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Norwegian · Norsk

Directory 14 resource listings . A short orientation and a solid starting list.

Honest start for Norwegian: pick one beginner course or community program from the list, add 10–15 minutes of listening most days, and bookmark one reference. Ignore the rest of the directory until those three habits are alive. Use the First 500 trainer for high-frequency words. Last reviewed 2026-08-01

About Norwegian

Language family
Indo-European, North Germanic
Source: Glottolog
Where it's spoken
Norway
Speakers
roughly 5 million speakers
Estimate source: Ethnologue (SIL International)
Writing
Latin

Norwegian uniquely has two official written standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk, reflecting a 19th-century debate over whether to base the modern written language on Danish-influenced urban speech or on rural dialects closer to Old Norse. It is close enough to Danish and Swedish that Scandinavians often converse across languages without switching. Like Swedish, it retains the pitch-accent distinctions inherited from Old Norse.

Speaker counts are approximate orders of magnitude for learners, not census figures. Family labels follow Glottolog-style classification; vitality notes (when shown) follow UNESCO WAL / Ethnologue-style framing and should be re-checked for program planning.

Writing systems

  • Bokmål — The majority written standard on this site (and most learner materials). Closest to written Danish.
  • Nynorsk — The other official written standard, based more on rural dialects. Same spoken continuum — two school/writing norms.
Related languages: Danish Swedish Icelandic

How to start

  1. Norwegian uses more than one writing system — Bokmål, Nynorsk. See the writing-systems notes below before heavy vocabulary work.
  2. Pick one free course (or free-with-upgrades) below and finish a short beginner unit before hopping apps.
  3. Bookmark one dictionary or grammar reference and look up every unknown word for a week.
  4. Add 10–15 minutes of listening most days — news, radio, or a teaching channel.
  5. Drill vocabulary with First 500 words , then situational lists in topic decks .
  6. When ready, use a tutor marketplace listing below for short speaking sessions.

Practice on this site

Deep links into trainers and drills that already cover Norwegian.

First 500 words Topic decks Root Explorer Root of the day Cloze practice False-friend quiz Listening picker

All reading course paid youtube channel reference course free listening

Some outbound links may earn us a commission. Commission never affects inclusion or ranking. Full disclosure.

Resource Type Levels Cost Verified
Glosbe Norwegian reference A1-C2 free —
NAOB — Norwegian Academy dictionary
Comprehensive Bokmål dictionary with usage examples.
 reference B1-C2 free —
Omniglot: Norwegian writing & pronunciation
Script and orthography orientation with sample text.
 reference A1-B1 free —
Ordbokene.no
Official Bokmål and Nynorsk dictionaries in one search.
 reference A1-C2 free —

Know a better classroom-friendly resource for Norwegian? Suggest it with attribution.