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Introduction to Nynorsk/Other core words

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Interrogatives

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Interrogatives are the words that are used to ask questions. They include both adverbs and pronouns.

interrogatives
kva? what?
kven? who?
kvar? where?
korleis? how?
kvifor? why?
når? when?

Adverbs

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Unlike in English, where a lot of adverbs end with -ly, there is no easy way to recognise adverbs in Nynorsk without context. However, a lot of adjectives ending in -leg are also used as adverbs. Below is a list that hopefully includes a lot of the most important adverbs.

adverbs
her here
der there
ikkje not
berre only
no or now
then
bort away
i morgon tomorrow
i går yesterday
saman together
sjeldan1 rarely, seldom
heime at home
ille badly, poorly
1: This adverb has degree forms: sjeldnare ("more rarely"), sjeldnast ("most rarely"), sjeldnaste ("(the) most rarely"). It is also identical to an adjective with the related meaning: sjeldan ("rare").

Determiners

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den
masculine feminine neuter plural
den det dei
that those
denne
masculine feminine neuter plural
denne dette desse
this these

denne and its forms are typically used for something close, while den may be used for something farther away. As in Ikkje dette huset, men det. ("Not this house (close), but that [one] (farther away)".) It is often the case that adding "one" or "ones" to the English translation is appropriate; as in the translation of the previous example.

all
masculine feminine neuter plural
all alt alle
all

Depending on context, it is better to translate alt as "everything" or "all of it", and alle as "everyone" or "all of them".

same
sole form
same
same

The adverb same gives the definite form to any noun that comes after it: Det hende same dagen ("It happened the same day").

Prepositions

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prepositions
opp up
ned down
over over
on
under under
frå from
av of
ut out
inn in
i in
etter after
hjå or hos at, by, with
ved at, by

Conjunctions

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conjunctions
og and
men but

Numbers

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numbers 1-20
éin to tre fire fem seks sju åtte ni ti elleve tolv tretten fjorten femten seksten sytten atten nitten tjue
one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve thirteen fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen twenty
numbers 21+
tjueéin tretti førti femti seksti sytti åtti nitti hundre tusen million milliard
twenty-one thirty forty fifty sixty seventy eighty ninety hundred thousand million billion

22, 34, 45 and so one are all created like 21 is in the table above: add the number that is smaller than ten to the multiple of ten; i.e. 52 is femti (50) + to (2) = femtito. Essentially, the same system as in English.

For numbers larger than 100, the conjunction og is used: 101 is either eitt hundre og éin or simply hundre og éin. 3452 is Tre tusen fire hundre og femtito. This is the pronunciation, of course. Large numbers are seldom written with letters (twelve might be used as a limit).

Examples

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Try to figure out the meaning of the following sentences by using the tables above (and whatever you have learnt from the previous pages). The answer is accessed by hovering the mouse pointer over the sentence.

  1. Eg er heime.
  2. Kvifor fekk du denne?
  3. Dei såg fem fuglar under brua. (fuglar = birds, brua = the bridge)
  4. Eg kjem frå Kvalsund, men bur i Tromsø.