Resources For Learning Norwegian
A1/A2
Books
- The Mystery of Nils - “ We all hate text books that begin with "Hello, what's your name?", don't we? "The Mystery of Nils" is a coherent story, which starts very simply, but develops into a fascinating novel.”
- Norsk på 123 - has online exercises as well, don’t need a book to complete the exercises
- Colloquial Norwegian - “provides a step-by-step course in Norwegian as it is written and spoken today. Combining a user-friendly approach with a thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Norwegian in a broad range of situations.”
- På Vei - A1-A2, workbook and textbook, these are used by most courses in Norway to teach Norwegian as a foreign language to adults; online exercises
- Ordbøkene - dictionary, nynorsk og bokmål
Apps
- Duolingo - usually a good place to start, great for a free resource
- Babbel - subscription service, teaches grammar and vocab, has a speaking component
- Drops - has a free version, only 5 minutes every 10 hours, vocab only, variety of topics, gameifies language learning
- Memrise - I haven’t really used this, seems like you can choose different courses but I’m not sure about the quality of the courses, has a free version
- Ordbøkene - app version of this dictionary
Sites
- Klar Tale - meant for people with dyslexia or those learning Norwegian
- Ordbøkene - dictionary, nynorsk og bokmål
- Grammatikk.com - has PDFs with grammar explanations and some grammar drills (they need to be printed though)
Courses
- Introduction to Norwegian (UiO) - Learn to speak, write and understand basic Norwegian with this free four-week course. Can be followed with the Introduction to Norwegian 2
- Norwegian for Beginners (NTNU) - Master the basics of the Norwegian language. Gain confidence in speaking and understanding common phrases. Can be followed with Part 2 and Part 3
Podcasts
- Norsklærer Karense - from a Norwegian teacher aimed at those who are learning
- Klar Tale
Youtube
- Norwegian Teacher Karin - “This is absolutely free online Norwegian lessons. The language I'm teaching is not exactly Bokmål nor Nynorsk. It's an east dialect and I don't think you will have much problem with bokmål after this. :) And everyone will understand this“
- Norsklærer Karense - “Denne YouTube-kanalen har jeg laget for å hjelpe alle som lærer norsk til å bli flinkere i norsk. Ettersom jeg har jobbet lenge som norsklærer og undervist mange tusen elever, vet jeg hva som kan være vanskelig når man lærer norsk.“
B1/B2
Books
- Stein på Stein - B1, textbook and workbook, continuation of På Vei, online exercises here
- Her på Berget - B2/C1, textbook and workbook, continuation of Stein på Stein; online exercises
Sites
- NRK- news site
- Klart det! - B2, online exercises
Podcasts
- Språkteigen - Her kan du høre om nye ord og gamle ord, ny forskning og rare språkfenomener.
- Ekko - culture podcast on a wide range of topics; lots of interviews so dialects can be difficult; episodes are fairly short
- Oppdatert - det lille du trenger for å henge med på sakene alle snakker om; fairly short episodes
- Gamle Greier - stories about historical artifacts found in the National Library; episodes are about 30 minutes
- Nyhetsmorgen - a daily morning news podcast from NRK, great way to hear a variety of dialects; episodes are 90 minutes
- Forklart - De største nyhetssakene forklart på 15 minutter
*These are just a few - NRK has a ton of great podcasts on a variety of topics available here or on the NRK Radio app. Chances are they have something you are interested in!
C1
Books
- I Samme Båt - workbook and textbook, this is the only C1 book I’ve found but I’m not sure it’s worth the money. It’s mostly vocab/phrases, but does have exercises too
- at this level, you can pretty much read any book you want in Norwegian
Sites
- Kompetanse Norge - practice for C1 test
- Bergenstest.com - to prepare for the Bergenstest (B2-C1), paid
Sites to Test Yourself
- Kompetanse Norge - site with information on the Norskprøve, has practice tests and exercises for A1-B2
- Bergens Test examples - B2/C1
- UiO
- ARealMe.com - test your vocab, compares the size of your estimated vocab to the general population
- Language Trainers listening and language level
*updated March 28th, 2022
