jeg det til deg.
Nils tar koppen og seter den tilba-
ke p bordet.
Bamsen smiler. Unnskyld. Jeg er veldig direkte, men jeg vil
ikke skremme deg. Jeg heter Emil. Hyggelig tree deg. Jeg
heter Nils. Hvor kommer du fra, Nils? Jeg vet ikke.
Du vet ikke? Det m du nne ut. Er du veldig ung? Ja, det
tror jeg. Ok, da vet du ikke mye. Jeg skjnner. Kom til stua. Jeg
vil forklare deg noe.
Er du gal? Hva driver du med?
rundt about, around,
approximately
en jobb [] a job
p jobb at work
da at that time
et hus a house
se seg rundt to look around
et glass a glass
en tallerken a plate
hjelpe [je-] to help
rydde to tidy (up)
hoppe [] to jump
en oppvaskmaskin a dish washer
plutselig [-li] suddenly
et skrik a scream, a yell
stopp [] stop
gal crazy
drive to chase, to do
drive med to do / to work with
something
mot against, towards
noen someone
en person [] a person
hvem [vem] who
en bevegelse a movement
brun brown
en bamse a teddy bear
en kjkkenbenk a work table in the
kitchen
usikker uncertain, unsure
gjenta [jen-] to repeat
tilbake back
et menneske a human, a person
forklare [fr-] to explain
smile to smile
unnskyld [-yll] sorry
direkte direct
skremme to scare
trefe to meet
fnne to fnd
fnne ut to fnd out
ung [o] young
skjnne to understand
55
From One to Many
When we have several
things/persons, we sim-
ply add an -er to Norwe-
gian nouns.
If we already have an -e
at the end, we dont add
a second one:
en nisse to nisser
But remember! Neutral words that are short (i.e.
that have only one syllable) dont change:
Unfortunately there are some words
with an irregular plural. From this
chapter on, we will add the plural
form for irregular words in the
word lists. The following words you
already know (or should know you
have done your homework, havent
you?) have an irregular plural:
ei hnd to hender
ei mor to mdre
en bror to brdre
en far to fedre
ei sster to sstre
ei datter to dtre
en mann to menn 56
et glass
to glass
to, tre, mange ... kopper
to, tre, mange ... vinduer
to, tre, mange ... drer
noe/noen
Mind the -n:
noe = something
noen = someone
Telling Someone What to Do
A direct way of telling someone what to do is to use a form that we call impera-
tive. We take the infnitive and cut of the -e (if there is one). If there is an -mm or
-rr ending, we also cut of one m / r.
ta Ta koppen.
sette Sett den p bordet.
komme Kom til stua.
sprre Spr meg.
If you prefer to be a bit more polite, you can ask a question with kan + infnitive.
Kan du ta koppen?
Kan du sette den p bordet?
Kan du komme til stua?
In chapter 13, you will learn to be even more polite.
57
P kjkkenet
In the Kitchen
Kan du vaske opp? Could you wash the dishes?
Kan du dekke bordet? Could you set the table?
Kan du rydde bordet? Could you clear the table?
Kan du skjre opp brdet? Could you cut the bread?
Kan du gi meg vannet? Could you pass the water?
Jeg trenger: I need:


en kniv en gafel ei skje
a knife a fork a spoon
Vi
koker
suppe.
koke []
= to boil
ei suppe
= a soup
Vi steker fsk.
steke
= to fry
fsk = fsh
Vi baker
kaker.
bake
= to bake
ei kake
= a cake
generally:
Vi lager
mat.
We prepare
food.
58
Daily Routine
This is an example of what a typical work
day might look like. Read the text, learn
the new words, and try to write your own
daily routine using the phrases below.
Jeg str opp klokka 7. S spiser jeg
frokost og dusjer. Kl. 8 gr jeg ut av
huset og tar bussen til byen. Jeg er
p kontoret kl. 9. Der arbeider jeg
til kl. 11. Da spiser vi lunsj.
