BASIC NORWEGIAN – SECTION 8 – ADJECTIVES

IN THIS CLASS WE WILL FOCUS ON THE FOLLOWING ELEMENTS:

- Adjectives both at A1 and A2 level.
- Adverbs

ADJECTIVES – A1 LEVEL

Just as in latin languages like french and spanish, you will have to conjucate the adjective
based on the gender of the noun. Consider the table below:
Pen (Pretty) Bil (Car)
Dyr (Expensive) Stol (Chair)
En Varm (Warm) Genser (Sweater)
Kald (Cold) Dag (Day)
God (Good) Kopp (Cup)

Ny (New)
Skjorte (Shirt)
Blå (Blue)
Hylle (Shelf)
Gammel – Voksen (Old – Adult)
Bok (Book)
Grønn (Green)
Ei/en Flaske (Bottle)
Jeg har
Jakke (Jacket)
Billig (Cheap)
Han kjøper Rolig (Calm)
Pent Bilde (Picture)
Hun vil ha Dyrt Menneske (Human)
Varmt Hus (House)
Hun ønsker Kaldt Skap (Closet)
Godt Bord (Table)
Lager (Storage place)
Et Nytt Tak (Roof)
Blått Spill (Game)
Gammelt - Voksent
Grønt

Billig
Rolig
Pene Biler (Cars)
Dyre Stoler (Chairs)
Varme Skjorter (Shirts)
Kalde Hyller (Shelves)
Mange Gode Bilder (Pictures)
Noen Mennesker (Humans)
Et par Nye
Blå
Gamle - Voksne
Grønne

Billige
Rolige

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The general rule is that (1) The base form of the adjective is used for nouns with both male and
female nouns. (2) You add an –t for neutral nouns and (3) you add an –e for plural nouns.
There are no exceptions to rule (1). Male and female nouns will always have the same form of
the adjective. There are, however, many exceptions to rule (2) and (3). Particularly when we
talk about colors. So when you use a color it is a good idea to check it in the dictionary. A few
of the exceptions mentioned in the table above is:

Ny/Blå – With vowel with tonation at the end, one tend to have double tt. This is not very
often this happens and as you see they have different ending in the plural form. So here you
should just be aware of the exception in the neutral form.

Gammel/Voksen – When adjectives ends in –el or –en they will have a special form in plural
where they will get –le and –ne instead of the –ele and –ene you would have gotten if you just
added an –e.

Grønn – When an adjective ends in a double consonant, particularly double –nn. One of the
consonants will be removed.

Billig/rolig - There are no –t (in neutral) after the ending –lig.

Beyond these there are many adjectives that are exeptions. However, if you remember the –t
in neutral and –e in plural you will have learnt what you should learn at this level. Just
remember the exeptions as you go along in learning individual adjectives.

ADVERBS

Adjectives describes an object. Adverbs can describe an action. When we describe an action in
this manner the ending will be as in neutral –t.

Han er langsom (He is slow – adjective) Han kjører langsomt (He drives slowly –adverb)

Han er god (He is good) Kaffen smaker godt (The coffee tastes good)

ADJECTIVES – A2 LEVEL

If you master the elements we have gone through so far, then you know what should be
known at the A1 level regarding adjectives. Since there is not so much more to know about
adjectives I will include the rest here also.

There are 2 elements I will include here – (1) Adjectives in definite form and (2) Comparative
and superlative of adjectives.

(1) Adjectives in definite form

In the singular form of the adjective there is a definite form when the adjective is the
element that defines which object you are talking about. To create the definite form you only
add an –e to the adjective (with very few exceptions). It occurs in 2 forms:

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 A) Pronoun + Definite adjective + Noun in definite form
Whenever using this form (The/that +adjective +noun) you will have to use the definite
form in Norwegian. See the examples below.

Den gule bilen (The/that yellow car) Hankjønn definite

Den hvite flaska (The/that white bottle) Hunkjønn definite

Det nye huset (The/that new house) Intetkjønn definite

De pene jentene (The/those pretty girls) Plural

B) Possesive pronoun or Genitive + Definite adjective + Noun in indefinite form

To make it a bit more confusing. When you use the form above, you also have to use
the definite form of the adjective. However, then you will use the indefinite form of the noun.
In other words, in both cases, (A) and (B), you use the same form of the noun as you would if
the adjective was not present.

