The easiest way to learn Nynorsk is to read lessons made for your level and look up what stops you right on the page. With Bubblegum, you tell Poppy, your AI tutor, your level and a topic you like, and she writes a Nynorsk lesson for you.
Add a Norwegian course or a tutor when you want to practice speaking with another person.
Bubblegum
For serious learners, Bubblegum is the best app to learn Norwegian (Nynorsk). You learn from Norwegian (Nynorsk) you can mostly understand, which is called comprehensible input.
- Lessons fit your level, interests, and goals.
- Read and listen to news and stories in Nynorsk about things you care about.
- Tap a word to see what it means, how its endings change, and a picture for many nouns.
- Grammar topics with examples explain how Nynorsk works, such as why ei bok becomes boka.
- Regenerative Review™ brings saved words back in new lessons, and you can export them to Anki as flashcards.
- Clear, expressive AI voices read every lesson aloud, with a different voice for each speaker.
- You can't turn your own Nynorsk books or articles into lessons. However, you can paste a page into the chat, and Poppy will explain it.
- Lessons use one spelling for each word, such as vi for “we”. Books and papers may use another spelling that is also correct, like me, so they can look different.
- Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read.
- Regenerative Review™
Mobile
Nynorsk is not harder to learn than Bokmål. It is easiest where the local dialect is close to it and where it is used at school and in town. Bokmål can feel easier because there is so much more of it to read. See the Nynorsk study-time guide for study workloads and their limits.
- Letters You Already ReadApart from æ, ø and å, the letters are the ones you already read, and the lesson audio lets you hear how those three sound.
- Built From DialectsIvar Aasen built Nynorsk in the 1800s from Norwegian dialects, so many of its words and endings are ones people hear in their dialects.
- A Regular Plural for Many NounsMost masculine nouns add -ar in the plural, as in hest (horse) and hestar (horses).
- Start With GreetingsBegin with lines you can use right away, like Hei (hi) and Korleis har du det? (How are you?).
- Ask for a Lesson About Your InterestsTell Poppy your level and a topic you care about. She writes a lesson so you can begin reading and listening.
- Listen While You ReadPlay the audio as you read, so each word's sound and spelling go together.
- Get Help While You ReadLook up a word or check the translation when a line stops you. Ask Poppy about grammar in the same lesson.
- Save a Few WordsSave only the few words you want to keep, and save each noun with its ein, ei or eit.
- Say a Line Out LoudRead a line aloud whenever it feels fun, like a greeting you want to use with friends in western Norway.
Set aside 3-5 hours a week in sessions of 15-30 minutes or longer. Read, listen, get help with what stops you, and try saying a line aloud. Choose longer texts when you can follow more.
Practice these parts in short lines you can mostly understand.
| What Feels Hard | The Easy Fix |
|---|---|
| Three words for "a" before a noun | Nynorsk nouns are masculine, feminine or neuter, as in ein hest (a horse), ei bok (a book) and eit hus (a house). Easy Nynorsk shows you the same nouns many times, so say the noun with its word for “a” each time you meet it. |
| Two verb endings in the present | Some verbs end in -ar, like eg kastar (I throw), and others in -er, like eg hjelper (I help). Look at a few of each in short lines, and let a dictionary show you which group a new verb belongs to. |
| Some words with two correct forms | The norm allows both å kaste and å kasta (to throw). Learn the first one you meet, and recognize the other when you read. |
| Speech that sounds different from the page | Nynorsk is a written standard, and people speak their own dialects. Listen to slow, clear audio first, then to speakers from the area where you live. Words you already know are much easier to catch in fast speech. |
Choose short, clear Nynorsk about something you enjoy. Nynorsk you can mostly understand is called comprehensible input.
| What | Why It's Easy | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Barnebøker for Norge | Every picture story has audio, and a PDF shows it in Nynorsk and Bokmål together. | barneboker.no |
| 50LANGUAGES | One hundred short lessons with MP3 audio start from the very first words. | goethe-verlag.com |
| Duostories | The stories ask short questions along the way, so you see what you understood. | duostories.org |
| Bildetema | A multilingual picture dictionary matches Nynorsk words to pictures. | nybildetema.oslomet.no |
Choose shorter or easier material whenever you lose the meaning.
Should I Learn the Most Common 500 Words First?
Learn common words in sentences you understand rather than from an isolated list. A translation alone does not show how a word is used or help you catch it in a conversation. Read and hear it in a short line, then save that line for review.
Is Nynorsk Pronunciation Hard?
Hear a line in the lesson before you say it. A few Nynorsk sounds are new to English speakers, such as the kj in kjem (comes). Because people speak their own dialects, hearing the lesson audio helps you settle on one pronunciation to copy.
Can I Learn Nynorsk Just by Watching NRK?
Not at the start, because most of a show goes by too fast for a beginner to learn from. NRK helps more once you can follow a simple conversation. Its bylaws require at least a quarter of its content to be in Nynorsk, so you will find some on TV, on radio, and on nrk.no.
Which Nynorsk App Should a Beginner Choose?
If you are serious about learning Norwegian (Nynorsk), start with Bubblegum. Poppy, your AI tutor, writes lessons at your level about things you like. For courses and tools, see our comparison of Nynorsk apps.
Is Bubblegum Free?
Yes. Lessons Poppy wrote for other learners are free for everyone to read. Custom lessons cost us money to make, so you need Bubblegum Pro for unlimited custom lessons.
Sources
- Nynorsksenteret: Nynorsk for immigrants? Of course! (research on how hard Nynorsk is to learn)
- Nynorsksenteret: Nynorsk grammar
- Nynorsksenteret: Verbs in Nynorsk
- Nynorsksenteret: Nouns in Nynorsk
- Statistics Norway: How many have Nynorsk as their main written form in Norway? (a written standard, spoken as local dialects)
- Barnebøker for Norge: Nynorsk picture stories at five levels, with audio
- 50LANGUAGES: How can I learn Nynorsk?
- Duostories: Norwegian (Nynorsk) stories
- Store norske leksikon: Nynorsk (shaped by Ivar Aasen in the 1800s on the basis of the Norwegian dialects)
- Bildetema: multilingual picture dictionary in Nynorsk (OsloMet)
- Ordbøkene: Nynorskordboka and Bokmålsordboka (Språkrådet and University of Bergen)
- NRK bylaws, § 19 (at least 25 percent of NRK's content in Nynorsk)
