Product Description

This compact volume offers an integrated guide to both Norwegian verbs and the basics of grammar. All the major verbal and grammatical concepts of the language are presented.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27092 in Books
• Published on: 1999-02-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

About the Author
Louis Janus is the coordinator of the Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTL) Project. He manages the mailing lists the LCTL project sponsors, oversees the database listing where LCTLs are taught in North American schools from elementary to universities and distance education settings, and promotes good teaching and learning opportunities for LCTLs. He also develops material for the Virtual Picture Album and Virtual Audio Video Archives. Janus co-teaches the CARLA summer institute on LCTL material development, and is contributing a chapter to the CARLA-sponsored book on the subject.

He holds the Ph.D. degree in Germanic Philology from the University of Minnesota. In addition to his work at CARLA, Janus has been an active teacher of Norwegian and Scandinavian linguistics, having taught at both St. Olaf College and the University of Minnesota. He developed and taught a graduate course in Reading the Scandinavian Languages. This course was taught in Summer 2003 as an online course. He is currently the Vice President of NORTANA -- the Norwegian Researchers and Teachers Association of North America and was the Norwegian Teachers Newsletter founder and editor for many years. Janus has authored a grammar book, tapes, software for learning Norwegian, and was co-author of the lesson-a-day NorWord mailing list. In Spring 2000, Janus was the program leader at the Oslo Year Program at the University of Oslo. He is now writing a learners' dictionary for English speakers learning Norwegian.

Customer Reviews

Really really useful
This book clarifies all those grammatical things so the language falls into place as you learn it. I've been going to Norwegian classes in Norway and this book fills in those gaps that you struggle on as an English speaker, it has excelled my learning amazingly. Its nicely laid out, very user friendly so you can just pick it up and get absorbed while having a coffee without feeling you 'must' study. Good verb listing to help everyday uses. Essential reading if you are an English speaker learning Norwegian!

Great resource for beginners
This is a great grammar for learners of Norwegian. Everything's clearly laid out and accessible. I found the list of the most common mistakes made by English speakers and the tables of strong and irregular verbs at the back particularly useful. Norwegian grammar's not all that complicated really, so this will last you until you're getting to a fairly advanced level, and at that point you'd do well to get a Norwegian grammar in Norwegian. There are few cultures in the world as interested in their own language as the Norwegians, so there are plenty to choose from! I'd recommend Finn-Erik Vinje's "Norsk grammatikk" which is nice and user-friendly, or Kunnskapsforlaget's "Språkvett", which isn't a proper grammar really, but a very useful compendium of articles on the most commonly asked questions about grammar and correct usage.

a good aid for the Norwegian learner
used in conjunction with some other aids (a dictionary is needed, other materials may be beneficial) this book is fantastic for people fairly new to learning norwegian, as i am.

the biggest advantage is the ability to expand on your current (and soon to be) vocabulary using grammatical rules. For instance if you know the word sleep, you can develop sleeps, sleeping and sleepy without the need of learning the variations as new words. This opens up a new confidence in your speaking and you become much more fluid.

The gramatical concepts are divided into easy to understand sections and so are able to be practiced as you go along. Before finishing the book I was writing poetry in Norwegian to hone my skills and it proved very enjoyable.

But it must be stressed this is suited for the learner and is not a stand alone learning tool.