Olas gule bil (Ola’s yellow car) Hankjønn definite

Min nye flaske (My new bottle) Hunkjønn definite

Hennes røde hus (Her red house) Intetkjønn definite

Dine gamle katter (Your old cats) Plural

Note – There are no definite plural form. The plural form – de nye bilene /mine nye biler – is
just regular plural form. This we see when we look at one of the few adjectives that are
irregular in definite form – the norwegian word for small/little.
En liten bil (A small car) – Hankjønn indefinite
Ei liten/lita flaske (A small bottle) - Hunkjønn indefinite
Et lite hus (A small house) – Neutral indefinite
5 små biler (5 small cars) – Plural indefinite

Det lille huset (The/that small house) – Singular definite

De små bilene (The/those small cars) – Plural definite = Plural indefinite

(2) Comparative and Superlative

This is a rather big element and deep in A2 level. Do not start with this part before you
feel very familiar with other elements regarding adjectives.
To compare two elements in Norwegian you follow the same structure as in English.
Pay particular attention to thewords “som” and “enn”.

Din bil er dyrere enn min Your car is more expensive than mine

Ole er mer glad i sjokolade enn i kake Ole is more fond of chocolate than cake

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Din bil er like dyr som min Your car is as expensive as mine

So when you create comparative phrases you will use the comparative form and “enn” if you
are comparing two elements and they are not of equal value. If you use the “(not) as
ADJECTIVE as” form you use the word “som”.

Also the superlative form take the same structure as in English.

Han er høyest He is the tallest
Den gule bilen er dyrest The yellow car is the most expensive

To create the comparative and superlative form of the adjective:

Add –ere to the adjective to create the comparative. To create the superlative you add –
est. Adjective ending in –som and –lig, will get –st in superlative instead of –est. E.g. langsom
– langsommere – langsomst (slow – slower – slowest). As in English you also use «mer» (more)
and «mest» (most)

Examples of regular adjectives:

Dyr – dyrere – dyrest (Expensive – more expenisve – most expensive)
Pen – penere – penest (Pretty – prettier – prettiest)
Treg – tregere – tregest (Slow – slower – slowest)
Ny – nyere – nyest (New – newer – newest)

Some irregular adjectives and «mye» «mange»

Liten – mindre – minst (Small – smaller – smallest)
Stor – større – størst (Big – bigger – biggest)
God – bedre – best (Good – better – best)
Gammel – eldre – eldst (Old – older – oldest)
Mye – mer – mest (Much – more – most) – uncountable **
Mange – flere – flest (Many – more – most) – countable **

** Note that the conjugation here is different between these words

A TEXT AND VOCABULAR Y

Erik skal til kjøpesenteret for å kjøpe fersk mat og nye klær. Han går først til frukt handleren.
Der kjøper han store grønne epler, lokale poteter som er dyrket lokalt. Dessuten kjøper han
ferske jordbær. Det er dyrt å kjøpe frukt og grønnsaker i Norge.

Etter han kjøper frukt, går han i butikken og kjøper klær. Han ser etter noen billige gensere og
varme jakker for vinteren. Han finner noen pene gensere, men de er veldig dyre. Han finner en
genser som er billigere enn de andre. Han kjøper den.

Han bruker lang tid på å se etter en jakke som han liker. Etter han ser i alle vinduene,
bestemmer han seg for å ikke kjøpe en ny jakke. Han har flere gamle jakker hjemme som
fortsatt er gode nok. Han kan bruke noen av dem i ett år til.

Han kjører den lange veien hjem og er glad når han er hjemme 30 minutter senere.

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Et kjøpesenter = a shopping center lang – langt – lange adj. = Long
Fersk ferskt ferske adj. = fresh gammel – gammelt – gamle = old
En frukt = a fruit God – godt – gode adj. = good
Grønn grønt grønne adj.= green Senere = later
Lokal lokalt lokale adj. = Local
Dyr – dyrt – dyre adj. = expensive
En grønnsak = a vegetable
Klær = clothes (plural)
Billig – billigere – billigst adj. = cheap
Varm – varmt – varmere adj. = warm
Pen – pent – pene adj. = pretty

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