Bokmål vs nynorsk: what they are, how they differ and which to learn

They are two written standards of one language, not two languages: anyone who reads bokmål can read nynorsk. The difference is their origin. Bokmål grew out of written Danish, gradually adapted to Norwegian, while nynorsk was built from rural Norwegian dialects.

Both are official and have equal status, which is why you will see forms, signs and public web pages in nynorsk even in areas where almost everything is written in bokmål.

They come from the roughly four centuries when Norway was united with Denmark, until 1814, when the written language was Danish. After the split, two different routes towards a Norwegian written language emerged.

• Bokmål (“book language”) came from making written Danish more Norwegian, based on the educated speech of the towns. It used to be called riksmål.
• Nynorsk (“new Norwegian”) was created by the linguist Ivar Aasen in the mid-1800s by comparing dialects from across the country. It used to be called landsmål.
• The current names, bokmål and nynorsk, have been in use since 1929.

The large majority of Norwegians write bokmål; nynorsk is the main written standard of a minority, concentrated on the west coast (Vestlandet). At school most pupils learn both: one as their main written language (hovedmål) and the other as a second one (sidemål).

According to Statistics Norway (SSB), in 2025 11.1% of pupils in compulsory school had nynorsk as their main written language, down from 17.7% in 1992; in Vestland and Møre og Romsdal the figure is over 45%. The Language Council of Norway (Språkrådet) reports on how both standards are used.

They differ mostly in very common words (pronouns, question words, the negation) and in some endings, such as the present tense of many verbs (-er versus -ar). The underlying grammar is the same.

• Jeg vet ikke hva hun heter.

  I don’t know what her name is.

  Bokmål.

• Eg veit ikkje kva ho heiter.

  I don’t know what her name is.

  The same sentence in nynorsk.

• Vi snakker norsk.

  We speak Norwegian.

  Bokmål.

• Vi snakkar norsk.

  We speak Norwegian.

  Nynorsk (also “me snakkar”).

Each standard also allows variants. In bokmål you can write boka or boken (the book) and kastet or kasta (threw): both are correct.

A foreigner should learn bokmål, unless you are going to live and study somewhere nynorsk is the everyday standard. Nearly all Norwegian courses for foreigners, dictionaries, apps and exam materials use bokmål, and so do most newspapers and companies.

Neither: bokmål and nynorsk are written standards, and in real life Norwegians speak their dialect, including at work, at university and on TV. There is no official spoken standard everyone has to follow.

That said, speech in the Oslo area is quite close to bokmål, and it is the pronunciation most courses teach. To get started with the sounds, see the Norwegian pronunciation guide, and for the bigger picture read is Norwegian hard to learn?.