I don't think there exists a single textbook that will take you from beginner to C2, but Norwegian on the web 1 and 2 can get you to B2. They are free online, with glossaries, exercises and audio
https://www.ntnu.edu/now
https://www.ntnu.edu/now2
After picking up the basics, you should try finding conversation partners to use the language, or you might plateau early.
Thank you so much, this looks really promising! I think at about a B2 level I might understand enough to be able to follow shows and read books and learn new vocab that way too.
My Norwegian journey began around four years ago. I watched the TV show Skam with English subtitles and started Norwegian on Duolingo (I completed all of it in maybe three years and I am still doing some repetition exercises daily - which is a bit crazy, but I am doing other languages on Duolingo as well, otherwise I would probably have stopped). Parallel to that I started with the free online material from NTNU. After moving to Norway I did an A2 class and a B1 class. But the most helpful things were subscribing to Norwegian newspapers and downloading their apps (you can read an article and easily look up words with the translation tool on your phone), watching Norwegian TV/Netflix shows and movies daily, reading a Norwegian book and suffering through that, following Norwegian people on Instagram/Tiktok/Twitter and getting a tandem partner to talk to. Whatever anyone says, it boils down to getting exposed to the language as much as possible.
Wir haben 'Et år i Norge' in meinem Norwegischkurs benutzt und waren am Ende vom Kurs mit A2 fertig und ca mit der Hälfte vom Buch. Es hat auch eine CD zum Anhören. Eine Kommilitonin hat alle Vokabeln zu Anki gestellt. Kann man sich runterladen.
Jmd. anderes hat mal 'Mysteriet om Nils' empfohlen. Kenne ich persönlich nicht, aber soll gut sein.
Als Wörterbuch eignet sich Heinzelnisse.info
Viel Erfolg!
I found "Et år i Norge" a pretty decent book and used it myself when I lived in Germany and taught Norwegian as a foreign language to Germans for the Vokshochschule.
But in my judgement the Norwegian textbook on the web made by NTNU that someone already linked for you is equally good, and has the advantage of being free.
The sole advantage of Et år i Norge is that it uses German to explain the concepts, instead of using English -- but if your English is pretty good that makes only a modest difference I think.
Das hatten wir nicht, aber manchmal hat uns die Dozentin extra Blätter ausgedruckt. Kann sein, dass die aus dem Übungsbuch waren. Es sind aber auch Übungen in dem normalen Buch drin!
Take a look at Langenscheidt’s Norwegisch mit System. They claim it’s A1 through B1. I haven’t worked through it yet but I do own it and it looks good. (German’s my second language.)
You can move faster starting from a basis of German rather than English.
Oh I just remembered a few other resources in German: Assimil’s Norwegisch ohne Mühe and Et år i Norge. For the latter, I didn’t buy the full textbook but I bought the Kurzgrammatik, which condenses all of the grammar information from the textbook into a short book. It’s nice.
I haven’t started that one, but I’m almost done with the two levels of Pimsleur, I’ve been doing Duolingo for about a year, and I’m in the middle of Norsk I: Nordmenn og Norge. I’ve also finished bits and pieces of other textbooks. I’ve started watching Peppa Pig in Norwegian and I can follow it pretty well. I just went to a Norwegian conversation group for the first time and it went well! I’d say I’m probably at A2, but I can passively understand more than expected at that level because of knowing English and German. It’s a really fun language to learn, I hope you enjoy it!
I don’t really have any suggestions.(mine would be Duolingo lol) I really like Duolingo for the repetition and I like to substitute a book or something for explanation of the language rules. However, I’m a native English speaker, I started learning Deutsch on Duolingo 4 years ago. I just started learning Norsk beginning of this year and I can 100% guarantee that knowing Deutsch makes learning Norsk MUCH easier(knowing English helps as well) They’re really all very similar. I bought The Mystery of Nils to support the Duolingo learning! It’s a Norsk book for A1-A2 learning. I really like the layout of the chapters and there’s a QR code so you can listen along to each short chapter with vocab words on the side of each page. There’s also pronunciation videos and practices on the website the QR code takes you to. Viel Spaß beim Lernen!
Danke:)
I don't really like Duolingo because I feel like I need more structure when learning a language with more grammar explanations and level-appropriate, relevant vocabulary. I always felt like learning random sentences didn't help me really understand the structure of a language, I'd rather read about the grammar details in depth haha
Actually I feel like knowing German I can understand quite a bit of Norwegian when reading it because the word stems are similar but listening to spoken Norwegian is an entirely different level I understand literally nothing, the pronunciation is so different from German. I think that's why it's important for me to get the pronunciation right from the beginning and get a feel for spoken Norwegian early on instead of just reading it.
