r/norsk • u/LittleMsLunar • Jun 30 '25

Resource(s) ← looking for Learning Bokmål

Hi everyone,

I'm a complete beginner looking to learn Bokmål. Are there any decent apps or online courses you'd recommend?

I tried Duplingo but I feel it misses out all of the context from the examples it gives you so I'm not convinced.

Thank you. 🙂

3 Upvotes

62% Upvoted

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10

u/nightcap965 Jun 30 '25

Pimsleur was much more helpful to me in my recent Norway trip than ten months of intense Duolingo. The example I always give is that the first sentence Pimsleur teaches is, «Unnskyld, forstår du engelsk?» The first sentence I learned from Duolingo was, «Jeg er osten!».

5

u/PublicAd148 Jun 30 '25

I’m using Babbel and have used Pimsleur and found them both really effective. Babbel lessons are short tho so you need to a lot of repetition on your own. Pimsleur will get you pseudo conversational pretty quickly.

4

u/DrStirbitch Intermediate (bokmål) Jun 30 '25

Take a look at NTNU's NoW course - https://www.ntnu.edu/now/info/about

I haven't used it, but it looks good to me, and others here seem to like it. At the very least, it's 100% free, and you can easily see what it is like with zero commitment.

2

u/elli-voice-throwaway Jun 30 '25

As someone who learned bokmål over a decade long period, I did so using discord. There are several good language exchange servers for norwegian. As mentioned by another poster, https://www.ntnu.edu/now/info/about is a place to start.

With that said, I regret my decision. Nynorsk is a lot better to learn because you will more easily understand the dialects. It will get you conversational in a way bokmål simply won't. People are also much more forgiving if your verbal accent is more similar to nynorsk. If you try to "speak" bokmål with a strong accent (it's a written language, not a spoken one) norwegians will often rather ignore your efforts and speak english. With nynorsk, you will be seen as an immigrant, which comes with its own challenges, but you will likely get more chances to practice. But you are much more reliant on discords, as there is not as much basic literature on it for foreign speakers.

Here is a good place to start on that if you did change your mind. https://duostories.org/nn-en

1

u/EarthboundValkyrie Jun 30 '25

Can you provide any links for the discords you mentioned?

2

u/Alzyros Jun 30 '25

Mjølnir is pretty great, if you like the flashcard style of studying for things

1

u/Status_Cellist2066 Jul 01 '25

I really recommend language cafes! They are great for practicing speaking since a lot of the time thats the most difficult part and they adapt your table depending on your proficiency level so its quite beginner friendly - most importantly helps you come out your speaking comfort zone and you are likely to notice improvement.

I go to Røde kors ones but i heard there are plenty around and they are usually free (as they are charities)

1

u/MaintenanceHour6340 Jul 03 '25

I want learning Norwegian , and I want helping to learning norsk.

1

u/LittleMsLunar Jul 03 '25

Thank you so much everyone, I appreciate your replies and will take a look at the resources mentioned.

1

u/bstenjy Beginner (bokmål) Jul 03 '25

Believe me duolingo is one of the fundamentals, it gives you the sentences you need for every day scenarios, use duolingo then hope into another learning resource