Learning Norwegian opens you up to opportunities in the world of Scandinavian languages, countries, and cultures. It’s also one of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
Whatever your motivation is in learning Norwegian, setting a clear goal and knowing your preference is the first step to learning the language. This will help you choose the right resources and make your language learning much more efficient and effective.
Choosing the right resource can be overwhelming and time-consuming, but here at ALR, we’ve done the hard work for you. We’ve tried and tested lots of Norwegian resources to come up with a list of the best apps, courses, classes, tutors, and others to help you find the perfect resource for you.
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Resources for Learning Norwegian
You won’t struggle to find Norwegian language-learning resources. In fact, your biggest difficulty might be choosing between them. From podcasts to textbooks and apps to easy-to-read news sites, we’ve listed all the resources we’ve found along with our experiences of them.
Norwegian Language Classes and Language Exchanges
Looking for a Norwegian language tutor to support you as you work through a textbook, lead guided conversations, and let you know what errors you’re making?
italki has several tutors for you to pick from, all of which offer different lesson packages, set their own prices, and have public reviews. You can also use italki to find a language exchange partner, get corrections from the community on your writing, and ask questions in the forum. Check out our review to find out our experiences with it.
Alternatively, you could try Verbling. In our experience, it’s slightly more expensive and has fewer teachers to choose from, but we like the payment processing options.
We’re also a fan of HiNative, where you can ask native speakers questions about all the things that your textbook or language course doesn’t cover.
There are numerous platforms for finding language exchange partners, but HelloTalk, Speaky, and Tandem are some of the most popular. You can download the apps and chat with language learners around the world. Bear in mind that you might be expected to also talk with them in your native language. Take a look at our reviews (HelloTalk, Speaky, Tandem) to find out more.
You can also try joining online Norwegian-language forums such as Diskusjon.no to talk with native speakers online. The good news is that forum members are unlikely to want to speak to you in English. On the other hand, you might find that it’s less beginner-friendly.
Best Apps to Learn Norwegian Online and Norwegian Language Courses
We found that Babbel’s courses were easy to use and focused on practical phrases, although we struggled with some of the pronunciation drills. One of the All Language Resources team achieved fluency in Italian through it.
Mango Languages will take you from complete beginner/A1 through to intermediate/B1. We like the focus on pronunciation as well as the cultural notes, although you’ll probably want to supplement it with resources for reading and writing. It does have some reading tasks and quizzes, but the focus is on speaking and listening.
Duolingo teaches you vocabulary and sentence structure. Many Duolingo fans consider the Norwegian course to be one of the platform’s best, thanks to its extensiveness, supportive community, and humorous example sentences. Here’s what two All Language Resources’ reviewers thought of it.
FutureLearn has a range of free beginner-level courses from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Each one is designed to last around four weeks and should take you 5–6 hours a week, but you need to enroll and complete them at set dates.
LearnNoW is another free online course from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. It has 12 chapters, and unlike FutureLearn, you can use it any time.
Gramatikk has downloadable PDF grammar breakdowns and drills. It’s run by Kjell Heggvold Ullestad, a co-author of LearnNoW.
Meanwhile, Memrise has seven official courses and numerous community-made ones. You’ll find courses on vocabulary for specific textbooks, grammar points, basic Norwegian, and even thematic ones. The unofficial courses will vary in quality, but you can read about our experience with the official ones here.
Mondly is another Duolingo-esque course that you can do from your computer or on your smartphone. While it’s not a bad course, we didn’t think it stood out for its quality. Other courses impressed us more.
Glossika will help you improve your speaking and listening skills, although we were disappointed by its one-size-fits-all-languages approach and the many errors.
Instant Immersion pitches itself as a cheaper version of Rosetta Stone. It’s still quite expensive, though, and we haven’t been able to try it out. If you’re curious, it offers a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Norwegian Language Courses to Avoid
17 Minute Languages sounds promising, but we found that it was full of errors and lacked explanations. The only thing we liked was the native audio.
Transparent Language isn’t much better, in our experience. It’s repetitive, poorly structured, and won’t leave you able to create sentences or participate in a conversation.
As for Cudoo, it doesn’t deliver all the material that it promises on the sales page, lacks practice opportunities, and doesn’t provide any explanations.
