Home / Best apps to learn a language / Norwegian
Prices and language coverage checked in September 2026.
Norwegian is the language of Norway, 5.6 million people at the end of June 2026 by Statistics Norway’s count, and it has two written standards, Bokmål and Nynorsk. Every app below teaches Bokmål, and the courses teach the speech of the Oslo area, while Norway has no spoken standard and most Norwegians speak their dialect at work and in public too. An app for Norwegian has to train your listening: two tonal accents, sounds the spelling hides and the dialect of the place you end up in.
The grammar is kind to English speakers: verbs do not change for person (jeg er, du er, han er). The courses are the thin part: Babbel stops at A2 by its own help centre, Pimsleur after 60 lessons and NTNU’s free course at B1. So the apps below are compared on where their course stops, what is left free on day 30, how much native Norwegian you hear, and who corrects you once the courses end.
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Norwegian in category I (of I to IV), about 750 class hours for an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency.
Norway writes two standards. Bokmål is the one every pick in this guide teaches; Nynorsk was the main written language of 11.1% of pupils in 2025 (68,842), but of over 45% in Vestland and Møre og Romsdal and 21% in Rogaland, per Statistics Norway. Glossika is the one app we found with Nynorsk, and it teaches nothing else. Norskprøven lets you write either. Learn Bokmål, and learn to read Nynorsk if you move to the west coast.
Norway has no official spoken standard, and most Norwegians speak their dialect at work and in public too. The courses teach the speech of the Oslo area: Pimsleur says its Norwegian “closely adheres to the pronunciation of the inhabitants of Oslo”. In Bergen and Stavanger the r is made at the back of the throat, and in Trøndelag you hear Trøndersk, which italki tutors advertise. HK-dir lets you use your dialect in the oral Norskprøven. Learn the Oslo speech first, then listen to the dialect of the place you will live.
Norwegian words carry one of two tonal accents, and some word pairs differ by tone alone, which no written course can show you. In the east, r fuses with the consonant after it, so norsk is said with a sound close to English sh, and a growing number of speakers now say the kj sound of kino like the sj sound, a change the Language Council, Språkrådet, calls ongoing. Pick apps with native audio beside every text, and repeat it out loud.
Duolingo’s Norwegian course has 246 units by an unofficial tracker that labels it B2, but Duolingo’s own April 2026 list of courses that teach B2 leaves Norwegian out. Babbel stops at A2 by its help centre, Pimsleur after 2 levels, NTNU’s NoW2 at B1 and Mango after 100 lessons. Busuu, Rosetta Stone, FluentU, Lingopie, Speak and Language Transfer have no Norwegian at all. Speak Norsk and NoTe sell courses to C1; past B1, plan on podcasts, books, the news and a tutor.
Norskprøven, run by HK-dir, tests A1 to B2 in reading, listening, writing and speaking four times a year, only at test centres in Norway; each municipality sets the price, often NOK 400 to NOK 1,200 a part or NOK 1,500 to NOK 2,500 for all four. Citizenship asks for B1 in the oral test and permanent residence for A2, per a May 2026 summary by Kvest. Bergenstesten ended in October 2022, and universities now ask for B2 or C1 in all four parts. Book the level your application names.
Best free daily course
The Norwegian course is Bokmål only and large for a small language: 246 units and 4,318 lessons by an unofficial tracker, which labels it B2, although Duolingo’s own April 2026 list of B2 courses leaves Norwegian out. It has no Stories and no DuoRadio. It builds a daily habit better than it teaches Norwegian grammar.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A free daily Norwegian habit from zero; on a laptop, without the Energy cap.
Best free university course
NTNU, the university in Trondheim, publishes three free courses: LearnNoW for beginners, NoW1 with 10 chapters of texts, audio, grammar and pronunciation exercises, and NoW2, which NTNU says leads to B1. It is the free grammar and audio we would pair with Duolingo from the first week.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to B1 learners who want a free course with the grammar explained and audio for every text.
