Freelang Norwegian-English dictionary

Norwegian translators

Freelang translators can help you for free if you need to translate a short text in Norwegian.

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Norwegian – The Language of Creativity?

Norwegian is a unique language in the sense that it has two officially-recognized forms, known as nyorsk and bokmal. While this may seem baffling to students who turn their attention towards learning Norwegian, it actually has a hidden benefit – it produces many of the same brain developments that come from being bilingual, including a higher level of creativity. Although most Norwegians write in bokmal, because nyorsk is also required learning in Norwegian schools, most [...]

The development of the Norwegian language

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Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway by about 4.7 million people. It is more or less mutually intelligible with Swedish and Danish. There are two official forms of written Norwegian: Bokmål (literally "book language") and Nynorsk (literally "new Norwegian"). Bokmål is the form generally used in public media and taught to foreign students. It is based on the language spoken by the urban upper and middle class in East Norway, whereas Nynorsk is based on the dialects and is more common in rural areas. However, a lot of people that use Nynorsk are educated people with an affinity for traditions and culture. They claim that Nynorsk is a richer language which represents more the real Norwegian language, as opposed to Bokmål which is based on Danish. Since most public media is in Bokmål, most people find it easier to learn: a 2005 poll indicates that 86.3% of Norwegians use primarily Bokmål as their daily written language, whereas 7.5% use primarily Nynorsk, and 5.5% use both. Bokmål is used in 92% of all written publications and Nynorsk in only 8%, but all governmental agencies are required to support both written languages.

Features of this dictionary

Download our free dictionary (for Windows or Android) and browse both the Norwegian-English and the English-Norwegian lists. Look up a word, add or modify an entry, and learn words at your own rhythm from a personal learning list. Click here to learn more about the features or scroll down to download the program. An online version is also available, so you can browse the dictionary without downloading it.

Features of this dictionary

Download our free dictionary for Android! Browse the wordlists, look up words and practice your vocabulary at your own rhythm. An online version is also available, so you can browse the dictionary without downloading it.

Word list information

Many thanks to Shelly Daum for the last updates.

Norwegian > English: 14,401 words
English > Norwegian: 13,338 words

Last update: September 27, 2017
First upload: 1997

Download

1. Read and accept the terms of our copyright notice

2. Click here to download the program (2.21 mb)

3. Click here to download the Norwegian word list (986.70 kb)

4. Double click on each file and install in suggested folder.

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Norwegian on the web

Norwegian in 5 Minutes a Month provides free lessons to learn Norwegian online. If you are interested in genealogy, we found this dictionary of commonly used words in genealogical research.