Decimals, Fractions and Percentages | Norwegian Grammar

Numbers below one and numbers split into parts are where English and Norwegian quietly disagree about punctuation itself. The two languages use the comma and the period for opposite jobs: where English writes a decimal point, Norwegian writes a comma; where English writes a thousands comma, Norwegian writes a space (or, on price tags, a period). Get this backwards and you will misread a price by a factor of a hundred. This page covers reading decimals with komma, building fractions with the regular -del/-deler suffix, and using prosent — and it flags the decimal-comma trap as the practical hazard it really is. (For the spacing of big whole numbers, see Large Numbers; for reading prices and phone numbers aloud, see Phone Numbers, Prices and Measurements.)

The decimal comma: the most important thing on this page

In Norwegian, the decimal separator is a comma, read aloud as komma. There is no "point" in a Norwegian decimal.

3,5 = tre komma fem

3.5 = 'three comma five'. The comma is the decimal separator; you literally say the word komma.

0,25 = null komma tjuefem

0.25 = 'zero comma twenty-five'. The whole part (null) is said normally; the fractional part is usually read as a whole number (tjuefem), not digit by digit.

Temperaturen er 36,8 grader.

The temperature is 36.8 degrees. — said 'trettiseks komma åtte'.

Two reading conventions to internalise. First, the part before the comma is read as an ordinary number (tre, null, trettiseks). Second, the part after the comma can go either way: short decimals like 0,25 are commonly read as a whole number (null komma tjuefem), but for precise or technical values Norwegians often read the digits one by one — 3,14159 as tre komma en fire en fem ni. Both are correct; digit-by-digit is the safer default when in doubt.

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The whole number before the comma uses normal number words; everything after komma is just digits or a small whole number. So 12,07 is tolv komma null sju — note you must say null for the leading zero after the comma, exactly as English says "twelve point oh seven".

The thousands separator is a space (the exact reverse of English)

This is the trap. English uses a comma to group thousands (1,500) and a period for the decimal (1,500.50). Norwegian does the opposite: a space (officially a thin, non-breaking space) groups thousands, and a comma marks the decimal.

1 500,50 kr = ett tusen fem hundre kroner og femti øre

1,500.50 kr — one thousand five hundred kroner and fifty øre. The space groups the thousands; the comma is the decimal.

2 000 000 = to millioner

2,000,000 — two million. Spaces, not commas, group the digits.

On Norwegian price tags and receipts you will also see a period used to group thousands — 1.500,50 kr — which is the older continental convention and looks, to an English eye, exactly like a decimal point. It is not. 1.500 kroner is fifteen hundred kroner, not one and a half.

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Read the separator that is closest to the right-hand end: if the rightmost separator is a comma, what follows it is øre/decimals; any earlier dot or space just groups thousands. So 1.500,- and 1 500,- and 1500,- all mean the same fifteen-hundred-kroner price.

Fractions: the regular -del / -deler system

English fractions are irregular at the edges (a half, a third, a quarter) and only become predictable from "fifth" onward. Norwegian is more regular: most fractions are built from the ordinal number + the suffix -del (singular) or -deler (plural). The system mirrors English -th but applies it almost everywhere.

Fraction	Norwegian (singular)	Plural (more than one part)
1/2	en halv / et halvt	—
1/3	en tredjedel	to tredjedeler (2/3)
1/4	en fjerdedel / en kvart	tre fjerdedeler / tre kvart (3/4)
1/5	en femtedel	to femtedeler (2/5)
1/8	en åttedel	tre åttedeler (3/8)
1/10	en tidel	sju tideler (7/10)
1/100	en hundredel	to hundredeler (2/100)

Two points the table makes visible. The numerator is just the cardinal number (to tredjedeler, tre fjerdedeler), and the denominator pluralises: one part is -del, more than one is -deler. That is the whole rule.

Kan jeg få en halv liter melk?

Can I get half a litre of milk? — en halv before a common-gender noun (liter).

Vi har spist tre fjerdedeler av kaka allerede.

We've already eaten three quarters of the cake. — tre fjerdedeler: cardinal numerator + pluralised -deler.

