Family words are among the very first nouns you learn and among the most irregular in the language — which is exactly why they deserve their own page. Far ("father") does not pluralise to "farer"; it umlauts to fedre. On top of that, Norwegian kinship has two features English speakers find striking: a set of casual forms (pappa, mamma) that live alongside the neutral ones, and a beautifully transparent grandparent system in which the single word morfar tells you precisely which grandfather — your mother's father. English needs a whole phrase for what Norwegian says in one word. (Possessives like "my mother" are covered on their own page; here we focus on the nouns themselves.)
The irregular core: far, mor, bror
The three most basic kinship terms are all irregular, and all three umlaut in the plural. Learn them as full four-form grids:
| Singular | Definite sg. | Plural | Definite pl. | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| en far | faren | fedre | fedrene | father |
| ei/en mor | mora/moren | mødre | mødrene | mother |
| en bror | broren | brødre | brødrene | brother |
| ei/en søster | søstera/søsteren | søstre | søstrene | sister |
| ei/en datter | dattera/datteren | døtre | døtrene | daughter |
| en sønn | sønnen | sønner | sønnene | son |
| et barn | barnet | barn | barna | child |
The vowel shifts here use ø: far → fedre (a special a → e with loss of a syllable), mor → mødre, bror → brødre, datter → døtre. Note also two non-umlaut irregularities: sønn is regular-ish (sønner) but doubles its n, and barn is a zero-plural neuter (barn → barn) whose definite plural is the -a form barna, not "barnene".
Faren min jobber på sykehuset i Bergen.
My father works at the hospital in Bergen.
Begge brødrene mine spiller i samme band.
Both my brothers play in the same band.
Hun har to døtre og en sønn.
She has two daughters and a son.
Barna sover, så vi kan snakke i fred.
The children are asleep, so we can talk in peace.
The casual forms: pappa, mamma
Alongside the neutral far and mor, Norwegian has the everyday, affectionate forms pappa ("dad") and mamma ("mum"). These are the words families actually use at home; far and mor sound more neutral or formal by comparison, and on their own can feel a little distant or old-fashioned in direct address.
| Neutral / formal | Casual (everyday) | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| far (faren, fedre) | pappa (pappaen, pappaer) | father / dad |
| mor (mora, mødre) | mamma (mammaen, mammaer) | mother / mum |
| bror | (no special casual form; bror itself is warm) | brother |
The casual forms inflect regularly (pappa → pappaen → pappaer), so they actually dodge the umlaut headache. The register difference matters: you call out Mamma! across the house, but a formal obituary says vår kjære mor ("our dear mother").
Mamma, kan jeg få litt mer saft?
Mum, can I have a bit more juice? (casual, direct address)
Pappa henter oss klokka fem.
Dad's picking us up at five. (casual)
Vår kjære mor sovnet stille inn i går.
Our dear mother passed away peacefully yesterday. (formal/literary, e.g. an obituary)
There is also a quirk worth flagging: far and mor (like bror) sometimes appear without an article in fixed, almost name-like usage, especially in older or regional speech — "Far er ikke hjemme" ("Dad isn't home"), treating the word almost as a proper noun. In modern standard usage you will more often hear pappa or faren min there, but you should recognise the article-less version.
Far er ute i fjøset, han kommer snart inn.
Dad's out in the barn, he'll come in soon. (article-less, traditional/regional)
The grandparent system: mormor, farfar, and friends
This is the feature English simply lacks, and it is genuinely elegant. Norwegian builds each grandparent's name as a compound of two kinship words, read left to right as "[whose] [which one]". The first element tells you the side of the family, the second tells you whether it is the grandmother or grandfather:
| Compound | Literally | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| mor + mor → mormor | "mother-mother" | maternal grandmother (mother's mother) |
| mor + far → morfar | "mother-father" | maternal grandfather (mother's father) |
| far + mor → farmor | "father-mother" | paternal grandmother (father's mother) |
| far + far → farfar | "father-father" | paternal grandfather (father's father) |
Where English says "my grandmother" and then has to add "on my mother's side" to be precise, Norwegian encodes the side directly in the word. Mormor is unambiguously your mother's mother; farmor is your father's mother. There is no information loss and no extra phrase.
Mormor lager alltid de beste vaflene.
Grandma (mum's mum) always makes the best waffles.
Vi feirer jul hos farfar hvert år.