Fra kl. 11.30 til kl. 17 arbeider jeg
igjen. Etterp tar jeg bussen hjem
og spiser middag. Kl. 19 spiller jeg
tennis med en venn. S ser jeg p
TV og spiser kveldsmat. Kl. 23 leg-
ger jeg meg og sover.
Hvordan er din dag?
Jeg str opp kl. ... I get up at ... oclock.
S ... Then ...
Etterp ... After that ...
Kl. ... At ... oclock ...
Da ... At that time ...
Fra ... til ... From ... to ...
dusje to take a shower
en buss a bus
en by a town/city
et kontor an of ce
etterp after that
spille to play (an instrument or
sports)
tennis tennis
sove [] to sleep
din your
?
59
1 From one to many:
Eksempel: et vindu mange vinduer
ei seng et bord en kommode en stol et egg
et rundstykke et r en kopp ei brdskive en gave
en telefon et bilde et skap et rom ei dr
et kjkken en historie ei stue
There are some irregular forms, too. Do you remember them?
ei hnd ei mor en bror en far ei sster
2 Families: Find a suitable word for each gap.
Hvert menneske har en ... og ei mor. Vi har to bestefedre og to ...: en ..., ei farmor, en morfar og ei ....
Noen har ogs sstre og ....
Susanne har bare en ... Han heter Per. ... heter Lars, og ... heter Lise. ... heter Erna. Hun er mora til Lise der-
for er hun ... til Susanne. Susanne er ... til Lise og Lars, og Per er ... til Lise og Lars.
3 Hva trenger du?
What do you need in order to do the following things? Use for = in order to.
Eksempel: skjre brd Jeg trenger en kniv for skjre brd.
dekke bordet vaske opp drikke kafe spise suppe spise fsk
4 Change the sentences from and to the imperative.
Eksempel: Du m gjre noe! Gjr noe!
G!
Svar n!
Du m ringe meg i dag!
Spr Erik!
Du m spise frokost!
Vent p meg!
Du m komme til meg!
Sitt og ta litt mat!
Du m sitte og arbeide!
Gjr noe!
60
8
Snn. N vil jeg fortelle deg noe, sier Emil og hopper opp i
sofaen.
Du vet jo allerede en viktig ting: Folk m ikke skjnne at du
lever. Det betyr: Du m ikke bevege deg nr noen kan se deg.
Du m heller ikke si noe, og du m alltid komme tilbake til
samme sted.
Ja, jeg skjnner. Men Emil, vi lever jo. Hvorfor m vi skjule
det for menneskene?
Det kan vre farlig for dem.
Ikke for barn, men for voksne.
Mange barn tenker at vi lever.
Men voksne tenker ikke det. De
blir overrasket eller sjokkert nr
de ser noe rart ja, de kan til og
med d av skrekk.
. Og de tenker: Det er rart
at vi lever?
Ja. Faktisk. Det er rart, ikke
sant?
Absolut.
Derfor sier vi ikke at vi lever, og vi viser det ikke. Det er en
viktig avtale mellom alle bamser, nisser og dukker. n ting til:
Vet du hva en eske er? spr Emil.
Nei, sier Nils.
En eske er en stor beholder. Nr et menneske kommer med
snn here: ok / here we go
fortelle [] to tell
en sofa a sofa
viktig [-i] important
en ting, mange ting a thing
folk [] (plural) people
at that (as in ... under-
stand that you live)
nr when
heller ikke not ... either
alltid [-ti] always
samme same
et sted, mange steder a place
jo here: confrmation (we
do live)
skjule noe (for) to hide something
(from)
farlig [-li] dangerous
et barn, mange barn,
barna
a child
en voksen [], mange
voksne
an adult
bli to become
overrasket [] surprised
rar strange
noe rart something strange
til og med even
d to die
(en) skrekk fright
faktisk actually
absolutt absolute(ly)
vise to show
en avtale an agreement
mellom between
alle all
en dukke a doll
til here: more
n ting til one more thing
en eske a box
stor big
en beholder [-hller] a container
61
Og de tenker: Det er rart
at vi lever?
en eske, m du prve gjemme deg s fort som
mulig. Store esker betyr nemlig at folk rydder opp.
