Introduction to Nynorsk/Other core words

Interrogatives

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

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 nå	now
då	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

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

prepositions

opp	up
ned	down
over	over
på	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

conjunctions

og	and
men	but

Numbers

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

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.