Apposition, Titles and Names

This page covers two things that look small but trip up almost every English speaker writing about people: how Norwegian attaches titles to names (kong Harald, statsminister Støre), and how it uses apposition — a noun phrase that renames another, set off by commas (Oslo, hovedstaden). Both are everywhere in news, biographies and everyday introductions, and both differ from English in a way that produces a constant, low-level error.

Titles before a name are lowercase

This is the headline rule, and it is the reverse of English. When a title comes directly before a person's name, Norwegian writes the title in lowercase:

English capitalises King Harald, Prime Minister Støre, Professor Berg — the title is treated as part of the proper name. Norwegian does not. The title is an ordinary common noun (konge, statsminister, professor) that happens to sit in front of a name, so it stays lowercase like any other common noun.

The same goes for civic, military, religious and academic titles:

No article either

On top of being lowercase, a title before a name takes no article. You do not say en statsminister Støre or statsministeren Støre. The title+name unit is treated as a single label:

Note kong in kong Harald: a few high-frequency titles even lose a final -e in this position. The free-standing word is konge ("king"), but before a royal name it shortens to kong: kong Harald, kong Olav, dronning Sonja (here dronning is already the short form). This shortening is specific to kong and is a fixed, memorised pattern — treat it as the standard form for royalty.

Title with name vs. title referring to a person

Contrast the title-before-a-name pattern with how you refer to the same person without the name. The moment the title stands alone as a normal noun, it behaves like any other noun — it takes a definite article (the suffixed -en/-et) and is still lowercase:

So you get a clean two-way split:

English does the opposite on capitalisation in both columns: King Harald (capital) but usually the king (lowercase) when standing alone — so English speakers tend to capitalise the wrong one and lowercase the other. In Norwegian the title is always lowercase; only the article changes.

herr, fru, frøken

The courtesy titles herr ("Mr."), fru ("Mrs.") and frøken ("Miss") follow the same lowercase, article-less pattern, but they are now (dated) — modern Norwegian rarely uses them in speech, preferring first names or just the surname. You will still meet them in old letters, formal printed invitations, and ironic or very formal contexts:

For everyday writing, don't reach for herr/fru/frøken; Norwegians address even strangers by first name far more readily than English speakers do.

Apposition: one noun phrase renaming another

Apposition is when you place a second noun phrase right next to a first one to identify or describe it, and the two refer to the same thing. In Norwegian the appositive is set off with commas:

Here hovedstaden renames Oslo; broren min renames Per. The appositive can be definite (hovedstaden) or a possessive phrase (broren min) — it carries its own normal grammar; only the commas mark it as parenthetical. You could lift the appositive out and the sentence would still stand: Oslo ligger innerst i fjorden.

When the order is reversed — a short description first, the name second — the name is often the appositive and the comma may disappear in tight, name-introducing phrases:

In min venn Ola, the name Ola identifies which friend, so it is tightly bound and usually written without commas — it is a defining (restrictive) apposition. Compare the non-defining version, where commas return because the extra information is just a parenthetical aside:

This restrictive/non-restrictive split mirrors English exactly (my friend Ola vs. Ola, my best friend,), so the comma logic transfers directly — the part that does not transfer is the lowercase title rule above.

Common Mistakes

A title before a name is lowercase in Norwegian: kong Harald, not Kong Harald. This is the single most common transfer error, because English capitalises King Harald.

With a name attached, the title is bare — no -en and no en. The definite statsministeren is only for standing alone, without the name.

Title + name is a single label; you never put en/ei/et in front of it.

A non-defining appositive must be bracketed by commas on both sides. Dropping them makes the sentence read as a run-on.

When the name is needed to identify which friend, the apposition is restrictive and takes no commas — just like English my friend Ola.

Key Takeaways

• Titles before a name are lowercase: kong Harald, statsminister Støre, professor Berg — the opposite of English capitalisation.
• They are also article-less: dommer Nilsen, not en dommer Nilsen or dommeren Nilsen.
• The same role-noun standing alone takes the definite article (still lowercase): kongen, statsministeren, professoren.
• kong is the fixed short form of konge before a royal name. herr/fru/frøken exist but are (dated).
• Apposition renames a noun with commas (Oslo, hovedstaden), unless the apposition is restrictive (min venn Ola), which drops the commas — exactly as in English.