Ways to use Wikipedia to help you learn Norwegian

Wikipedia is possibly the greatest achievement of the Internet age, an unprecedented collection of freely accessible and democratically written information just sitting there, waiting to inform you about anything from particle physics to the history of ping pong. It's also a really great, if overlooked, way, to help you learn a language for free and it has so many great uses.

1.Learn vocabulary
If you're writing in your target language and you don't know a word, Wikipedia is a great way of finding it out without "cheating" by typing it into google. Because it takes a bit more work and comes with information and pictures, it is also a way of making sure it stays in your brain. So, to start off, say I want to know the Norwegian for "parsley". I'll start off by typing it into English Wikipedia. If you scroll down, on the side bar you can choose to read in another language. Select either Norsk bokmal or nynorsk (or really whatever language you are studying) and voila!

We now know that "parsley" is "persille".

2. Expand your vocabulary
But don't stop there! Carry on reading! Let's look at the first sentence:

Persille (Petroselinum crispum) er en toårig grønn krydderurt, før viltvoksende rundt Middelhavet, men nå stort sett kultivert

The first word I didn't know was toårig, and unfortunately this isn't one of the words linked to another article. No problem! Luckily, this is one of those Norwegian words you can split up to find its meaning. It ends in "-ig" which I recognise as an adjective ending. "to-" means "two", so that's easy, as is "-år-" which means "year". So we have two-year-[adj] = biennial (the Norwegian word is actually easier here!).

A lot of words though on Wikipedia are linked to other articles which will allow you to get the meaning by looking at pictures or even understanding a bit of the article. So the next word, "krydderurt," means absolutely nothing to me but I would guess that it's something to do with herbs. Click o it and the first sentence is:

Krydderurter (Ikke-systematisk gruppe) er spiselige urter der blad, stilk eller blomst inngår som naturlig aroma og/eller farge i mat og drikke

Remember, you don't have to get every word, you just want a general meaning and here we have "blad" which we know is leaf, "blomst", flower, "naturlig aroma"natural aroma/flavour "i mat og drikke" in food or drink. It's what we'd call in English a herb!

By doing this, it's encouraging you to think actually in the language; you're not relying on word for word translation but actually looking at the meaning of the words. If you pick a topic you're interested in and familiar with, you'll find you know more of the words anyway and the rest is just filling in the blanks.

3. Grammar tables
In all honesty, the wikipedia page for Norwegian isn't great compared to what you've got for really popular languages and even a massive step down from the other Scandinavian languages, but a lot of the time if you want a quick reference, Wikipedia is absolutely full of verb tables and noun paradigms that you just need to find.

If you go to the Norwegian language page and scroll to "morphology" then you can find quick descriptions of the rules for the patterns in table format:

Now, again, as far as languages go, it's all pretty basic for Norwegian, but it is still a good place to start should you need a quick run down. Always, always as well, check the external links, See also and sources at the bottom of the page. There's a link to an English-Norwegian dictionary, a Norwegian dictionary in both bokmal and nynorsk and a page to learn Norwegian. Of Wikipedia's own pages, there's a comparison of Danish and Norwegian which is an interesting read anyway if you're of a linguistic mind but especially useful if you're planning on studying more Scandinavian languages later.

4. Don't forget Wikipedia's sister projects!
The best ones for language learners are Wikibooks, Wikisource and Wikitionary.

The Norwegian Wikisource has many Norwegian texts to look through when you've learnt a bit more of the language. You can find, for example, Roald Amundsen's account of the Norwegian expedition to the South Pole, the words to the Norwegian National Anthem and  crime novels by Stein Riverton. Wikisource is made up mostly of classical literature so won't be easy to read to begin with, but once you've studied for a while you may find it gets easier. The other project is Wikibooks, which contains textbooks. Their Norwegian book is in a very incomplete state but you could help out to make it better! At the moment there are quite a lot of tables as well as some rudimentary lessons.

Finally we have Wiktionary which is a great way of getting translations for words as well as finding declensions and conjugations. The Norwegian version can be found here.


It goes without saying you wouldn't be able to learn a language from Wikipedia alone, especially one with an article as short as the Norwegian one, but it's a great way of getting reading practice as well as strengthening vocabulary in a proactive way.