Audio Courses for Learning Norwegian
More of an audio learner? NorwegianClass101 has an impressive array of videos and audio clips for you to listen to. If you pay for the premium plan, you’ll get access to additional features including 1-on-1 tutoring and feedback. We believe NorwegianClass101 offers good value as part of a more balanced study plan.
Pimsleur focuses on getting you to speak, in fact, it MAKES you speak from Day 1, and we were pleasantly surprised by some of the extra features on the app. That being said, we think a bit more grammar would be useful at higher levels.
The Michel Thomas Method has a Norwegian audio course taught by Angela Shury-Smith. It focuses on teaching you the language’s common structures and connectors so that you can quickly build your own sentences rather than repeating memorized phrases.
Assimil also has some Norwegian courses. Bear in mind that the Assimil method means that you’re not expected to start forming sentences until lesson 50.
Teach Yourself Norwegian Conversation is praised for its good structure and its practical, basic language.You’ll also find some audio courses if you search for podcasts. The short and accessible One Minute Norwegian series, for example, is designed to teach you the very basics. At 10 to 25 minutes per audio clip, Norskpodden is a more in-depth option. And Practice Norwegian has a variety of episodes dedicated to “basic grammar” and “advanced reading.”
Norwegian Word Lists and Vocabulary Games
While you should learn vocabulary in any course, sometimes you’ll find you just don’t know as many words as you need to speak with precision or that you need better ways of drilling new words. This is especially likely if your hobbies and interests aren’t covered in the syllabus.
Drops is a game-based app with an impressively large range of vocabulary for you to study. It has some small flaws: sometimes the pictures can be hard to tell apart, for example. However, it’s an entertaining and easy way to discover and memorize new words.
The fill-in-the-gaps web app Clozemaster will help you practice word recall. It comes with a free and paid-for version; you can find our thoughts on the differences here. In our experience, it’s a great supplementary tool for upper beginners and intermediate language learners.
Just going for a short trip? You might like uTalk, which will introduce you to set words and phrases and then get you to memorize them through playing games. Here’s our experience with it.
This expansive Norwegian verb list includes English translations and some of the most common conjugations for each word.
Loecsen has 17 different word lists you can print out. If you use the web version, though, you can also listen to the audio clip and record yourself speaking.
Want to access more flashcards and word lists, or even create your own? Try Anki. It will let you create multiple flashcard decks, as well as use someone else’s. For example, this deck has over 2,000 flashcards. What’s great about Anki is that it adapts to how difficult you find the phrases, plus it’s easy to edit the flashcards.
Podcasts for Learning Norwegian
Podcasts are great for improving your listening as well as picking up new vocabulary. Bear in mind that any podcasts designed to teach you the language will be under the Audio Courses section, so scroll up to find them.
Another mention is warranted for NorwegianClass101 has an impressive array of videos and audio clips for you to listen to. If you pay for the premium plan, you’ll get access to additional features including 1-on-1 tutoring and feedback. We believe NorwegianClass101 offers good value as part of a more balanced study plan.
The Klar Tale podcast covers the news in easy-to-understand Norwegian, making it a popular choice among language learners.
NUPI Podcast covers news in both Norwegian and English, so it’s easier for you to double-check what they’re talking about.
Relax with Slow Norwegian will calm you down as well as help you practice your listening. Many of the episodes are readings of fairy tales.
SBS Norwegian hasn’t been updated for three years, and given that it’s focused on public affairs, this means that some of the episodes seem dated. However, there’s a large collection to choose from and some of them are still relevant.
Norwegian YouTube and TV
Looking for Norwegian classes on YouTube? You’ve got several to choose from. We recommend trying Norwegian Teacher – Karin and Learn Norwegian Naturally. When you’re ready for Norwegian tutorials in Norwegian, you might like Norsklærer Karense.
While infrequently updated, TV 2 Skole Elevkanalen has easy-to-understand news clips. Most of them are 50–58 minutes long.
Try streaming TV online with Dplay. If you’d prefer something shorter, the Dplay Norge YouTube channel has clips from some of their shows.
You can also stream series like the ‘90s sitcom Mot I Brøstet and its spinoff Karl & Co via TV 2 Sumo. You’ll need to subscribe to see all of them.
And of course, we can’t leave out Skam, the much-loved Norwegian TV show that has been remade in multiple locations in Europe and the US. You can view it here and here, although you might struggle to watch it outside of Norway.
