Talking about your family in Norwegian means three things: knowing the kinship words, putting the possessive in the natural place (which is not where English puts it), and handling relationship status — including samboer, a word and a concept English has no clean equivalent for. This page covers all three.
The core kinship terms
| Norwegian | English | Casual form |
|---|---|---|
| mor | mother | mamma |
| far | father | pappa |
| søsken | sibling(s) | — |
| søster | sister | søs (very casual) |
| bror | brother | — |
| barn | child / children | unge (kid) |
| foreldre | parents | — |
| besteforeldre | grandparents | — |
Two orthography notes: søsken and søster both carry ø, and barn is the same in singular and plural (ett barn, to barn). In everyday speech, mamma and pappa are far more common than the more neutral mor and far — you'd say mamma lager middag, not mor lager middag, unless you're being formal or writing.
Jeg har to søsken: en bror og en søster.
I have two siblings: a brother and a sister.
Mamma og pappa bor i Bergen.
Mum and Dad live in Bergen.
Vi har tre barn.
We have three children.
The grandparent system: which side, baked in
This is where Norwegian is more precise than English. English "grandfather" hides which side of the family he's on; Norwegian tells you immediately, because the words are transparent compounds of mor (mother) and far (father):
| Norwegian | Literally | English |
|---|---|---|
| morfar | mother-father | maternal grandfather |
| mormor | mother-mother | maternal grandmother |
| farfar | father-father | paternal grandfather |
| farmor | father-mother | paternal grandmother |
Read them left to right: morfar is "mother's father," i.e. your mum's dad. The compound encodes the side automatically, so Norwegians rarely need to say "on my mother's side." When they do, the phrase is på morssiden / på farssiden.
Morfar lærte meg å fiske.
My maternal grandfather taught me to fish.
Bestemoren på farssiden bor fortsatt på gården.
My grandmother on my father's side still lives on the farm.
Vi feirer jul hos farmor og farfar i år.
We're celebrating Christmas at my paternal grandparents' this year.
The generic, side-neutral terms also exist — bestefar (grandfather) and bestemor (grandmother) — and are common, especially when the side doesn't matter. But the mor/far compounds are the everyday default when you want to be specific.
The possessive goes AFTER the noun
Here is the single most important habit for sounding natural. With family terms, Norwegian strongly prefers the postposed possessive — the possessive word comes after the noun, and the noun takes its definite (the -a / -en ending):
| Natural (postposed) | Stiff/formal (preposed) | English |
|---|---|---|
| mora mi | min mor | my mother |
| faren min | min far | my father |
| broren min | min bror | my brother |
| søstera mi | min søster | my sister |
| barna mine | mine barn | my children |
Both orders are grammatically correct, but mora mi is what people actually say. The preposed min mor is not wrong — it's just heavier, more formal or literary, and with kin terms it can sound oddly stiff in casual speech. English has only the preposed order ("my mother"), so learners default to min mor and end up sounding like a textbook.
Note the agreement: mi for feminine nouns (mora mi, søstera mi), min for masculine (faren min, broren min), mine for plural (barna mine).
Dette er mora mi.
This is my mother.
Broren min jobber som lærer.
My brother works as a teacher.
Jeg er veldig glad i søstera mi.
I love my sister very much.
Relationship status
The vocabulary of being together, married, or apart:
| Norwegian | English |
|---|---|
| kjæreste | boyfriend / girlfriend (gender-neutral) |
| samboer | live-in partner (cohabitant) |
| forlovet | engaged |
| gift | married |
| skilt | divorced |
| singel | single |
| ektemann / kone | husband / wife |
Two words deserve special attention. Kjæreste (note the æ) means boyfriend or girlfriend — it's gender-neutral, so the same word works for everyone, and you specify with min/mi only if you want. It literally means "dearest."
Dette er kjæresten min, Sander.
This is my boyfriend/partner, Sander.
Har du kjæreste? – Ja, vi har vært sammen i to år.
Do you have a partner? – Yes, we've been together for two years.
The samboer: a Norwegian institution
Samboer — literally "together-liver," from sam- (co-) + bo (to live) — is a live-in partner you are not married to. This is not a marginal arrangement: living together long-term, often with children, without marrying is completely mainstream and socially normal in Norway. A samboer relationship even carries legal weight in areas like inheritance and benefits. There is no neat English word: "partner" is vague, "cohabitant" sounds clinical, "common-law spouse" is a legalism. Samboer is the everyday, neutral, respectable term Norwegians use constantly.
Vi er samboere og har en sønn sammen.
We're live-in partners and have a son together.
Samboeren min heter Ingrid.
My partner (live-in) is called Ingrid.
De har vært samboere i ti år uten å gifte seg.
They've been living together for ten years without getting married.
The verbs for status: å gifte seg (to get married — reflexive), å forlove seg (to get engaged), å skille seg (to get divorced).
De skal gifte seg til sommeren.
They're getting married this summer.
Foreldrene mine er skilt.
My parents are divorced.
Common Mistakes
❌ Dette er min mor. (in casual speech)
Grammatically fine but stiff — with kin terms, the postposed form is natural.
✅ Dette er mora mi.
This is my mother.
❌ min faren / mora min
Wrong agreement/structure — postposed needs the definite noun + matching possessive: faren min, mora mi.
✅ faren min / mora mi
my father / my mother
❌ Hun er min jentevenn.
Unnatural — there's no gendered word here; Norwegian uses the gender-neutral kjæreste for boyfriend/girlfriend alike.
✅ Hun er kjæresten min.
She's my girlfriend/partner.
❌ Vi er gift, men vi bor sammen uten papirer. (when you mean unmarried)
Contradictory — if unmarried and cohabiting, the word is samboere, not gift.
✅ Vi er samboere.
We're live-in partners.
Key Takeaways
- Use casual mamma/pappa in speech; mor/far is the formal/written form.
- Grandparent compounds encode the side: morfar (mum's dad), farmor (dad's mum).
- With kin terms, prefer the postposed possessive: mora mi, faren min, barna mine — not min mor.
- kjæreste is the gender-neutral word for boyfriend/girlfriend.
- samboer is an unmarried live-in partner — a normal, respectable Norwegian institution with no English equivalent.
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Family and Kinship NounsA2 — Kinship words like far/fedre, mor/mødre, bror/brødre are irregular umlaut plurals, have casual forms (pappa/mamma) alongside the neutral ones, and build a transparent grandparent system English lacks: mormor and farmor name maternal and paternal grandmother in single words.
- Possessive Determiners and Their PositionA2 — Norwegian possessives like min/mitt/mine agree with the possessed noun and sit most naturally AFTER it — 'bilen min', 'boka mi', 'huset mitt' — with the definite noun, the opposite of the English order learners reach for.
- Possessive Pronouns: min, din, hans, vårA2 — The full possessive paradigm — agreeing min/mitt/mine and frozen hans/hennes/deres — plus standalone use ('den er min') and the famous sin-vs-hans puzzle, where Norwegian distinguishes 'his own' from 'his (someone else's)' with a dedicated word English simply lacks.
- Untranslatable Words: koselig, dugnad, påleggB2 — The culturally loaded Norwegian words English has no single equivalent for — koselig, friluftsliv, dugnad, janteloven, matpakke, utepils, pålegg, døgn — explained as windows onto how Norwegian society works, with the grammar of how each is actually used.
- ha (to have)A1 — The full conjugation of ha — present har, preterite hadde, supine hatt, imperative ha — Norwegian's verb of possession and, crucially, the one and only auxiliary for every compound tense.