A concessive conditional says that something holds regardless of how a variable turns out: no matter what you say, however hard it is, whoever comes, whatever happens. It fuses a condition ("if X") with a concession ("even so") and sweeps across all values of the variable at once. English does this with a scatter of devices — no matter wh-, wh-ever, however + adjective, much as — that don't form a tidy system. Norwegian is more orderly: it has two highly productive engines, uansett + question word ("no matter wh-") and the ... som helst free-choice series ("any-"), plus a literary om … aldri så and a clutch of frozen verb-first relics. Master these and you gain a register-spanning toolkit, from casual samme hva to formal uansett hva to bookish hvor du enn går. For ordinary conditionals (hvis/dersom), see conditional hvis/dersom.
uansett + question word — "no matter wh-"
The workhorse is uansett ("regardless / no matter") followed by a question word — hva (what), hvor (where/how), hvem (who), når (when), hvilken (which) — and then a clause. It is neutral-to-formal, completely productive, and the safe default for any "no matter wh-" you want to express.
Uansett hva du sier, ombestemmer jeg meg ikke.
No matter what you say, I'm not changing my mind.
Vi drar, uansett hva som skjer.
We're leaving, no matter what happens. (subject question word → hva SOM)
Uansett hvor mye jeg øver, blir jeg aldri god nok.
No matter how much I practise, I never get good enough.
Two structural points. First, uansett can also stand alone as an adverb meaning "anyway / in any case": Jeg kommer uansett ("I'm coming anyway"). Second — and this catches people — when the question word is the subject of its clause, Norwegian inserts som: uansett hva *som skjer ("no matter what happens"), uansett hvem **som vinner ("no matter who wins"). This is the same *hva som / hvem som subject rule that governs indirect questions: a clause-initial question word that is also the subject needs som propping it up.
Uansett hvem som ringer, ikke svar.
No matter who calls, don't answer. (hvem SOM — subject)
Uansett når du kommer, er du velkommen.
Whenever you come / no matter when you come, you're welcome. (når = adverb, no som)
samme hva / samme hvor — the colloquial twin
In everyday speech, uansett often gives way to samme ("[it's all the] same") + question word. Samme hva, samme hvor, samme hvem mean exactly "no matter what/where/who", but the register is decidedly informal — you hear it constantly in conversation, rarely in formal writing.
Samme hvor mye jeg prøver, får jeg det ikke til.
No matter how much I try, I can't manage it. (informal)
Det blir bra, samme hva vi velger.
It'll be fine, whatever we choose. (informal)
The fuller form is det samme hva … / det er det samme hva … ("it's all the same what …"), and samme alone is a clipping of that. Treat uansett and samme as a register pair: uansett for neutral and formal, samme for casual.
wh-word + enn / som enn — the literary universal concessive
A more literary, emphatic pattern splits the wh-word from a following enn ("ever"), wrapping the clause around it: hvor du *enn går ("wherever you go"), hva som **enn skjer ("whatever happens"). The *enn here is the same particle that means "than/ever" elsewhere; in this frame it signals the universal "-ever" sweep. This belongs to formal/literary register and carries a slightly elevated, almost rhetorical flavour.
Hvor du enn går, vil jeg følge deg.
Wherever you go, I will follow you. (literary)
Hva som enn skjer, må vi holde sammen.
Whatever may happen, we have to stick together. (literary; subject → som enn)
Hvem du enn spør, vil du få samme svar.
Whoever you ask, you'll get the same answer. (literary)
Note again the subject/non-subject split: subject wh-word takes som enn (hva som enn skjer), object/adverb wh-word takes bare enn with the subject after it (hvor du enn går, hvem du enn spør). The semantics are "whatever-X-may-be" — a universal concession over every value — which is why these forms have a faintly subjunctive, timeless ring. Several of them shade into the frozen verb-first relics below; see subjunctive remnants.
om … aldri så — "however + adjective"
For "however + adjective/adverb" — however hard it is, however much it costs — formal Norwegian has the idiom om … aldri så ("even if … ever so"). Literally "if it is ever so hard", it concedes the maximum and still asserts the main clause.
Om det er aldri så vanskelig, gir jeg ikke opp.
However hard it is, I won't give up. (formal/literary)
Han hjelper alltid, om han er aldri så trøtt.
He always helps, however tired he is. (formal/literary)
The everyday equivalent uses uansett hvor: uansett hvor vanskelig det er ("no matter how hard it is"). So you have a clean register ladder: casual samme hvor vanskelig, neutral uansett hvor vanskelig, literary om det er aldri så vanskelig.
om så — "even if"
Closely related is om så ("even if (so)"), which concedes a hypothetical extreme: om så det regner ("even if it rains"), om så det tar hele natten ("even if it takes all night"). It is the concessive cousin of plain om/hvis ("if"), strengthened by så.
Vi går tur, om så det regner.
We're going for a walk, even if it rains.
Jeg fullfører dette, om så det tar hele natten.
I'll finish this, even if it takes all night.
