If you make a hundred mistakes a month at B1, a large share of them will be prepositions, and almost all of those will be the same mistake repeated: you reached for the English preposition. Wait FOR feels like it should be vente FOR; look FOR like lete FOR; good AT like flink på or flink i. It almost never matches. The Norwegian preposition in a fixed verb-pair or adjective-pair is essentially arbitrary from an English point of view, so the only real fix is to learn the pair as a single unit — vente på, not vente plus a separately chosen preposition.
The wrong-transfer table
Here are the highest-frequency mismatches. The middle column is the English preposition your instinct supplies; the right column is what Norwegian actually requires. Notice how rarely they agree.
| Meaning | English preposition (the trap) | Norwegian pair (correct) |
|---|---|---|
| wait for | for → vente for ❌ | vente på |
| look for / search | for → lete for ❌ | lete etter |
| think about | about → tenke om ❌ | tenke på |
| listen to | to → høre til ❌ | høre på |
| look at / watch | at → se på ✅ (rare match!) | se på |
| ask for | for → be for ❌ | be om |
| good at | at → flink på ❌ | flink til |
| interested in | in → interessert i ✅ (match!) | interessert i |
| dependent on | on → avhengig på ❌ | avhengig av |
| married to | to → gift til ❌ | gift med |
Two of these (se på, interessert i) happen to line up with English — and that is part of the trap, because the occasional match tempts you to trust the strategy of translating the preposition. Don't. Trust the chunk.
Verbs whose preposition is "på" (where English says "for / about / to / at")
The Norwegian på is wildly overworked compared to its English near-twin "on." It shows up where English uses for, about, to, and at. These four are the most common offenders.
❌ Jeg venter for bussen.
Incorrect — English 'for' transferred; should be vente på.
✅ Jeg venter på bussen.
I'm waiting for the bus.
❌ Jeg tenker om deg hele tiden.
Incorrect — 'om' transferred from English 'about'; means something else.
✅ Jeg tenker på deg hele tiden.
I think about you all the time.
❌ Vi hører til musikk når vi lager mat.
Incorrect — 'høre til' means 'belong to', not 'listen to'.
✅ Vi hører på musikk når vi lager mat.
We listen to music while we cook.
Note the tenke trap especially. Tenke om exists, but it means "have an opinion about" (Hva tenker du om saken? — "What do you think about the matter?"). For the everyday "think about / have on your mind," it is tenke på. Two prepositions, two meanings; choose by sense, not by the English word.
"etter" for "look for / search" — and the be om / lete etter pair
❌ Jeg leter for nøklene mine.
Incorrect — 'for' transferred; should be lete etter.
✅ Jeg leter etter nøklene mine.
I'm looking for my keys.
❌ Kan jeg spørre for hjelp?
Incorrect — 'spørre for' is wrong for 'ask for help'.
✅ Kan jeg be om hjelp?
Can I ask for help?
The English verb "ask" splits in Norwegian: spørre is to ask a question (spørre om + a topic), while be om is to ask for something you want. "Can I ask for help?" is a request, so it is be om hjelp, never spørre for.
Adjective + preposition: flink TIL, redd FOR, avhengig AV
Adjectives carry fixed prepositions too, and these almost never match English.
❌ Hun er flink på matematikk.
Incorrect — 'good at' is flink til (or flink i with a noun).
✅ Hun er flink til å regne.
She's good at arithmetic. (flink til + verb)
✅ Hun er flink i matematikk.
She's good at maths. (flink i + a subject/field)
A useful sub-rule lives inside flink: use flink til å before a verb (flink til å lytte — "good at listening"), and flink i before a field or subject (flink i norsk — "good at Norwegian"). English uses one word, "at," for both; Norwegian splits by what follows.
❌ Jeg er redd av hunder.
Incorrect — 'av' transferred; fear takes 'for'.
✅ Jeg er redd for hunder.
I'm afraid of dogs. (redd for)
❌ Vi er avhengig på været.
Incorrect — 'on' transferred; should be avhengig av.
✅ Vi er avhengige av været.
We're dependent on the weather.
A few that actually do match (so you don't over-correct)
To keep you from "fixing" correct Norwegian, note the handful that genuinely line up with English. Gift med matches "married with" in many European languages but English says "married to" — so gift med is a mismatch from English; just learn it. But interessert i matches English "interested in," and se på loosely matches "look at."
✅ De er interessert i gammel musikk.
They're interested in old music. (matches English)
✅ Han er gift med en lærer.
He's married to a teacher. (gift MED, not 'til')
Common Mistakes
❌ Hva venter du for?
Incorrect — 'for' transferred from English 'what are you waiting for'.
✅ Hva venter du på?
What are you waiting for?
❌ Jeg er flink på å lage mat.
Incorrect — before a verb it's flink til å.
✅ Jeg er flink til å lage mat.
I'm good at cooking.
❌ Hun ba meg for et glass vann.
Incorrect — 'be for' is wrong; ask FOR something = be OM.
✅ Hun ba meg om et glass vann.
She asked me for a glass of water.
❌ Suksessen avhenger på hardt arbeid.
Incorrect — 'avhenge på' transfers English 'on'.
✅ Suksessen avhenger av hardt arbeid.
Success depends on hard work.
Key Takeaways
- The Norwegian preposition in a fixed pair almost never matches the English one — learn the pair as a chunk.
- på covers English for / about / to / at: vente på, tenke på, høre på, se på.
- "look for" = lete etter; "ask for (a request)" = be om; "ask a question" = spørre om.
- Adjectives: flink til å (+ verb) / flink i (+ field), redd for, avhengig av, gift med.
- A few match (interessert i, se på) — but don't trust the match strategy; trust the memorized chunk.
Now practice Norwegian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Prepositions: OverviewA1 — A map of the Norwegian preposition system and a warning that prepositions are the most idiomatic part of the language, rarely matching English one-to-one — with på and i as the chief troublemakers.
- i vs på: PlaceA2 — The full systematic range of i (inside, countries, cities) vs på (surfaces, institutions-as-activity, islands, many towns) for location — with the collocation lists you must memorise.
- til: To, Until, Of, ForA2 — til covers direction (til Oslo), the everyday spoken possessive (boka til Kari), time limits (til klokka tre), recipients (en gave til mor), and a set of fixed phrases — with the noun-form rules English speakers miss.
- False Friends: English vs NorwegianB1 — Norwegian words that look English but mean something else: gift (married/poison), eventuelt (possibly), aktuell (current), rar (strange), spent (excited) — the high-frequency cognate traps with their real translations.