Is Norwegian Hard To Learn? (Helpful Content!)

Norwegian is so similar to English that it makes it one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. Nevertheless, it is still a completely distinct language, and learning it takes time and patience. Relatively speaking, though, it is a lot easier than a lot of other languages to learn.

Norwegian and English are about as closely related as two distinct languages can be.

While this doesn’t mean you can just stroll up to Norway and start conversing in Norwegian, it certainly gives you a big head start in learning the language.

Let’s find out more.

How long does it take to learn Norwegian?

When trying to answer this question, there are a few things we must consider.

Firstly, let’s take the simplest explanation for how long the initial period of actual study might take.

Generally speaking, tutors agree that starting from scratch, it takes around 23-24 weeks of full-time study to be able to get a good grasp on Norwegian.

This translates to around 575-600 hours of studying.

Depending on how you look at it, this might seem like a very short period of time in which to be able to learn a language.

This is only around six months, after all.

However, as I said, it’s important you recognize this initial study period as just that—the initial period.

You’ve still got a good deal of work to do after that.

Once you’ve finished this study period, you should be at the point where you can basically conduct yourself across day-to-day life in Norwegian.

You can hold relatively complex conversations, and your understanding of the fundamental grammar should be fairly solid at this point.

But you are still a long way from the level of a native speaker.

Ideally, at this point, what you would do is go and be fully immersed in the language.

Go and live in Norway for a while, use the language every day, even engage with Norwegian TV and film.

After a year or maybe two of this, most people will be at a very comfortable level with Norwegian.

That said, most experts will agree that learning a second language is an ongoing process that may never be truly complete.

But the best answer, for the whole process, is that it will take somewhere between one and two years of study and immersion to learn Norwegian.

How difficult is Norwegian to learn?

So, just how difficult will that study and immersion be?

Well, again, there may be some disagreement about this, but in general, Norwegian is considered to be one of the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn.

I’ll get into why exactly shortly, but for now let’s consider the FSI ranking system.

This is a system by which languages are ranked based on their relative difficulty for English speakers to learn. It rates languages from I-V, with I being the easiest.

Norwegian is firmly a category I language, making it among the easiest languages for an English speaker to learn.

However, this ranking system only works in relative terms.

No matter how you spin it, learning a new language from scratch is a difficult thing to do.

It takes patience and commitment, and you won’t get there easily.

But, still, if there were any language that you might say was “easy” for a native speaker to learn, it would be Norwegian.

Is Norwegian easy to learn for an English speaker?

I’ve touched on the fact that Norwegian is a very easy language for English speakers to learn.

So, why is this?

There are a couple of reasons, but the simplest answer is that English and Norwegian are about as closely related as two languages can be.

They are both not only in the Indo-European language family, but are both Germanic languages.

This means they are both part of the same subset of their wider language group.

Even if you zoom out to the Romance languages, more distantly related to English but still part of the Indo-European family, the closeness of the two languages makes learning, say, Spanish or French quite easy.

There is a lot of shared vocabulary and grammatical conventions in Norwegian and English, making it easier for an English speaker to pick up.

Is Norwegian harder than Swedish?

What about Swedish?

How does it compare?

Well, while most would agree that Swedish is still going to be quite easy for an English speaker to learn, it’s still a good deal harder than Norwegian.

The grammar and spelling are a lot more complex, and English speakers do tend to have more trouble with Swedish pronunciation.

You might say Norwegian is, in very basic terms, a simpler language than Swedish.

This is only really a useful way of thinking about it in relation to English, though, since Norwegian is as complex as any language, it’s just complex in the same ways English is complex.

So, Norwegian is definitely easier to learn than Swedish, though really not by a great deal.

So, if you’re looking to learn Norwegian, you are in luck.

As languages go, it is one of the easier ones for an English speaker to learn.

Again, though, it’s really important that you recognize the challenge involved in learning any second language.

It will take time and patience.

If you’re prepared to put the time in, Norwegian is an incredibly rewarding language to learn, and you can have a really solid grasp on it within a year.

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