Asking for and Giving Directions | Norwegian Grammar

Getting around means two skills: asking strangers where things are, and understanding the directions you get back. This page gives you the polite openers, the left/right/straight vocabulary, the position phrases (next to, around the corner), how floors are numbered, and the one grammar point that quietly shapes every "do you know where..." question — the embedded-question word order.

The polite opener: Unnskyld

Start by getting attention with Unnskyld ("Excuse me"). It is the universal opener for stopping a stranger. Then ask your question.

Unnskyld, hvor er...? — "Excuse me, where is...?"
Unnskyld, vet du hvor... er? — "Excuse me, do you know where... is?"
Hvordan kommer jeg til...? — "How do I get to...?"

Unnskyld, hvor er stasjonen?

Excuse me, where is the station?

Unnskyld, vet du hvor nærmeste minibank er?

Excuse me, do you know where the nearest ATM is?

Hvordan kommer jeg til sentrum herfra?

How do I get to the centre from here?

The embedded-question trap: word order

Here is the grammar point worth slowing down for. In a direct question, the verb comes before the subject: hvor er stasjonen? ("where is the station?"). But the moment you tuck that question inside another sentence — do you know where the station is — it becomes an embedded (subordinate) clause, and the word order flips back to subject–verb:

Direct question	Embedded question
Hvor er stasjonen?	Vet du hvor stasjonen er?
(where is the station?)	(do you know where the station is?)

So after vet du hvor... the verb er moves to the end: vet du hvor stasjonen *er? — not vet du hvor **er stasjonen? English does the same flip ("where *is the station" → "where the station is"), so the logic is familiar — but learners constantly forget it under pressure and keep the inverted order.

Vet du hvor toalettet er?

Do you know where the toilet is?

Kan du si meg hvor utgangen er?

Can you tell me where the exit is?

Jeg lurer på hvor bussholdeplassen er.

I'm wondering where the bus stop is.

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Direct: Hvor er stasjonen? Embedded: Vet du hvor stasjonen er? Inside a bigger sentence, the verb drops to the end. This is your natural drill for the embedded-question rule.

Left, right, straight ahead

The core directional set:

Norwegian	English
til høyre	to the right
til venstre	to the left
rett fram	straight ahead
ta til høyre/venstre	turn right/left
svinge til høyre/venstre	turn (swing) right/left

Watch the orthography: høyre has ø and y together (h-ø-y-r-e), and venstre is spelled with the n before s. Mixing these two up is the classic direction-giving disaster.

Ta til venstre ved lyskrysset.

Turn left at the traffic lights.

Gå rett fram, så ser du det på høyre side.

Go straight ahead, then you'll see it on the right side.

Sving til høyre etter brua.

Turn right after the bridge.

You will also hear rett frem — frem and fram are interchangeable spellings in Bokmål; both are correct.

Position words: next to, around the corner

To pin down where something sits relative to a landmark:

Norwegian	English
ved siden av	next to / beside
rundt hjørnet	around the corner
rett over gata	right across the street
bortover / oppover / nedover	along / up(wards) / down(wards)
like ved / like her	right nearby / right here

Apoteket ligger ved siden av banken.

The pharmacy is next to the bank.

Butikken er rett rundt hjørnet.

The shop is right around the corner.

Gå bortover denne gata, så er det oppover bakken.

Go along this street, then it's up the hill.

Det er like ved, bare noen meter unna.

It's right nearby, just a few metres away.

A useful reassurance to give or receive: Det er ikke langt ("it's not far") or Det er like ved ("it's right by here").

Er det langt? – Nei, det er ikke langt, bare fem minutter.

Is it far? – No, it's not far, just five minutes.

Floors: mind the ground floor

Norwegian floor numbering generally follows the British/European system, not the American one. The street-level floor can be called første etasje ("first floor") in everyday speech, but you will also see and hear underetasje / gateplan for street level, and many buildings count up from there. Floors are given with ordinal numbers + etasje:

Norwegian	English
i første etasje	on the first floor (ground level)
i andre etasje	on the second floor
i tredje etasje	on the third floor

The practical point: andre etasje is one flight up from the entrance, the way British "first floor" works — not the American ground floor. If someone says kontoret er i andre etasje, take the stairs up one level.

Resepsjonen er i første etasje.

The reception is on the ground floor.

Du finner det i andre etasje, ta heisen.

You'll find it on the second floor, take the lift.

Common Mistakes

❌ Vet du hvor er stasjonen?

Wrong word order — this keeps the direct-question inversion inside an embedded clause.

✅ Vet du hvor stasjonen er?

Do you know where the station is?

❌ Ta til høyre. (when you mean left)

The classic mix-up — høyre is RIGHT, venstre is LEFT.

✅ Ta til venstre.

Turn left.

❌ Kontoret er i første etasje. (expecting one flight up)

Mismatch — første etasje is ground/street level, not one floor up.

✅ Kontoret er i andre etasje.

The office is on the second floor (one flight up).

❌ Hvordan jeg kommer til sentrum?

Wrong — a direct question needs verb–subject inversion.

✅ Hvordan kommer jeg til sentrum?

How do I get to the centre?

Key Takeaways

Open with Unnskyld; ask hvor er...? directly or vet du hvor... er? embedded.
In embedded questions the verb drops to the end: vet du hvor stasjonen *er?*
høyre = right, venstre = left, rett fram/frem = straight ahead — don't swap them.
Position words: ved siden av, rundt hjørnet, bortover/oppover, like ved.
andre etasje is one flight up (European numbering), not the American "second floor."

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