Og da legger de deg kanskje i en eske, og du m bo i
en bod eller i en kjeller, eller for eksempel i et mrkt
skap. Det er dumt, ikke sant?
Ja, selvflgelig.
S du m alltid passe p det. Ellers kan du egent-
lig ikke gjre s mye galt. Hva vil du gjre i dag? Vil
du kanskje se deg lit rundt i leiligheten?
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that explain what things or persons are like (e.g. green, big, expensive, dark, possible ...).
We change adjectives
according to the gender of the word they are describing
according to the number of things (singular or plural, i.e. one or many)
prve to try
gjemme [je-] (seg) to hide (oneself )
fort quickly
mulig [-li] possible
s fort som mulig as quickly as possible
nemlig [-li] namely, that is to say,
you know
rydde opp to clean up, to tidy up
legge to put, to lay (down)
en bod a storage room
en kjeller a cellar, basement
for eksempel for example
mrk dark
passe p to pay attention (to)
ellers otherwise
galt wrong
en leilighet [leilihet] an apartment
62
There is one exception: Adjectives ending in -ig (mulig, farlig, viktig ) cannot get a -t ending:
en stor kopp
ei stor brdskive
et stort rundstykke
mange store kopper/brdskiver/rundstykker
et hyggelig rom
Defnite Article (Plural)
In chapter 4 you learned that we have three diferent ver-
sions of the English word the: according to the gender of the
noun, it may have the following three endings: -en, -a, or -et.
Now its time to learn the fourth (and fortunately last) version
of the the, which is the plural form. Again, this is an ending:
-ene.
Good news: in the plural, there is no gender diference we
always use the same ending.
koppene the cups
brdskivene the slices of bread
rundstykkene the rolls
Sentence Structure (Again)
Her er det mange stoler. Stolene der er
oransje.
Do you remember that there was one very important detail
about sentence structure? Do you remember what it was? You
are right: the verb is in second place.
Ok. But, actually, if we have two verbs what about the second
verb? Before I give you the answer, I will introduce two new
coaches to our sentence train.
The frst one is objects. Well, actually, we have already discussed
objects, havent we? You learned about the words meg, deg
and so on in chapter 5. We put them after the second verb (if
there is one).
But there are still two coaches between the verbs. One of them
contains the subject. But in many sentences (I would actually
say, in most sentences) the subject comes already before the
frst verb, in the grey coach. That means that the subject coach
(right after the frst verb) is often empty. The only time it gets
occupied is when we start a sentence with something other
than the subject. Behind the subject coach, we have another
coach reserved for the adverbial. Now, what is that? I will give
you some examples: ikke, gjerne and egentlig. Adverbials give
a somewhat diferent meaning to the whole sentence. Look at
ikke: it changes the meaning of the sentence 100%, doesnt it?
Jeg er fra Norge.
Jeg er ikke fra Norge.
Gjerne and egentlig do not necessarily change the meaning
entirely, but still, they somehow modify the meaning of the
sentence, or we could say, they give another tone to the
meaning. And these words are placed between the verbs.
Ellers kan du egentlig ikke gjre s mye galt.
Again, remember: we only need a subject and the frst verb in
a sentence, the other elements are not necessary, so they may
or may not be there. If they are not, their coaches will simply
remain empty.
63
Hvor er ?
Where is ?
64
1 Finn den riktige artikkelen og bruk ordet stor (big) i den rette formen.
Find the right article and add the word stor (big) in the correct form.
