Norwegian: An Essential Grammar Book

To read the full review, you can go to my Wordpress blog, "SpoiledMilks."

Learning a new language is exhausting. Reading, writing, listening, recognizing, speaking - it will make you tired, frustrated, and overwhelmed. You don't understand the road signs, you can't tell if your neighbor is a gentleman or a shyster, and when you try to relax with some TV, even the children shows seem to be mocking you. Ã…se-Berit and Rolf Strandskogen are professors at the University of Oslo, Norway, and they teach Norwegian as a foreign language. Thankfully, from their experience has come a book for us foreigners (utlandinger).

You don't think much about prepositions until you have to learn another language. In Norwegian, the word "om" means "about" in English. So the phrase "Boka handler om en stor hval" would mean "The book is about a great whale."

Yet propositions are tricky.

In English, you can sit "in" a chair or you can sit "on" a chair, but books always go "in" a bookcase and "on" a shelf.
Maybe you were born "in" 1990 "on" July 4th, but you wouldn't say you were born "on" 1990 "in" July 4th.

When you hear a foreigner mix up their prepositions you know they're either still new to the country, and if you want to impress your new norsk friends and family, you'll learn your prepositions (and everything else for that matter). Reading this book as you continue in your Norsk immersion will help you to nod your head and laugh right along with everyone else, and [as well as] it will help you avoid sitting in a corner alone eating the rest of the lefse at the next juletrefest. The authors not only provide many examples, but they also provide plenty of subtle, idiomatic phrases. You'll never need another Norwegian grammar (though others would be beneficial as well).

Recommended?
The Stranskogen's aim has been to provide the non-Norwegian with a "simple, step-by-step presentation of the grammatical rules and systems of Norwegian" (Preface). It is a "practical guide to modern Norwegian as it is used in an every day context" (Preface). Grammar is essential to learning a foreign language, and this book is essential if you are learning on your own, if you want to be ahead in class, or if you just want to understand what your mail says. And for me, if I ever want to be able to express the gospel to anyone, it's best to learn their mother tongue or else I"ll be just another American with wacky ideas.

You won't want to have only this book on hand. While slowly working through this book you should also be going through workbooks such as Norwegian in 10 Minutes a Day, Teach Yourself Norwegian, and Colloquial Norwegian. A good website is also Norwegian on the Web.