100 Most Common Written Words in Norwegian

100 Most Common Written Words in Norwegian Posted by Bjørn A. Bojesen on Oct 31, 2013 in Uncategorized

What, no SKI in the list?!

Is it possible to learn Norwegian in 3 months? The popular ”alternative life-style guru” Tim Ferriss thinks so. Well, if you spent 3 months doing nothing but studying grammar and hanging out at Norwegian après-ski, then maybe… In my experience, though, a language is more like a tree that is gradually spreading its branches in your mind. Learning the basic structure may be a matter of months. Real mastery usually takes years. Nevertheless, Ferriss has a great idea that might help you getting there quicker: Start learning the 100 most frequently written words! They may make up as much as one half of a typical text. So, here they are:

	Word	Meaning
1	og	and
2	i	in
3	det	that/it
4	på	on/in
5	som	that/which/who (Relative pronoun, as in ”The dog that yelled.”)
6	er	is/are
7	en	a(n)/one
8	til	To (As in: ”To the train station!”)
9	å	to (As in: ”To be.”)
10	han	he
11	av	of
12	for	for
13	med	with
14	at	that (As in: ”I told you that I wanted to…”)
15	var	was/were
16	de	they
17	ikke	not
18	den	that one
19	har	has/have
20	jeg	I
21	om	about
22	et	a(n)/one
23	men	but
24	så	saw//so/then (As in: ”She saw a squirrel. It was so cute.”)
25	seg	herself/himself/themselves (Reflexive pronoun, as in: ”They washed themselves.”)
26	hun	she
27	hadde	had
28	fra	from
29	vi	we
30	du	you
31	kan	can/may
32	da	then
33	ble	became/got/was/were (Transition from one state to another, as in: ”He was fired. She got mad.”)
34	ut	out
35	skal	has to/have to
36	vil	will/want(s)
37	ham	him
38	etter	after
39	over	over/above
40	ved	at (As in: ”They found her at the gate.”)
41	også	too
42	bare	only/just
43	eller	or
44	sa	said
45	nå	now
46	dette	this/this one
47	noe	something
48	være	be (As in: ”To be.”)
49	meg	me
50	mot	against//courage (As in: ”They showed great courage in the war against the Prussians.”)
51	opp	up
52	der	there
53	når	when
54	inn	in (As in: ”Come in!”)
55	dem	them
56	kunne	could
57	andre	others
58	blir	become/becomes/get/gets/am/is/are (Transition from one state to another, as in: ”He is fired. She gets mad.”)
59	alle	everybody/all people
60	noen	some/somebody/someone
61	sin	his (own)/her (own)/their (own) (Reflexive pronoun, as in: ”She found her (own) umbrella.”)
62	ha	have (As in: ”It’s nice to have a good friend.”)
63	år	year(s)
64	henne	her (as in: ”Have you even talked to her?”)
65	må	must
66	selv	self/himself/herself/themselves/myself/ourselves/youself/youselves
67	sier	say(s)
68	få	Few//receive/get (As in: ”Very few people want to receive less.”)
69	kom	come!//came
70	denne	this/this one
71	enn	than
72	to	two
73	hans	his
74	bli	become/get (Transition from one state to another, as in: ”What does it take to become a doctor?”)
75	ville	would
76	før	before
77	vært	been
78	skulle	should
79	går	goes/go
80	her	here
81	slik	thus/like this/in this way
82	gikk	went
83	mer	more
84	hva	what
85	igjen	again
86	fikk	got/received
87	man	one/you (As in: ”You never know.”)
88	alt	all/everything
89	mange	many
90	ingen	nobody/no one/no (As in: ”No man is an island.”)
91	får	get/gets/receive/receives
92	oss	us
93	hvor	where
94	under	under/below
95	siden	since
96	hele	whole
97	dag	day
98	gang	time//corridor (As in: ”This time I’ll enter the corridor on my own.”)
99	sammen	together
100	ned	down

Source: http://www.korrekturavdelingen.no/K4Frekvensordliste500VanligsteNorsk.htm

Tags: learning

Keep learning Norwegian with us!

Build vocabulary, practice pronunciation, and more with Transparent Language Online. Available anytime, anywhere, on any device.

Try it Free Find it at your Library

About the Author: Bjørn A. Bojesen

I was born in Denmark, but spent large parts of my childhood and study years in Norway. I later returned to Denmark, where I finished my MA in Scandinavian Studies. Having relatives in Sweden as well, I feel very Scandinavian! I enjoy reading and travelling, and sharing stories with you! You’re always welcome to share your thoughts with me and the other readers.

Comments:

Izabela:

It is really helpful, thank you 🙂
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Izabela Thanks for the compliment, much appreciated! 🙂
Adam Dowrick:

This is just brilliant! I start work in Trondheim in four weeks and whilst my reading and pronunciation of Norwegian is quite good, I worry that my vocabulary for speaking is too small. This list has given me something to focus my language study efforts on for the next few weeks. Thanks for posting this very helpful list.
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Adam Dowrick Hei Adam, I’m happy that you found the blog useful! Lykke til i Norge! 🙂
Adam Elmasry:

Thank you allot for this intelligent idea it’s will be very helpful for peoples like me need to learn norsk ,, I’m New here in Norway so this list will help me allot so thank you again and god bless you brother .
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Adam Elmasry @Adam – Takk så mye! Good luck in Norway! 🙂
Sven:

Hei Bjørn,

dette er en kjempebra oversikt. Jeg som er tysk og som lærer tysk har funnet en liste med de viktigste 125 Norwegian ord som kan brukes hvis man kommer fra Tyskland ( http://norwegisch-lernen.info/die-125-wichtigsten-woerter-auf-deutsch-und-norwegisch/ )
Kanskje er det noe som er interessant for leserene dine. 😉

Også har jeg laget en bok “Grunnordforråd Tysk – Norsk – Engelsk” (Grundwortschatz Deutsch – Norwegisch – Englisch) med de mestbrukte 3.000 ord på tysk, norsk og engelsk ( http://amzn.to/2hCxpBE ). Hvis du er enig kan jeg gjerne sende en gratis bok til deg og su kan sjekke boken og skrive om boken på siden din.
Bare gi beskjed. 🙂

Hilsen fra Tyskland
Sven
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Sven Hei Sven,
  
  tusen takk for beskjeden! 🙂 Jeg kan dessverre ikke reklamere for andre produkter – heller ikke bøker – på denne bloggen.
  Men takk for tilbudet, og lykke til med salget! 🙂
  
  Hilsen Bjørn
Elisabeth (Eastgaard) McMahon:

This list is helpful for me. I was raised in a Norwegian speaking home, but almost all lost through canadian living
I spent one month on holidays recently.But did not have to use the little Norwegian I knew. They all spoke English. We dream of coming back to beautiful Norway and this list will help me a lot. Thank you.
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Elisabeth (Eastgaard) McMahon @Elisabeth Thanks for the input, I’m happy to hear that the post is useful.
Halil:

This is so helpful thank you and can you tell me how can i learn how to make sentences
- Bjørn A. Bojesen:
  
  @Halil @Halil – making sentencens… That’s a great idea for the next post! 🙂 Thank you and I’ll look into it.

Older post

Newer post