Grammar notes
Grammar
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Welcome to our first Grammar notes step!
In Grammar Notes we will highlight grammar topics of interest to facilitate your language study.
This week, we start with verbs and nationalities.
Once you have finished reading this step, you should be able to form a complete sentence in Norwegian and tell where you are from and what your nationality is.
Verbs
The Infinitive of a verb in Norwegian is identified by the infinitive marker “å”, similar to “to” in English.
Example:
| Å komme | To come |
| Å være | To be |
The Infinitive is, in a way, the proper name of a verb.
As the name suggests, however, the Infinitive of a verb is unchangeable. That means you can’t use it to express actions in a time perspective.
In order to do that, you need different verb tenses that change according to when the action the verb expresses was performed, for instance in present, past and/or future.
The tense of a Norwegian verb can in general be identified by checking its ending.
There are different endings for different tenses.
In this grammar post, we will take a brief look at the Present tense.
Most verbs have -r as ending for the Present tense.
Now, you have already read and heard this week’s texts about the Vidal family, so you know that there are four different verbs used in Week 1:
| Jeg heter Alex | My name is Alex |
| Hyggelig å hilse på deg | Nice to meet you |
| Jeg er norsk | I am Norwegian |
| Jeg kommer fra Norge | I come from Norway |
| Hvor kommer du fra? | Where are you from? |
Can you identify the verbs in present tense?
Nationalities
Here you will find some examples of names for countries and nationalities.
Note that the adjectives for nationalities and the name of the languages have a tendency to end in -sk, while the names for persons can vary, but several end in -er.
In Norwegian, we just use capital letters for the country’s name.
Can you find your own nationality in the table below?
If not and you are curious, try to find it in the dictionary. It is in the searching progress for the word you need that you will learn it and be able to remember it better.
One learning step at a time!
But you may also take a look at our Extended list in the downloads section at the bottom of the page.
| Country | Nationality (adjective) | Person | Language |
| Norge | norsk | en nordmann | norsk |
| England | engelsk | en engelskmann | engelsk |
| Frankrike | fransk | en franskmann | fransk |
| Italia | italiensk | en italiener | italiensk |
| Nederland | nederlandsk | en nederlender | nederlandsk |
| Polen | polsk | en polakk | polsk |
| Spania | spansk | en spanjol | spansk |
| Tyskland | tysk | en tysker | tysk |
| USA | amerikansk | en amerikaner | (amerikansk) engelsk |
Discussion
Så, jeg heter Veruska og kommer fra Norge. Jeg er norsk.
Hvor kommer du fra?
Did you understand what I just wrote?
Can you write a similar sentence and tell your learning community about you?
Where are your fellow course participants from? Are there many different nationalities here?
Click on the discussion thread below and join in.
Enjoy!
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