When you compare two things, Norwegian draws a sharp line that English blurs. English uses than for inequality (bigger than) but as for equality (as big as) — two different words, true, but learners coming the other way constantly collapse both into one Norwegian word. The clean Norwegian split is: enn for inequality (after a comparative) and som for equality and manner. Add the elegant correlative jo … desto/jo (the more … the more), the colloquial liksom, and the as-if frame som om, and you have the full comparison toolkit. This page covers the connecting words; for the clause grammar behind comparisons, see comparison clauses.
enn — "than," after a comparative
enn (note the double n) is the word for than. It appears only after a comparative form — større (bigger), eldre (older), mer (more), bedre (better). If there's a comparative, the second element hangs off enn.
Han er eldre enn meg.
He is older than me.
Det tok lengre tid enn jeg trodde.
It took longer than I thought.
Hun løper fortere enn de fleste.
She runs faster than most people.
A note on the pronoun after enn: everyday spoken Norwegian uses the object form — eldre enn meg (older than me), just like casual English. The prescriptive, formal alternative is eldre enn *jeg (er) with the subject form, but in speech *enn meg is standard and natural. See object pronouns for the forms.
som — "as," for equality and manner
som is the equality-and-manner word. It shows up in three core patterns:
1. The equative "as … as": (like/så) … som
To say two things are equal on some scale, Norwegian frames it as like X som (just as X as) or så X som (as X as):
Hun er like flink som broren sin.
She is just as good as her brother.
Det var ikke så ille som jeg fryktet.
It wasn't as bad as I feared.
Here the adjective stays in its positive form (flink, ille), framed by like…som or så…som. This is the equality counterpart to enn: same comparison, opposite logic.
2. Manner clauses: "do as I say"
som also means as / the way in clauses of manner — how something is done:
Gjør som jeg sier, ikke som jeg gjør.
Do as I say, not as I do.
Alt gikk akkurat som planlagt.
Everything went exactly as planned.
3. "the same … as," "like … as before"
Leiligheten er like fin som før.
The flat is just as nice as before.
jo … desto / jo … jo — "the more … the more"
This correlative pairs two comparatives that rise together: the more I read, the more I understand. Norwegian uses jo in the first clause and desto (or a second jo) in the second. Both desto and jo are correct in the second slot; jo … jo is a touch more colloquial, jo … desto a touch more formal — both are everyday.
Jo mer jeg leser, desto mer forstår jeg.
The more I read, the more I understand.
Jo eldre han blir, jo morsommere er han.
The older he gets, the funnier he is.
Word order is worth a close look. The jo-clause is subordinate-like and comes first; the desto/jo-clause that follows inverts (verb before subject): desto mer forstår jeg, jo morsommere er han. English does the same thing ("the funnier he is" keeps subject-verb, but "the more do I understand" is the older form) — in Norwegian the inversion in the second clause is obligatory.
Jo lenger vi venter, desto verre blir det.
The longer we wait, the worse it gets.
som om / enn om — "as if"
To say something looks/seems as if, Norwegian uses som om (literally "as if"). This is a subordinating frame, so the clause takes subordinate order — ikke before the verb.
Det ser ut som om det skal regne.
It looks as if it's going to rain.
Hun oppførte seg som om ingenting hadde skjedd.
She behaved as if nothing had happened.
Han så på meg som om han ikke kjente meg.
He looked at me as if he didn't know me.
There, inside the clause: som om han ikke kjente — ikke before the verb, the subordinate pattern. The variant enn om ("than if") appears after a comparative: Det var verre enn om jeg ikke hadde sagt noe (It was worse than if I hadn't said anything).
liksom — colloquial "like / sort of"
liksom (informal) wears two hats. As a comparison word it means like / as if (Han later liksom som om han sover — He's pretending, like, to be asleep). But in modern speech it is far more common as a filler / hedge, much like English like or sort of — softening a statement or buying time.
Det er liksom greit, men ikke helt.
It's, like, fine, but not totally. (informal)
Hun ble liksom litt sur.
She got, sort of, a bit annoyed. (informal)
As a hedge, liksom is purely colloquial — natural in casual speech, out of place in writing. Don't use it in formal contexts. See also the discourse-particle treatment under altså / liksom.
Common Mistakes
❌ Han er større som meg.
Incorrect — 'than' after a comparative is enn, not som.
✅ Han er større enn meg.
He is bigger than me.
The classic enn/som confusion. A comparative (større) demands enn. som is for equality, never for than.
❌ Hun er like flink enn broren.
Incorrect — equality (like…) takes som, not enn.
✅ Hun er like flink som broren.
She is just as good as her brother.
The mirror error: like … som for equality. enn belongs only with a comparative.
❌ Det ser ut som det skal regne.
Incomplete — the 'as if' frame is som om, not bare som.
✅ Det ser ut som om det skal regne.
It looks as if it's going to rain.
For as if you need the full som om. (Bare som + clause exists for manner — som planlagt — but for as if it's som om.)
❌ Jo mer jeg leser, jeg forstår mer.
Incorrect — the second clause must invert: verb before subject.
✅ Jo mer jeg leser, desto mer forstår jeg.
The more I read, the more I understand.
After the jo-clause, the desto-clause inverts: forstår jeg, not jeg forstår.
❌ Han så på meg som om han kjente meg ikke.
Incorrect — after som om, ikke goes before the verb, not after it.
✅ Han så på meg som om han ikke kjente meg.
He looked at me as if he didn't know me.
som om is a subordinating frame, so the clause takes subordinate order: han ikke kjente, never kjente han ikke.
Key Takeaways
- enn (double n) = than, used only after a comparative (større enn). Spoken Norwegian takes the object pronoun: enn meg.
- som = as, for equality (like/så stor som) and manner (gjør som jeg sier).
- The English split than vs as maps cleanly onto enn vs som — never større som.
- jo … desto/jo = the more … the more; the second clause inverts (desto mer forstår jeg).
- som om = as if (subordinate order: som om han ikke visste); enn om = than if.
- liksom = colloquial like / sort of — a casual hedge, never formal.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Comparison Clauses: enn, som, jo … destoB2 — How Norwegian builds comparison as subordination: the enn-clause (eldre enn jeg trodde; enn meg vs careful enn jeg er), the equative som-clause (like … som, så … som, som om = as if), the correlative jo … desto/jo with desto-clause inversion, and ellipsis in comparatives.
- Comparison: -ere, -estA2 — Regular Norwegian adjectives compare with -ere (finere, billigere) and the superlative -est (finest, billigst); the comparative never agrees, the definite superlative adds -e (den fineste), and a stress-pattern syncope shortens words like enkel → enklere.
- Object PronounsA1 — The Norwegian object pronouns — meg, deg, ham/han, henne, den, det, oss, dere, dem — including ham vs han for 'him' and the de→dem shift that mirrors English they/them.
- Subordinating Conjunctions: OverviewB1 — The master list of Norwegian subordinating conjunctions and the one rule they all trigger: subordinate word order, where ikke jumps in front of the verb.