Beyond plain ikke ("not"), Norwegian has a small set of negative adverbs that English speakers consistently calque wrong — especially "neither / not either," which is heller ikke, never også ikke. This page covers aldri (never), heller ikke (neither / not either), ikke lenger / ikke mer (no longer), (ikke) ennå (not yet), and knapt (hardly), with their placement in the sentence-adverb slot.
Where negative adverbs sit
All of these occupy the same position in the clause as ikke — the sentence-adverb slot, which comes after the finite verb in a main clause and before the finite verb in a subordinate clause. If you already know where ikke goes, you know where these go.
Jeg har aldri vært der.
I've never been there.
Hun røyker ikke lenger.
She doesn't smoke anymore.
In the perfect tense the negative adverb lands between the auxiliary and the participle (har *aldri vært), exactly where *ikke would go (har *ikke vært*).
aldri — "never," a one-word negative
aldri is a complete negation on its own: it already contains the "not," so you do not add ikke. It slots in just like ikke.
Jeg drikker aldri kaffe om kvelden.
I never drink coffee in the evening.
Han kommer aldri til tiden.
He's never on time.
Det har jeg aldri hørt om.
I've never heard of that.
The tricky part is word order in subordinate clauses. There, the sentence adverb (including aldri) jumps to in front of the finite verb — the "BANANA"/inversion that distinguishes main from subordinate clauses:
Hun sa at hun aldri hadde vært i Bergen.
She said that she had never been in Bergen.
Jeg vet at han aldri spiser kjøtt.
I know that he never eats meat.
In the main clause it's Han spiser aldri kjøtt (adverb after the verb); embed it under at and it becomes …at han *aldri spiser kjøtt (adverb before the verb). English does not move *never like this, so the embedded order has to be drilled.
heller ikke — "neither / nor / not either"
This is the high-value item. To say someone also does not do something, English offers three structures — "neither does she," "she doesn't either," "nor does she" — and learners reach for også ikke ("also not"). That is wrong. Norwegian uses heller ikke ("rather/either not"), where heller is the same heller as in "I'd rather," repurposed as a negative-polarity "either."
Han kom ikke, og hun kom heller ikke.
He didn't come, and she didn't come either.
Jeg liker ikke fisk. — Ikke jeg heller.
I don't like fish. — Me neither.
Vi har ikke hørt noe, og det har de heller ikke.
We haven't heard anything, and neither have they.
Two fixed patterns to memorise:
- Full clause: subject + finite verb + heller ikke → …og hun kom *heller ikke.*
- Short reply "me neither": Ikke jeg heller (literally "not I either"). Note the order — ikke first, then the pronoun, then heller.
Jeg gidder ikke å gå ut i kveld. — Nei, ikke jeg heller.
I don't feel like going out tonight. — No, me neither.
For a tighter "neither … nor," Norwegian uses the correlative verken … eller:
Han snakker verken norsk eller svensk.
He speaks neither Norwegian nor Swedish.
ikke lenger / ikke mer — "no longer, not anymore"
"No longer" is ikke lenger (literally "not longer"), and the more colloquial "not anymore" is ikke mer. Note lenger here is the time adverb (the comparative of lenge), not the adjective lengre.
Jeg bor ikke lenger i Oslo.
I don't live in Oslo anymore.
Det gjør ikke vondt lenger.
It doesn't hurt anymore.
Vi orker ikke mer av dette.
We can't take any more of this.
The two halves can sit together (ikke lenger) or split around other material (gjør ikke vondt lenger) — lenger gravitates toward the end of the clause while ikke stays in the adverb slot.
(ikke) ennå — "not yet" and "yet"
ennå means "yet / still." Combined with negation it gives "not yet," and the order is flexible: both ikke ennå and ennå ikke occur, with ennå ikke sounding slightly more formal/written.
Er maten klar? — Nei, ikke ennå.
Is the food ready? — No, not yet.
Toget har ennå ikke kommet.
The train still hasn't arrived.
Jeg har ikke bestemt meg ennå.
I haven't decided yet.
(You may also see the spelling enda; both ennå and enda are accepted in Bokmål for "yet/still," though some writers reserve enda for the intensifier "even" as in enda bedre "even better.")
knapt — "hardly, barely"
knapt (and the fuller knapt nok) is a near-negative: it pulls the sentence toward negation without a full ikke.
Jeg fikk knapt sove i natt.
I hardly slept at all last night.
Han sa knapt et ord hele kvelden.
He barely said a word all evening.
Common Mistakes
The errors here are nearly all direct English calques.
❌ Han kom ikke, og hun kom også ikke.
Incorrect — 'neither/not either' is heller ikke, never også ikke.
✅ Han kom ikke, og hun kom heller ikke.
He didn't come, and she didn't come either.
❌ Jeg har aldri ikke vært der.
Incorrect — aldri already means 'not ever'; don't add ikke.
✅ Jeg har aldri vært der.
I've never been there.
❌ Hun sa at hun hadde aldri vært i Bergen.
Incorrect — in a subordinate clause the adverb goes before the verb.
✅ Hun sa at hun aldri hadde vært i Bergen.
She said she had never been in Bergen.
❌ Jeg bor ikke mer lenge i Oslo.
Incorrect — 'no longer' is ikke lenger (the time adverb), not 'lenge'.
✅ Jeg bor ikke lenger i Oslo.
I no longer live in Oslo.
❌ Ikke meg heller liker fisk.
Incorrect — the 'me neither' reply is the fixed Ikke jeg heller.
✅ Jeg liker ikke fisk. — Ikke jeg heller.
I don't like fish. — Me neither.
Key Takeaways
- Negative adverbs sit in the ikke-slot: after the finite verb in main clauses, before it in subordinate clauses.
- aldri = "never"; it is self-negating, so never combine it with ikke. Its emphatic paraphrase is ikke … noen gang.
- "Neither / not either" is heller ikke (and the reply Ikke jeg heller) — never også ikke. Tight "neither…nor" is verken … eller.
- "No longer / not anymore" is ikke lenger (or ikke mer); "not yet" is (ikke) ennå.
- Watch the subordinate-clause word order — it is the most reliable place to slip.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- ingen vs ikke noenB1 — ingen ('no/none/nobody') is a one-word negative that works as a simple subject or object (Ingen kom; Jeg så ingen), but it is BARRED after a finite auxiliary or modal — there you must unpack it into ikke … noen/noe (Jeg har ikke sett noen, never 'har sett ingen'). The same split governs ingenting/ikke noe, ingen steder/ikke noe sted.
- Focus Particles: bare, til og med, selv, ikke engangB2 — Scalar and focus particles — bare/kun (only), også (also), selv / til og med / sågar (even), ikke engang (not even), heller ikke (neither), nettopp (exactly) — how they latch onto one constituent, why their position rewrites the meaning, and the register split among the three words for 'even'.
- Time Adverbs: nå, da, snart, allerede, ennåA2 — The Norwegian temporal adverbs — nå/da (now/then), allerede vs. ennå (already vs. still/yet), fortsatt, snart, straks — and the tense pairings English speakers must relearn.
- Placing ikkeA2 — Everything about where ikke sits: after the finite verb in main clauses, before it in subordinate clauses, before a non-finite verb, and the object-shift rule — a pronoun jumps in front of ikke, but a full noun stays behind it.