Norwegian numbers: 0 to 100, thousands, ordinals, prices and years

Numbers 0 to 20 simply have to be memorised, as in English. The pronunciation hints are rough; the y in sytten is said with rounded lips, like the French u or German ü.

• null

  0

• en

  1

  “ett” before neuter nouns: ett hus (a house).

• to

  2

  Sounds like “too”.

• tre

  3

  Rolled r, like “treh”.

• fire

  4

  Two syllables: “FEE-reh”, not like English “fire”.

• fem

  5

• seks

  6

• sju

  7

  Sounds like “shoo”. “Syv” is also correct.

• åtte

  8

  Roughly “OT-teh”.

• ni

  9

  Sounds like “knee”.

• ti

  10

  Sounds like “tee”.

• elleve

  11

  Usually “ELV-eh”.

• tolv

  12

  Sounds like “toll”: the v is silent.

• tretten

  13

• fjorten

  14

  Roughly “FYOR-ten”.

• femten

  15

• seksten

  16

  Roughly “SICE-ten”.

• sytten

  17

• atten

  18

• nitten

  19

• tjue

  20

  The “tj” is a soft hissing sound, close to “sh”: “SHOO-eh”.

The number one changes with the noun’s gender: en bil (a car), ett hus (a house) and, if you use the feminine, ei jente (a girl). When counting aloud you say en. For the background, see Norwegian nouns and gender.

You say the ten and then the unit, written as one word with no hyphen: tjueen (21), trettifem (35), åttisju (87). The order is the same as in English “thirty-five”, just without the hyphen.

It is the traditional system where the unit comes before the ten: femogtjue (“five-and-twenty”) instead of tjuefem for 25, just like the old English “four and twenty blackbirds”. Since the 1950s the official order has been tens first, but you will still hear the old style, especially from older people and in some regions.

• tjuefem

  25 (current official form)

• femogtjue

  25 (old form)

  Also “fem og tyve”.

• tyve

  20 (old)

  The standard today is “tjue”.

• tredve

  30 (old)

  The standard today is “tretti”.

You don’t need to use it, but you should recognise it. Syv (7), on the other hand, is just as correct as sju, and you will see it in plenty of texts.

You say hundre (100), tusen (1,000) and en million (1,000,000), and put og (“and”) before the last part when it is under 100: to hundre og femti (250), much like British “two hundred and fifty”. In writing, thousands are separated by a space and decimals by a comma: 2,5 is read to komma fem.

• hundre og en

  101

• to hundre og femti

  250

• ni hundre og nittini

  999

• tusen og fem

  1,005

• tre tusen fire hundre og tjue

  3,420

• to millioner

  2,000,000

  Plural: millioner.

• en milliard

  one billion (1,000,000,000)

Most ordinals add -de or -ende, but the first few are irregular. In writing they are shortened with a full stop: 1. = første, which is why Constitution Day, 17 May, is written 17. mai and read syttende mai.

Ordinals are used above all in dates; see days and months in Norwegian.

Prices are in kroner (kr): 49 kr is førtini kroner. Years are usually split in two, as in English: 1990 is nittennitti, and 2026 is either tjuetjueseks or to tusen og tjueseks; both are normal.

• Det koster førtini kroner.

  It costs 49 kroner.

• Det blir hundre og tjueni femti.

  That’s 129.50.

  The øre are said without naming them.

• Jeg er født i nittennittifem.

  I was born in 1995.

• Hvor gammel er du? – Jeg er trettito.

  How old are you? – I’m 32.

• Nummeret mitt er førtiseks, tjueto, trettitre, førtifire.

  My number is 46 22 33 44.

Norwegian phone numbers have 8 digits and are usually read in pairs, as above, or digit by digit.