Thought posting here might get more coverage to Norwegian learners.
To any moderators, I checked with Jahrine who was happy that I post this in more than one forum.
As a Norwegian learner, I love Ordnett. Best dictionary out there online, but needs a password and username. It is great in that it handles words that have been altered due to conjugation as well as words which include certain suffixes to show the definite article and will then shows the original word in, well, dictionary form.
If you are learning Norwegian on LingQ, this practically HAS to become your main online dictionary, only catch being at the moment it can’t be selected on the LingQ site. Would cost them licence fees, especially for multiple types of dictionaries so it is unlikely it will get added, but you can access it outside of LingQ and keep it in the browser tab next to LingQ, but it will cost a small amount per month: £2.50 a month, or a little over $3.57 US, it is 31 Norwegian kroner.
This dictionary will likely transform how you learn Norwegian into making it so much easier to get definitions for all kinds of words. Only catch is, it isn’t free. Sure, if you look you can find a username and password out there for multiple users (meant for Oslo Kommune) but you can get a subscription to the Engelsk Stor Ordbok, which is their most comprehensive dictionary for 31 kroner a month. That is just over £2.50 a month, or a little over $3.57 US. Pocket change. If you still won’t pay that, then you can find the info online but if enough people from all over the world start using that account, eventually they may change the password though it is unlikely. There is also a yearly option of 313 kroner, which right now amounts to £25.32 or $36 US. Be warned that the annual option is auto selected one looking at which dictionary to choose.
You can go here: Engelske ordbøker - ordnett.no and select the “view site in English option”, slightly to the right and on same line as the green “logg inn” button near the top. Then choose the comprehensive English dictionary/Stor engelsk ordbok, and select the standard monthly option of 31 kroner per month. Look to the right and hit checkout. It will then ask you to log in (in Norwegian). Select the “registrerer deg” option. You will need to enter your first/given name, then surname, email, and then a password twice. Once registered you are automatically logged in and checkout again. Just follow the instructions to pay, and you are done and ready to use the thing.
On to the guide. It is a bit big, but worth it to ensure a smooth experience. Also, if you are find certain words not showing and want to check another dictionary, try looking wiktionary which is under the dictionaries for Norwegian in LingQ. It can work well sometimes but gives fewer definitions and synonyms, doesn’t recognise a ton of words, and often recognises a word as being from another language. Not reliable.
First you must log in to Ordnett and maybe set the site so it is in English.
In LingQ, when you want to make a new LingQ, click as usual on the word in the text and when the hints come up, double click the big, bold version of the word you want to learn. This will highlight it quickly, albeit usually also adding an extra space. Either right-click and choose “copy”, or hit ctrl + v, and click on the Ordnett tab, paste your word in and hit the enter/return key. If a space was added, just backspace before hitting the enter/return key.
Just to make sure you know, most words ending in –et or –en mean it is a word with the definite article attached, i.e. “the” so make sure to reflect this in your own hint. Or if the ending is –ene then it is the plural form of the definite article. Of course, if you put it in and the word stays the same and doesn’t drop the –et or –en because they are a normal part of the word, then no need to add extra info about that.
For some words you will get a lot of different entries in rows. If the word looks the same as an English word then best thing to do is to go to the column on the left of the screen. At the top of the column it should say “Results Found In:”, and below here you can select one dictionary to use instead of all available, in this case select norsk-engelsk. This applies only for a single definition. It resets after another term is looked up so they all become available if you run another search.
The Rows of Potential Translations
Once you have selected the relevant dictionary (unless this proves unnecessary as it often does) look down the rows. Each row will have the word you are translating at the start in bold with some words in English after that. Usually before the English word list there will be a word like (adj.), (adv.) etc. and this can help narrow down what you are looking for.
Here is a list of these I have come across with English translations should you want them. Otherwise skip this paragraph. But know one thing: (subst.) which is short for substantive, means “noun” in English. The rest are fairly self-explanatory. (Adj.) for adjective, (Adv.) for adverb; (pron.) for pronoun; (prep.) for preposition; (verb) for… Well, you know. That about covers it, but these can be handy to watch out for, so you get the noun definitions of a word instead of perhaps the verb ones which could be utterly different.
One you’ve got the right row with the translation you are after, click the “+ “sign if you are curious for more info about usage in context, hit “-“ to get back out. Hold the left mouse button and highlight the line of translations for your hint but don’t let go to hit ctrl + v to copy, because it will more often than not bring open up all the contextual uses as if you hit the plus key.
Instead, highlight, right-click the mouse while still holding the left mouse button, and unclick over copy to copy the text. Next, click back to the LingQ website tab, click the bit to make a new hint which brings up a significantly poorer dictionary and close that, then copy in your hint, and make any necessary amendments as mentioned earlier. You can and should just replace any hints which are duplicates as this simplifies things. Or if you find one which is just plain wrong. I have found quite a few to be honest.
I’d also advise to have in brackets at the start if it is a verb and so on, so just copy that from Ordnett but also add things like say “(verb present)” or (verb past) or something like that. Not essential but can be useful.
That about raps it up. Just finish off as you would any other LingQ and enjoy your much more effective dictionary. It is not totally perfect, some words still won’t show. Try wiktionary or even the monolingual one you will get the link to soon and you can figure it out from the Norwegian description, and if it is a compound word then try and figure out the components, manually look each up and hopefully they will all come up to give you an answer. Otherwise ask a tutor. Here is the monolingual dictionary I was on about.
http://www.nob-ordbok.uio.no/perl/ordbok.cgi?OPP=&bokmaal=+&ordbok=bokmaal
That might have a definition there which you will need to translate to English yourself to figure out the appropriate word in English, if one exists.
Hope you enjoy and I hope this sparks up interest in more people learning Norwegian now that there is a truly good dictionary site to use. I hope this means more people will make more content, too. I’d advise paying for a subscription, but if you really want it free then you will need to do some googling. It is annoying that for Norwegian there is no good and free online dictionary compared to most languages, but this is the situation, unfortunate as it is. At least the dictionary is damn good. Spread the word if you like what you see, and if you find the username and password through google and like the site, why not help support it?
Cheers,
Ulven.