... som helst — the free-choice "any-" series
Distinct from "no matter wh-" is the free-choice series, where Norwegian builds "anything / anyone / anywhere / anytime" with a wh-word + som helst (two words). This is a single productive pattern, far tidier than English's irregular "any-" forms, and it spans all registers.
| Norwegian | English |
|---|---|
| hva som helst | anything (at all) |
| hvem som helst | anyone (at all) |
| hvor som helst | anywhere |
| når som helst | anytime / at any moment |
| hvilken/hvilket/hvilke som helst | any (which one) at all |
| hvordan som helst | any way / however (carelessly) |
Du kan komme når som helst.
You can come anytime.
Hvem som helst kan lære seg dette.
Anyone (at all) can learn this.
Jeg ville gjort hva som helst for henne.
I'd do anything for her.
Crucially, som helst is two words and the som is fixed — it is not the wh-word's subject som. The whole hva som helst unit functions as a free-choice quantifier ("anything whatsoever"). It overlaps with the universal concessive in meaning ("anything" ≈ "whatever") but is structurally a noun-phrase quantifier, not a clause linker. Hva som helst kan skje = "anything can happen"; uansett hva som skjer = "no matter what happens".
The frozen verb-first concessives
Finally, a few fossilised verb-first concessives survive from the old subjunctive. They are not productive — you cannot coin new ones — but you will meet them in elevated prose and set phrases. The verb (often være or a modal) stands first, giving a "be it … / let it … / come what may" flavour.
Koste det hva det vil, jeg kjøper den.
Whatever it costs (cost it what it may), I'm buying it. (literary/idiomatic)
Det være seg på godt eller vondt.
Be it for better or worse. (formal/literary; det være seg = 'be it')
Skje hva som skje vil.
Come what may. (frozen optative)
These are best treated as vocabulary, not as a pattern to extend — like leve kongen! they are subjunctive relics. See subjunctive remnants for the full inventory.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ingen materie hva du sier, jeg drar.
Literal calque of 'no matter' — Norwegian doesn't translate 'matter' here.
✅ Uansett hva du sier, drar jeg.
No matter what you say, I'm leaving.
There is no word-for-word "no matter" in Norwegian. Use uansett (neutral) or samme (casual) + question word.
❌ Uansett hva skjer, vi drar.
Missing som — a subject question word needs som, and the main clause must invert.
✅ Uansett hva som skjer, drar vi.
No matter what happens, we're leaving.
A subject wh-word takes som (hva som skjer), and because the concessive clause fills slot 1, the main clause inverts: drar vi, not vi drar.
❌ Du kan komme når som helst tid.
Over-built — når som helst already means 'anytime'; no extra noun.
✅ Du kan komme når som helst.
You can come anytime.
The ... som helst forms are complete quantifiers; don't append a redundant noun (tid). Når som helst = "anytime" all by itself.
❌ Hva somhelst kan skje.
Spelling — som helst is two separate words.
✅ Hva som helst kan skje.
Anything can happen.
Som helst is written as two words, always. Likewise uansett is one word.
❌ Hvor enn du går, vil jeg følge deg.
Word order — the subject sits between the wh-word and enn: hvor du enn går.
✅ Hvor du enn går, vil jeg følge deg.
Wherever you go, I will follow you. (literary)
In the enn concessive, the clause wraps around enn: wh-word + subject + enn + verb (hvor du enn går). The enn hugs the verb, not the wh-word.
Key Takeaways
- uansett + question word = "no matter wh-" (neutral/formal); samme + question word = the same, informal.
- A subject wh-word takes som: uansett hva *som skjer, hvem **som vinner*. Object/adverb wh-words don't.
- A fronted concessive clause fills slot 1, so the main clause inverts.
- ... som helst (two words) builds the free-choice "any-" series: hva som helst = anything, når som helst = anytime — tidier than English.
- om … aldri så = "however + adjective" (literary); om så = "even if".
- hvor du enn går, hva som enn skjer = literary universal concessives; the verb-first relics (koste det hva det vil) are frozen subjunctive vocabulary, not a productive pattern.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Condition: hvis, dersom, omB1 — The conditional conjunctions — hvis (everyday 'if'), dersom (formal 'if'), and the verb-first conditional with no conjunction at all — plus the fronted-condition + inverted-main pattern.
- Quantifiers: noen, ingen, alle, hver, mange, myeA2 — The quantity words of Norwegian — noen vs noe (count vs mass), ingen, alle, hver, mange, mye, få, begge — including the count/mass split and why ingen can't follow an auxiliary verb.
- Correlative Conjunctions: både…og, enten…eller, verken…ellerB1 — The paired conjunctions that bracket two items — både…og (both…and), enten…eller (either…or), verken…eller (neither…nor, already negative so no extra ikke), and the parallel-structure rule that holds them together.
- Subjunctive Remnants and OptativesC1 — Norwegian lost its productive subjunctive centuries ago — but it survives fossilised in blessings, curses and set phrases (leve kongen!, Gud bevare …, det være seg …, koste hva det koste vil). How to recognise these relics, which are alive and which are purely liturgical, and why you must never generalise them.