We celebrate Christmas at Grandad's (dad's dad's place) every year.
Farmor og morfar har aldri møtt hverandre.
My paternal grandmother and maternal grandfather have never met each other.
There is also a neutral umbrella term for when the side does not matter: besteforeldre ("grandparents"), with the singulars bestemor ("grandmother") and bestefar ("grandfather"). Use bestemor/bestefar when you do not need to specify which side, and the mormor/farmor set when you do.
Besteforeldrene mine bor på en gård.
My grandparents live on a farm.
The sviger- and the wider family
Two more productive prefixes round out the system. Sviger- marks in-laws ("[relation]-in-law"), and the wider relatives have their own (mostly regular) words:
| Norwegian | English |
|---|---|
| svigermor / svigerfar | mother-in-law / father-in-law |
| svigerinne / svoger | sister-in-law / brother-in-law |
| onkel / tante | uncle / aunt |
| fetter / kusine | male cousin / female cousin |
| nevø / niese | nephew / niece |
| forelder / foreldre | parent / parents |
Two contrasts with English stand out. First, Norwegian splits "cousin" by gender — fetter (male) versus kusine (female) — where English has the single ungendered "cousin". Second, forelder ("parent") has the irregular plural foreldre (not "foreldere"), the everyday word for "parents".
Svigermora mi kommer på besøk i helga.
My mother-in-law is coming to visit this weekend.
Fetteren min og kusina mi bor i samme by.
My (male) cousin and my (female) cousin live in the same city.
Foreldrene mine giftet seg veldig unge.
My parents got married very young.
Common Mistakes
Regularising the kinship plurals. Bror, far, mor umlaut — they do not take plain -er on the singular stem.
❌ Jeg har to brorer.
Incorrect — the plural of bror is brødre.
✅ Jeg har to brødre.
I have two brothers.
Saying "farer" or "morer". Far and mor shift their vowel: fedre, mødre.
❌ De to farene snakket sammen.
Incorrect — the plural of far is fedre: fedrene.
✅ De to fedrene snakket sammen.
The two fathers talked together.
Using "grandmother" and adding a side-phrase. Norwegian already encodes the side in the word; do not translate the English phrasing literally.
❌ bestemor på mors side (when you just mean mormor)
Unidiomatic — Norwegian has a single word: mormor (mother's mother).
✅ mormor
maternal grandmother
Reading the grandparent compound backwards. The first element is the side, the second is the grandparent — morfar is mother's father, not father's mother.
❌ morfar = 'father's mother'
Incorrect — morfar = mother's father (mor- = mother's side, -far = grandfather).
✅ morfar = mother's father; farmor = father's mother
Read left to right: side first, then grandparent.
Regularising "parents". The plural of forelder is the irregular foreldre.
❌ Foreldrene → 'foreldere'
Incorrect — the plural is foreldre (definite foreldrene), not 'foreldere'.
✅ Foreldrene mine bor i Tromsø.
My parents live in Tromsø.
Key Takeaways
- The core kinship terms are irregular umlaut plurals: far → fedre, mor → mødre, bror → brødre, datter → døtre; barn → barn → barna; forelder → foreldre.
- Casual pappa/mamma sit alongside neutral far/mor and inflect regularly; far/mor/bror also appear article-less in fixed, name-like usage.
- The grandparent system is transparent and side-specific: mormor (mother's mother), morfar (mother's father), farmor (father's mother), farfar (father's father) — read side first, then grandparent. Bestemor/bestefar/besteforeldre stay neutral.
- Sviger- builds in-laws; Norwegian splits cousins by gender (fetter male, kusine female).
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Irregular and Umlaut PluralsA2 — A closed set of very common Norwegian nouns change their stem vowel in the plural (mann → menn, bok → bøker, fot → føtter, natt → netter) — the same umlaut pattern English keeps in man/men and foot/feet, so you already know the shape.
- 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.
- Compounding: Building Long WordsA2 — How Norwegian glues words into one solid string — the head-final rule that fixes word class and inflection, the linking morphemes -s- (arbeidsplass) and -e- (barnehage), and the first-element stress that lets you parse arbitrarily long compounds.
- Plural FormationA1 — Most Norwegian nouns make their plural by adding -er and -ene (bil → biler → bilene), but many one-syllable neuter nouns add nothing at all (hus → hus → husene) — the trap that catches every English speaker.