Have you learnt to count in Norwegian? Learn the numbers 0-20 in this blog post, and you’ll also find out why Norwegian numbers seem similar to English ones, as well as where they come from.
Have I seen you before?
One of the first things you might notice when you learn your Norwegian numbers is that they’re pretty close to English ones. That’s because both Norwegian and English are Germanic languages, so they’re related to one another.
Handy, right?
And, while some of the other numbers might not look the same, odds are they might sound pretty similar. If you learn Norwegian on our app, then you’ll find all the numerals in this post in the Numbers Up To Twenty topic. The topic also features audio from native Norwegian speakers, so you can check out how they’re pronounced there, too.
Now, let’s get into the numbers!
The numbers 0 – 10
| number | Norwegian |
| 0 | null |
| 1 | en |
| 2 | to |
| 3 | tre |
| 4 | fire |
| 5 | fem |
| 6 | seks |
| 7 | syv |
| 8 | åtte |
| 9 | ni |
| 10 | ti |
The numbers one to ten are derived from Old Norse, which is an ancestor of the Norwegian language. However, null comes from the Latin word nullus instead, which means ‘no one’, ‘none’, or ‘not any’. This could be because Old Norse, which was the language spoken by the Vikings, may not have had a number for zero at all. Evidence suggests that Vikings only worked with numbers as they appeared in the natural world, so if something didn’t exist, then it couldn’t be counted.
The numbers 11 – 20
| number | Norwegian |
| 11 | elleve |
| 12 | tolv |
| 13 | tretten |
| 14 | fjorten |
| 15 | femten |
| 16 | seksten |
| 17 | sytten |
| 18 | atten |
| 19 | nitten |
| 20 | tjue |
Planning to visit Oslo? You might see tyve instead of tjue for 20 – if you happen to see the number written out, that is! Like all languages, Norwegian features regional variations, depending on where speakers are from.
We hope you’ve had fun learning some Norwegian numbers with us today! You can learn even more on the uTalk app – with numerals all the way up to ten million!
Check out the app for free or get 40% off your next subscription by clicking here.
Happy language learning!