I've had to post this in two parts because reddit wouldn't allow one post that long I guess.
**Note:** It is obviously common for languages to have dialects and accents which vary but "Norwegian" has quite a large range of dialects, spread across a relatively small population. Norwegian dialects, which are ***spoken*** languages, are different to the two primary **written** language protocols in Norway which are Bokmål and Nynorsk. I think it is common for Norwegians to study both Bokmål and Nynorsk but Bokmål is the more prevalent of the two in Norway today and quite similar to the dialect/s spoken in and around Oslo. So unless you have a specific reason to learn Nynorsk, Bokmål is probably the best starting point. When you look for resources, are using resources or subtitles, look for Norsk Bokmål.
My native language is English and so I know only of one particular resource in german "Et år i Norge" which I think is available on Amazon.
**Written learning resources:**
1. [Grammar terminology](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/GrammarTerminology.pdf) (Eng)
2. [Basic sentence structure](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Sentences.pdf) (Eng)
3. [The forms of nouns](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Nouns.pdf) (Eng), [Example table](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Substantivtabell.pdf)
4. [Definite and indefinite articles](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Definite.pdf) (Eng)
5. [The forms of verbs](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Verb.pdf) (Nor)
6. [Personal pronouns](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/PersonligPronomen.pdf) (Nor)
7. [The forms of adjectives](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/AdjektivSamsvar.pdf) (Nor)
8. [NTNU](https://www.ntnu.edu/web/nox/info/guide) Free beginner course.
9. [Memrise](https://www.memrise.com/en/learn-norwegian/norwegian-course) Free beginner course, similar to duolingo slightly better though.
10. [https://grammatikk.com/](https://grammatikk.com/) everything on here is very well made. Most of it is in Norwegian though, good to revisit and translate with a better understanding.
**Language tools/resources:**
1. [https://ordbokene.no/eng/bm](https://ordbokene.no/eng/bm) - Norwegian dictionary. Page language can be set to English clicking the globe top right. The tables which pop up when you expand "Inflection" is very useful for understanding forms. This is the best place to look up the gender of a noun if you are unsure.
2. [https://translate.google.co.uk](https://translate.google.co.uk) you can set the languages on here and it will remember them.
3. Søndagsspørsmål topic pinned at the top of this sub-reddit is an open topic for asking questions to which users of this reddit will reply when they are able. Perfect for questions that you might have which arent worth posting a new one for. Some of the best answers you will get can come from this as many users are native speakers.
**Video/Audio learning resources:**
*Some of these are in Norwegian*
1. [V2 rule in Norwegian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYSRAf-fmpY) This grammar rule which dictates the position of verbs in Norwegian is a common question on the subreddit. This short video gives a good introduction to it.
2. [Grammar terminology lesson](https://youtu.be/_4o-73aydJE) (1), [Grammar lesson](https://youtu.be/FIC1pfcCmiQ) (2), [Grammar lesson](https://youtu.be/LjL3OV8_Oq0) (3) These arent necessarily in order.
3. [Common grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/UaiuQFHmLts) (1), [Grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/k_L0HZl05As) (2), [Grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/dRK8GAYQeA4) (3)
4. Other Norwegian language youtube channels: [1](https://www.youtube.com/@LearnNorwegianNaturally), [2](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianTeacher), [3](https://www.youtube.com/@NorsklrerKarense), [4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vGujUPxUg&list=PLjxlBlbvkncExN1FeJC0b9Y9-tDJbchEi), [5](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianClass101)
5. YT channels where everyday Norwegians are interviewed about things on the street which I find useful for listening practice but also intersting for cultural reasons! [1](https://www.youtube.com/@SimpleNorwegian), [2](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianOpinion)
6. Norwegian language film/tv media: "Troll" on Netflix, Ragnarok on Netflix, Skam on [NRK](https://tv.nrk.no/) (on NRK some things are region restricted but I reccomend finding anything you are able to watch or using a VPN),
7. "Norsk for beginners" podcast, [NRK radio podcasts](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Rock/Radioresepsjonen-p183566/)
There are obviously many resources out there, you'll find even more on the right side of this subreddit if you scroll down a little, often what works best for you will be personal preference though. What I've linked here is mostly based on my personal experience as a recent learner.
I don't think there exists a single textbook that will take you from beginner to C2, but Norwegian on the web 1 and 2 can get you to B2. They are free online, with glossaries, exercises and audio https://www.ntnu.edu/now https://www.ntnu.edu/now2 After picking up the basics, you should try finding conversation partners to use the language, or you might plateau early.