Best for speaking from lesson one
Pimsleur’s Norwegian is 2 levels of 30 half-hour audio lessons, 60 in all, with reading lessons and cultural notes, and it “closely adheres to the pronunciation of the inhabitants of Oslo”. You answer out loud, and words come back at spaced intervals. Pimsleur publishes no CEFR level, and German gets 5 levels where Norwegian gets 2.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A trip in two months, a long commute, or anyone who wants to speak Norwegian before they read it.
Best live tutors
Preply lists 106 Norwegian tutors, rated 4.99 on average by 1,897 customers, with no filter for dialect, so ask where a tutor is from. The EF English Proficiency Index 2025 places Norway 5th of 123 countries, so English is easy to fall back on; a weekly lesson keeps you in Norwegian with a person who corrects you.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Anyone from A1 who needs a person to talk to, and Norskprøven candidates who need oral practice.
Best free grammar videos
Karense Foslien explains Norwegian grammar and pronunciation on YouTube in slow Norwegian, in about 1,300 videos for 132,000 subscribers, and runs NoTe, an online school with courses from A1 to C1. The channel is slowing down: its two latest uploads came on 9 March and 17 May 2026.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A1 to B2 learners who want the grammar explained in slow Norwegian at no cost.
Best for phrases with native video
Memrise has an official Norwegian (Bokmål) course of 200+ lessons, with video clips of native speakers saying the phrases, and MemBot, an AI chat, for trying the phrases out. It gives no CEFR level and teaches no grammar, so it sits beside a course, not in place of one.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: The first few hundred Norwegian phrases with real voices, at the yearly price.
Best learner podcast
Marius Stangeland’s podcast is for the intermediate learner, B1 to B2 by the host, who wants authentic Norwegian “spoken in a clear and slow manner”, with a transcript for every episode on the website. It has 165 episodes, the latest on 20 July 2026, and it is the free listening step for when the courses stop.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and B2 learners who want free Norwegian listening with the transcript beside it.
Best online course to C1
An Oslo school that sells recorded online courses for every level from A0 to C1, with grammar, pronunciation and conversation lessons, a teacher correcting your work by email and bundles with Norskprøve preparation. Its free YouTube channel has 75,000 subscribers and posted on 17 September 2026. It has no app.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: Learners heading for Norskprøven or past B2 who want a paid course with a teacher checking their writing.
Best for reading real books
Lingo7 puts a translation in your own language under every sentence of a Norwegian book (49 languages), reads it aloud and drills saved words in 12 kinds of exercise. Its 9 books, in old spelling, are B2 reading in practice, so A2 and B1 readers begin with the Stories. It is our app, and it has no course.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B2 readers who want Hamsun, Undset and Ibsen in the spelling of their time with their own language under the text, A2 and B1 learners starting with the Stories, and anyone with their own EPUBs.
Best free course with a library card
Mango teaches Norwegian through conversations, in 100 lessons over 4 units by a June 2026 count on Wikipedia; Mango’s own page gives no count and no level. Many US public libraries give it free with a library card, which makes it a second free course next to Duolingo.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A0 to A2 learners with a US library card who want a second free course.
Best for reading with audio
LingQ has a Norwegian library of lessons with audio and matching transcripts, and turns any Norwegian article, ebook or YouTube video into a lesson with lookups. LingQ does not publish the size of the Norwegian library, and the free tier is a demo.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: A2 and up, reading and listening with lookups, from the library to whatever you import, with the budget for it.
Best for video input
Norwegian subtitles and a translation into your language side by side on YouTube, with a dictionary on click; the subtitles and lookups cost nothing. It works on any Norwegian YouTube video that has subtitles. The Netflix side broke in June 2026 and in September works with known bugs.
Good
Where it stops
Best for: B1 and up with a laptop, turning Norwegian YouTube into listening practice.
Duolingo + Norwegian on the Web + Pimsleur
Pick one free course and do it every day: Duolingo if the game keeps you going, Mango Languages as well if your US library card covers it. Work through NTNU’s LearnNoW and NoW1 beside it for the grammar and audio Duolingo does not give you, and watch Norsklærer Karense for the grammar in slow Norwegian. Pimsleur is the paid choice if you want to speak before you read, with Memrise for phrases.