Eksempel: vindu et stort vindu
seng rom dr rundstykke kopp brdskive
gave telefon bilde kjkken stue bord
kommode stol egg skap
2 Finn s mange meningsfylte kombinasjoner som mulig.
Try combinations that make sense. Find as many as possible:
en stor far
ei ung skog
et hyggelig rom
mrk person
viktig kjeller
leilighet
eske
vindu
3 Svar p sprsmlene.
Answer the questions.
a) Hvor er Emil?
b) Hva m Nils alltid gjre?
c) Hvorfor er esker farlige?
4 Lag setninger med alle ordene. Pass p ordstillingen.
Make sentences. Use every word. Dont forget the correct sentence structure.
a) ofte lager mat han
b) for trenger seng sove jeg ei
c) begynner jeg arbeide kl. 7.00
d) ikke pne skal du dra
e) frokostblandingen koster mye ikke
f ) vil en leke barnet venn med
g) fra kommer jeg England
h) bor Oslo gjerne jeg i
i) sprre kan meg du
j) i hrer noen jeg kjelleren
k) deg tenker p ofte jeg
65
l) jeg forklare det skal
m) stua m vi rydde i
n) familien hjelpe Nils vil
5 Familiehuset hvem bor hvor? Finn ut hvem som bor i hvilket rom. Bruk bildet av huset som hjelp
og skriv ned hva du allerede vet.
Find out in which rooms the family members live. Its helpful to use the house below to write down
what you already know or can guess.
3. etasje
2. etasje
1. etasje
Huset har ni rom, og de er p tre etasjer. Seks mennesker bor i huset.
Ingen bor over dattera (Lise).
Mora og faren til Lise har soverommet ved siden av badet.
Ingen bor i rommet under soverommet til foreldrene.
Lises mormor og morfar bor mellom stua og boden.
Over mora og faren bor Lises bror Per.
Ingen bor mellom stua og kjkkenet: Der har vi dra.
Under soverommet til besteforeldrene er stua.
Boden er ved siden av rommet til broren.
en etasje a foor, storey, level
ingen nobody
et soverom a bedroom
et bad a bathroom
foreldre parents (always plural)
besteforeldre grandparents (always plural)
66
Grammar in a Nutshell
Nouns and Adjectives
Pronouns
en (stor) kopp (den store) koppen (store) kopper (de store) koppene
ei (stor) dr (den store) dra (store) drer (de store) drene
et (stort) hus (det store) huset (store) hus (de store) husene
et (stort) vindu (det store) vinduet (store) vinduer (de store) vinduene
min/din/hans/hennes/sin/dets/dens/vr/deres/deres kopp
dr
mitt/ditt/hans/hennes/sitt/dets/dens/vrt/deres/deres hus
mine/dine/hans/hennes/sine/dets/dens/vrt/deres/deres drer
or:
koppen min/din ...
dra mi/di...
huset mitt/ditt ...
drene mine/dine ...
100 kr 200 kr 300 kr
dyr dyrere dyrest
interessant mer interessant mest interessant
No -t ending:
adjectives ending on -ig, -sk
many adjectives ending on -t
long adjectives (e.g.) moderne
Susanne er rask. (adjective)
Susanne gr raskt. (adverb)
jeg meg
du deg
han ham (han)
hun henne (seg)
den liker den (seg)
det det (seg)
vi oss
dere dere
der dem (seg)
67
Verbs
Hun tror at det ikke holder med de to
skjortene.
any information verb conjunction subject adverbial verb rest
Main Clause and Subordinate Clause
Main Clause
Sentences
infnitiv presens preteritum perfektum imperativ
spise jeg spiser jeg spiste jeg har spist spis!
jeg vknet jeg har vknet
jeg bodde jeg har bodd
jeg levde jeg har levd
Modal verbs:
ville jeg vil jeg ville !!! Jeg vil spise ...
mtte jeg m jeg mtte ... m spise ...
kunne jeg kan jeg kunne ...
skulle jeg skal jeg skulle
burde jeg br jeg burde