Bare en tredjedel av klassen hadde lest boka.

Only a third of the class had read the book. — en tredjedel as a noun-like quantity.

halv is special: it agrees like an adjective

The one fraction that does not use -del is a half, and it behaves like an adjective, agreeing with the gender of the noun: en halv before common-gender nouns, et halvt before neuter nouns, halve in the definite/plural.

en halv time

half an hour — common gender (time), so halv.

et halvt år

half a year — neuter (år), so halvt with -t.

Vi ventet en halvtime og spiste et halvt eple hver.

We waited half an hour and ate half an apple each. — halvtime (common) vs halvt eple (neuter).

Word order matters here and trips up English speakers: it is en halv liter, with halv after the article — never halv en liter (a calque of "half a litre" in the wrong order). The article belongs at the front: en halv.

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Mixed numbers join the whole and the half with og: 2½ = to og en halv ("two and a half"). And there is a one-word shortcut for ½ past the hour — but beware: halv tre means "half-to-three" = 2:30, not 3:30. That clock quirk lives on the time page, but it is the same halv.

Percentages: prosent (and it never pluralises)

A percentage is prosent, and the crucial fact is that prosent has no plural ending — it stays prosent whether the number is one or ninety-nine. This is the opposite of the -del/-deler fractions you just learned, so it catches people out.

femti prosent

fifty percent — prosent, never 'prosenter'.

Prisen steg med ti prosent i fjor.

The price rose by ten percent last year. — prosent stays singular in form after ten.

Nesten åtti prosent av nordmenn er enige.

Almost eighty percent of Norwegians agree. — again invariant prosent.

The related noun prosentpoeng ("percentage points") matters in news writing — renta økte med 0,25 prosentpoeng ("the interest rate rose by 0.25 percentage points") — and is the careful word for a change in a percentage, exactly as in English. (academic / journalistic)

Arithmetic out loud

For completeness, here is how Norwegians read basic arithmetic, useful for prices, recipes and directions:

Symbol	Norwegian	Example read aloud
+	pluss	2 + 3 = to pluss tre
−	minus	5 − 1 = fem minus en
×	ganger	4 × 2 = fire ganger to
÷ / :	delt på	10 ÷ 2 = ti delt på to
=	er lik	… er lik fem

Tre ganger fire er lik tolv.

Three times four equals twelve. — ganger for multiply, er lik for equals.

Common Mistakes

The number-one error for English speakers is reading the decimal comma as a point and the thousands space/period as a decimal — the punctuation is mirror-reversed:

❌ Reading 3,5 kg as 'three thousand five hundred grams' or '3.5' confusion.

Wrong — the comma is the decimal. 3,5 kg is three and a half kilos, 'tre komma fem kilo'.

❌ Reading 1.500 kr as 'one point five hundred' / one and a half kroner.

Wrong — the period here groups thousands. 1.500 kr is fifteen hundred kroner.

✅ 1 500,50 kr = ett tusen fem hundre kroner og femti øre.

Correct reading: space (or dot) groups thousands; comma is the decimal.

Second, forming fractions on the English pattern, forgetting the -del/-deler split or mis-ordering halv:

❌ Jeg vil ha halv en liter.

Incorrect word order — calque of 'half a litre'; the article goes first.

✅ Jeg vil ha en halv liter.

I want half a litre. — en halv, article before halv.

❌ to tredjedel av klassen

Incorrect — the denominator must pluralise after a numerator above one.

✅ to tredjedeler av klassen

two thirds of the class — tredjedeler (plural) after to.

Third, pluralising prosent by analogy with English "percents" or with the -deler fractions:

❌ Det er femti prosenter rabatt.

Incorrect — prosent has no plural form.

✅ Det er femti prosent rabatt.

There's fifty percent off. — invariant prosent.

And finally, getting halv gender-agreement wrong before a neuter noun:

❌ Vi ventet et halv time.

Incorrect — time is common gender, and halv must agree; also halvtime is one word.

✅ Vi ventet en halvtime.

We waited half an hour. — en halv(time) for common gender; et halvt år for neuter.

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