Norsklærer Karense + Lær norsk nå + Preply
Keep your course going to B1: NTNU’s NoW2 leads there for free, and Speak Norsk sells courses past it. Keep watching Norsklærer Karense, start Lær norsk nå and its transcripts around B1, and book a Preply tutor once a week. Start reading with Lingo7’s Stories at A2, then graded readers you import; its shelf of classics is B2 reading in practice for its old spelling.
Lingo7 + Language Reactor + Preply
Courses thin out here. Read your own books in Lingo7 and the Hamsun, Undset and Ibsen on its shelf in the spelling of their time, watch Norwegian YouTube with Language Reactor, move from Lær norsk nå to podcasts for native speakers, and talk about all of it with your tutor. With a Norskprøven date, book a tutor who has taught the test, or take Speak Norsk’s preparation.
| App | Role | Levels | Coverage for Norwegian | Free | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Duolingo | Best free daily course | A0 to A2 | Bokmål only, no Nynorsk; B2 by an unofficial tracker, not on Duolingo’s April 2026 B2 list; 246 units and 4,318 lessons, no Stories | Every lesson; Energy cap on a phone | US$13 to 17 a month, US$7 to 10 a month yearly |
| Norwegian on the Web | Best free university course | A0 to B1 | Bokmål; LearnNoW and NoW1 for beginners, NoW2 to B1 by NTNU; LearnNoW instructions in 6 languages | All of it | Free |
| Pimsleur | Best for speaking from lesson one | A0 to A1 | 2 levels, 60 lessons; Oslo pronunciation, per Pimsleur; no vendor CEFR claim | 7 day trial | About US$20 a month, or US$150 a level once |
| Preply | Best live tutors | A1 to C2 | 106 Norwegian tutors; no dialect filter; native speakers US$44 an hour on average, non-native US$33 | None | Average US$40 to 44 an hour, subscription only |
| Norsklærer Karense | Best free grammar videos | A1 to B2 | Bokmål; about 1,300 videos, A1 to B2 by our estimate; NoTe courses A1 to C1 by the school | All the videos | Free videos; NoTe from NOK 39 a month |
| Memrise | Best for phrases with native video | A0 to A2 | Bokmål; 200+ lessons with native speaker video; no CEFR mapping | Limited, with ads | US$25 a month, US$5 a month yearly |
| Lær norsk nå | Best learner podcast | B1 to B2 | Bokmål; 165 episodes with transcripts; B1 to B2 by the host | All of it | Free |
| Speak Norsk | Best online course to C1 | A0 to C1 | Bokmål; A0, A1, A2, B1, B2 and C1 courses by the school; Norskprøve preparation in bundles | The YouTube videos | Free videos; course prices on its site |
| Lingo7 | Best for reading real books | A2 to C1 | 9 public domain books, by our estimate 5 at A2, 2 at B1 and 2 at B2, in the spelling of their time; Stories in two versions, adapted for A1 to A2 and original for B1 to B2; your own books in 7 formats (EPUB, PDF, FB2, DOCX, TXT, Markdown, HTML); native audio in a Norway accent, Bokmål; translation into 49 languages | First page of each book | US$5 a month, US$2.50 a month yearly |
| Mango Languages | Best free course with a library card | A0 to A2 | 100 lessons in 4 units, per Wikipedia (June 2026); no level stated | Free through many US libraries | Free via many libraries; US$10 a month yearly |
| LingQ | Best for reading with audio | A2 to C1 | Norwegian library with audio and transcripts, size not published; imports of any text or YouTube video | 20 saved words | US$15 a month, US$10 a month yearly |
| Language Reactor | Best for video input | B1 to C2 | Any Norwegian YouTube video with subtitles; Netflix working with known bugs in September 2026 | Most of it | US$6 a month, US$3.33 a month yearly |
Prices are US store or vendor prices as of September 2026, yearly plans shown as the monthly equivalent. The same app often costs less on its own site than in the App Store, and more in Europe than in the US.