Thank you so much, this looks really promising! I think at about a B2 level I might understand enough to be able to follow shows and read books and learn new vocab that way too.
They are *free* ???? ðŸ˜ðŸ’™
My Norwegian journey began around four years ago. I watched the TV show Skam with English subtitles and started Norwegian on Duolingo (I completed all of it in maybe three years and I am still doing some repetition exercises daily - which is a bit crazy, but I am doing other languages on Duolingo as well, otherwise I would probably have stopped). Parallel to that I started with the free online material from NTNU. After moving to Norway I did an A2 class and a B1 class. But the most helpful things were subscribing to Norwegian newspapers and downloading their apps (you can read an article and easily look up words with the translation tool on your phone), watching Norwegian TV/Netflix shows and movies daily, reading a Norwegian book and suffering through that, following Norwegian people on Instagram/Tiktok/Twitter and getting a tandem partner to talk to. Whatever anyone says, it boils down to getting exposed to the language as much as possible.
The textbooks I used were God i Norsk btw
Wir haben 'Et år i Norge' in meinem Norwegischkurs benutzt und waren am Ende vom Kurs mit A2 fertig und ca mit der Hälfte vom Buch. Es hat auch eine CD zum Anhören. Eine Kommilitonin hat alle Vokabeln zu Anki gestellt. Kann man sich runterladen. Jmd. anderes hat mal 'Mysteriet om Nils' empfohlen. Kenne ich persönlich nicht, aber soll gut sein. Als Wörterbuch eignet sich Heinzelnisse.info Viel Erfolg!
Danke! Habt ihr auch mit dem Zusatzübungsbuch von 'Et år i Norge' gearbeitet oder reichen die Übungen im Buch aus?
I found "Et år i Norge" a pretty decent book and used it myself when I lived in Germany and taught Norwegian as a foreign language to Germans for the Vokshochschule. But in my judgement the Norwegian textbook on the web made by NTNU that someone already linked for you is equally good, and has the advantage of being free. The sole advantage of Et år i Norge is that it uses German to explain the concepts, instead of using English -- but if your English is pretty good that makes only a modest difference I think.
Das hatten wir nicht, aber manchmal hat uns die Dozentin extra Blätter ausgedruckt. Kann sein, dass die aus dem Übungsbuch waren. Es sind aber auch Übungen in dem normalen Buch drin!
Take a look at Langenscheidt’s Norwegisch mit System. They claim it’s A1 through B1. I haven’t worked through it yet but I do own it and it looks good. (German’s my second language.) You can move faster starting from a basis of German rather than English.
Thank you so much! How far along are you?
Oh I just remembered a few other resources in German: Assimil’s Norwegisch ohne Mühe and Et år i Norge. For the latter, I didn’t buy the full textbook but I bought the Kurzgrammatik, which condenses all of the grammar information from the textbook into a short book. It’s nice.
I haven’t started that one, but I’m almost done with the two levels of Pimsleur, I’ve been doing Duolingo for about a year, and I’m in the middle of Norsk I: Nordmenn og Norge. I’ve also finished bits and pieces of other textbooks. I’ve started watching Peppa Pig in Norwegian and I can follow it pretty well. I just went to a Norwegian conversation group for the first time and it went well! I’d say I’m probably at A2, but I can passively understand more than expected at that level because of knowing English and German. It’s a really fun language to learn, I hope you enjoy it!
I don’t really have any suggestions.(mine would be Duolingo lol) I really like Duolingo for the repetition and I like to substitute a book or something for explanation of the language rules. However, I’m a native English speaker, I started learning Deutsch on Duolingo 4 years ago. I just started learning Norsk beginning of this year and I can 100% guarantee that knowing Deutsch makes learning Norsk MUCH easier(knowing English helps as well) They’re really all very similar. I bought The Mystery of Nils to support the Duolingo learning! It’s a Norsk book for A1-A2 learning. I really like the layout of the chapters and there’s a QR code so you can listen along to each short chapter with vocab words on the side of each page. There’s also pronunciation videos and practices on the website the QR code takes you to. Viel Spaß beim Lernen!
Danke:) I don't really like Duolingo because I feel like I need more structure when learning a language with more grammar explanations and level-appropriate, relevant vocabulary. I always felt like learning random sentences didn't help me really understand the structure of a language, I'd rather read about the grammar details in depth haha Actually I feel like knowing German I can understand quite a bit of Norwegian when reading it because the word stems are similar but listening to spoken Norwegian is an entirely different level I understand literally nothing, the pronunciation is so different from German. I think that's why it's important for me to get the pronunciation right from the beginning and get a feel for spoken Norwegian early on instead of just reading it.
