User:Njardarlogar/Nynorsk vs Bokmål

This page is intended to show some of the main differences between Nynorsk and Bokmål.

Grammatical gender

Differences in bold font.

Number of genders

• Nynorsk: 3 grammatical genders are mandatory: feminine, masculine, neuter
• Bokmål: 2 grammatical genders are mandatory: masculine, neuter - feminine is optional
  • In practice, the feminine gender is considerably less used in Bokmål than in Nynorsk
  • There is also less difference between the masculine and feminine genders in Bokmål; see the grammar of nouns below

Grammar

Nouns

Masculine nouns

Nynorsk:

1. båt - båten - båtar - båtane

Bokmål:

1. båt - båten - båter - båtene

Feminine nouns

Nynorsk:

1. liste - lista - lister - listene
2. dronning - dronninga - dronningar - dronningane

Bokmål:

1. liste - lista - lister - listene
2. dronning - dronninga - dronninger - dronningene

Notice that Bokmål always uses the same suffix for both masculine and feminine nouns, while Nynorsk varies between two different suffixes.

Vocabulary

The comparison of the vocabularies is complicated by the fact that a majority of words (roots) are allowed in both Bokmål and Nynorsk; while at the same time, the actual usage of the vocabulary can be quite different between the two. This list includes only two types of differences:

1. Different roots
2. Difference in word construction (e.g. different affixes)

Nynorsk	Bokmål	Translation	Notes	Linguistics
kjærleik	kjærlighet	love	kjærleik is also allowed in Bokmål; but primarily used poetically	-leik vs -het, plus an extra -lig in Bokmål
råka, treffa	treffe, råke	[to] hit	the root råk- is used considerably more frequently in Nynorsk than in Bokmål	different roots
nyhende, nyheit	nyhet	news	both Nynorsk forms are frequently found; Bokmål only has one form	hende (noun) vs -het (suffix)
personlegdom	personlighet	personality		-dom vs -het (plus the variations -leg vs -lig)
sjølvsagt	selvsagt, selvfølgelig	of course	two Bokmål forms, only one Nynorsk form
me, vi	vi	we	two Nynorsk words, only one Bokmål word	different roots
utviding	utvidelse, utviding	expansion	two Bokmål forms, only one Nynorsk form	-ing vs -else