Free on this site: public domain Norwegian books you can open in the app, and short Norwegian texts at A1, A2 and B1 with a translation.
We have no affiliate deals with any app named here, and none of the links pay us. Prices and coverage come from the vendor’s own help or pricing pages or its US store listing, checked in September 2026, and every other figure names its source in the text; the judgement calls lean on independent reviews, and on the one star reviews for the parts a landing page never shows, like what happens on renewal. Where a vendor’s pages contradict each other, the card says so.
Refund rules, the traps to avoid and the same apps compared by level for every language are on the best apps to learn a language page.
For a start, yes, and it is free: the Bokmål course is the largest Norwegian course we found, 246 units and 4,318 lessons by an unofficial tracker, which labels it B2. On its own it is not enough: Duolingo’s own April 2026 list of B2 courses leaves Norwegian out, the course has no Stories, no DuoRadio and no update since July 2025, and on a phone the free plan’s Energy runs out after about 2 to 3 lessons a day, by a third-party count (the web version runs on hearts). Add NTNU’s free Norwegian on the Web for the grammar, Norsklærer Karense for listening, and a person to talk to once you can put a few sentences together.
For most learners, Bokmål: every pick in this guide teaches it, and Glossika, the one app we found with Nynorsk, teaches nothing else. Nynorsk was the main written language of 11.1% of Norwegian pupils in 2025 (68,842), down 6.6 points since the early 1990s, but of over 45% in Vestland and Møre og Romsdal and 21% in Rogaland, per Statistics Norway. Norskprøven lets you write either, and you may speak your own dialect in the oral test. Learn Bokmål, and learn to read Nynorsk if you settle in the west; NoTe, Karense’s school, sells a Nynorsk course.
None of them is an exam course, so start with HK-dir’s free sample tasks for all four parts and book a tutor who has taught the test; Speak Norsk sells courses with Norskprøve preparation, and so does Skapago. The test runs four times a year, only at test centres in Norway, and the municipality sets the price, often NOK 1,500 to NOK 2,500 for all four parts; registration for the winter test runs from 26 to 30 October 2026. Citizenship asks for B1 in the oral test and permanent residence for A2, per Kvest (May 2026). Bergenstesten ended in October 2022; universities now want B2 or C1 in all four parts.
Reading grows your vocabulary, but the page does not show you the tones or the sounds the spelling hides, and it will not teach you to follow a dialect. Read with audio. Lingo7, our app, puts a translation under each sentence of a Norwegian book, reads it aloud in a Norway accent, Bokmål, and drills the words you save in 12 kinds of exercise, for US$5 a month or US$30 a year. Its Norwegian shelf is small, 9 books, and all are in the spelling of their time, which makes them B2 reading in practice, so begin with its Stories or Olly Richards’ Short Stories in Norwegian for Beginners, and import your own EPUBs.
For a course, Duolingo: every lesson is free, with Energy capping study on a phone, and it is the largest Norwegian course we found. For the grammar, NTNU’s Norwegian on the Web, free from LearnNoW for beginners to NoW2, which NTNU says leads to B1. Mango is free with many US library cards. For listening, Norsklærer Karense, Speak Norsk and Norwegian With Tor on YouTube, and Lær norsk nå from B1. Busuu, the free course in other guides, has no Norwegian. For a tutor you pay: Preply at an average of US$40 to US$44 an hour, on a subscription, or italki with no subscription.
The language of the country you are heading to. With no country in mind, Norwegian sits in the middle: written Bokmål is closest to Danish and spoken Norwegian close to Swedish, and a 2007 study by Gooskens found that Norwegians understand Danish and Swedish better than Danes and Swedes understand the other two. The apps favour Norwegian over Danish: Duolingo’s Norwegian course has 246 units by the unofficial tracker, against 85 for Swedish and 62 for Danish, while Babbel stops Norwegian and Danish at A2 and Swedish at B1, with topics to B2.
Read your first page free, in Norwegian.