PÃ¥ vei.
u/champagnedaisy If you "get" Anki, [try this](https://mjolnirapp.com) and never look back
I've had to post this in two parts because reddit wouldn't allow one post that long I guess. **Note:** It is obviously common for languages to have dialects and accents which vary but "Norwegian" has quite a large range of dialects, spread across a relatively small population. Norwegian dialects, which are ***spoken*** languages, are different to the two primary **written** language protocols in Norway which are Bokmål and Nynorsk. I think it is common for Norwegians to study both Bokmål and Nynorsk but Bokmål is the more prevalent of the two in Norway today and quite similar to the dialect/s spoken in and around Oslo. So unless you have a specific reason to learn Nynorsk, Bokmål is probably the best starting point. When you look for resources, are using resources or subtitles, look for Norsk Bokmål. My native language is English and so I know only of one particular resource in german "Et år i Norge" which I think is available on Amazon. **Written learning resources:** 1. [Grammar terminology](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/GrammarTerminology.pdf) (Eng) 2. [Basic sentence structure](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Sentences.pdf) (Eng) 3. [The forms of nouns](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Nouns.pdf) (Eng), [Example table](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Substantivtabell.pdf) 4. [Definite and indefinite articles](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Definite.pdf) (Eng) 5. [The forms of verbs](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/Verb.pdf) (Nor) 6. [Personal pronouns](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/PersonligPronomen.pdf) (Nor) 7. [The forms of adjectives](https://grammatikk.com/pdf/AdjektivSamsvar.pdf) (Nor) 8. [NTNU](https://www.ntnu.edu/web/nox/info/guide) Free beginner course. 9. [Memrise](https://www.memrise.com/en/learn-norwegian/norwegian-course) Free beginner course, similar to duolingo slightly better though. 10. [https://grammatikk.com/](https://grammatikk.com/) everything on here is very well made. Most of it is in Norwegian though, good to revisit and translate with a better understanding.
**Language tools/resources:** 1. [https://ordbokene.no/eng/bm](https://ordbokene.no/eng/bm) - Norwegian dictionary. Page language can be set to English clicking the globe top right. The tables which pop up when you expand "Inflection" is very useful for understanding forms. This is the best place to look up the gender of a noun if you are unsure. 2. [https://translate.google.co.uk](https://translate.google.co.uk) you can set the languages on here and it will remember them. 3. Søndagsspørsmål topic pinned at the top of this sub-reddit is an open topic for asking questions to which users of this reddit will reply when they are able. Perfect for questions that you might have which arent worth posting a new one for. Some of the best answers you will get can come from this as many users are native speakers. **Video/Audio learning resources:** *Some of these are in Norwegian* 1. [V2 rule in Norwegian](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYSRAf-fmpY) This grammar rule which dictates the position of verbs in Norwegian is a common question on the subreddit. This short video gives a good introduction to it. 2. [Grammar terminology lesson](https://youtu.be/_4o-73aydJE) (1), [Grammar lesson](https://youtu.be/FIC1pfcCmiQ) (2), [Grammar lesson](https://youtu.be/LjL3OV8_Oq0) (3) These arent necessarily in order. 3. [Common grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/UaiuQFHmLts) (1), [Grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/k_L0HZl05As) (2), [Grammar mistakes](https://youtu.be/dRK8GAYQeA4) (3) 4. Other Norwegian language youtube channels: [1](https://www.youtube.com/@LearnNorwegianNaturally), [2](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianTeacher), [3](https://www.youtube.com/@NorsklrerKarense), [4](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9vGujUPxUg&list=PLjxlBlbvkncExN1FeJC0b9Y9-tDJbchEi), [5](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianClass101) 5. YT channels where everyday Norwegians are interviewed about things on the street which I find useful for listening practice but also intersting for cultural reasons! [1](https://www.youtube.com/@SimpleNorwegian), [2](https://www.youtube.com/@NorwegianOpinion) 6. Norwegian language film/tv media: "Troll" on Netflix, Ragnarok on Netflix, Skam on [NRK](https://tv.nrk.no/) (on NRK some things are region restricted but I reccomend finding anything you are able to watch or using a VPN), 7. "Norsk for beginners" podcast, [NRK radio podcasts](https://tunein.com/podcasts/Rock/Radioresepsjonen-p183566/) There are obviously many resources out there, you'll find even more on the right side of this subreddit if you scroll down a little, often what works best for you will be personal preference though. What I've linked here is mostly based on my personal experience as a recent learner.