Adjectives with Fixed Prepositions | Norwegian Grammar

A whole class of Norwegian adjectives doesn't stand alone — each one drags a specific preposition along behind it, and you have to learn the pair as a single unit. You are not redd something, you are redd for it; you are not flink something, you are flink til it. The maddening part for English speakers is that the Norwegian preposition almost never lines up with the one English would use: "afraid of" becomes redd for ("for"), "good at" becomes flink til ("to"), "proud of" becomes stolt av ("off/of"). There is no deep logic that predicts these — they are frozen collocations. This page groups the high-frequency ones by their governing preposition so you can chunk them in memory, and it spotlights the single most important idiom in the set: glad i, which does not mean "happy about."

For adjective inflection (the -t and -e endings) see Adjectives: Overview; for verbs that take fixed prepositions (tenke på, bestemme seg for), see Verbs with Fixed Prepositions. This page is only about adjectives.

Why you can't reason these out

In your native language you don't decide that "afraid" takes "of" — you absorbed the pair "afraid of" as a chunk years ago, and any other preposition sounds wrong instantly. Norwegian works the same way for its own speakers, and the chunks simply landed on different prepositions than English chose. Trying to translate the English preposition is the single biggest source of error, because it succeeds just often enough (interessert i = "interested in") to feel like a reliable strategy, then fails everywhere else. Treat the preposition as part of the spelling of the adjective. flink is incomplete; the word is flink til.

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Don't store these as "adjective" + "preposition." Store them as one inseparable word: reddfor, flinktil, stoltav. The preposition is not negotiable and not predictable from English.

The big four prepositions

The collocations cluster onto a handful of prepositions. Here are the most frequent pairs, grouped so you can learn them a preposition at a time.

Preposition	Adjective + prep	Meaning	English preposition
i	glad i	fond of / love (non-romantic)	of
	interessert i	interested in	in ✓ (matches!)
	forelsket i	in love with	with
	skuffet over	disappointed in/with	in/with
for	redd for	afraid of	of
	glad for	glad about	about
	kjent for	known for	for ✓
til	flink til (å)	good at (doing)	at
	god til (å)	good at (doing)	at
	vant til	used to / accustomed to	to ✓
av	stolt av	proud of	of
	avhengig av	dependent on	on
	lei av	tired/sick of	of
på	sint på	angry at/with	at/with
på	sikker på	sure of/about	of/about
med	fornøyd med	satisfied/pleased with	with ✓
med	misfornøyd med	dissatisfied with	with ✓

Notice how few of the ✓ matches there are. The default assumption should be that the preposition will surprise you.

glad i — the one that changes meaning

The most important idiom on the whole page is glad i. On its own glad means "happy/glad." But the moment you add i plus a person or thing, it stops meaning "happy" and means "fond of / love" — and crucially, this is the everyday, non-romantic "love" Norwegians say to family, close friends, and children. Jeg er glad i deg is what you say to your mother, your best friend, your kid. It is warm and sincere but not a declaration of romantic love (that is Jeg elsker deg).

Jeg er så glad i deg, mamma.

I love you so much, Mum. (non-romantic, said to family)

Hun er veldig glad i hunden sin.

She's very fond of her dog.

Vi er glade i å gå på tur i helgene.

We love going hiking on weekends.

Switch the preposition to for and you get a completely different meaning — glad for = "glad about / grateful for" some fact or event:

Jeg er så glad for at du kom.

I'm so glad (that) you came.

Vi er glade for hjelpen.

We're grateful for the help.

So glad i deg ("fond of you") and glad for hjelpen ("glad about the help") sit one preposition apart and mean different things. Mixing them up is a classic learner slip.

redd for, sint på — feelings pointed at something

Many of these adjectives describe an emotion directed at a target, and the preposition marks the target. The pairings are still arbitrary from an English angle:

Er du redd for edderkopper?

Are you afraid of spiders?

Ikke vær redd for å spørre om hjelp.

Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Hun ble veldig sint på meg da jeg kom for sent.

She got really angry at me when I arrived late.

Jeg er helt sikker på at jeg låste døra.

I'm completely sure (that) I locked the door.

flink til, god til — "good at"

English "good at" is one place learners reliably guess wrong, reaching for flink i or god i. The standard pairing is with til, and when an activity (a verb) follows, it comes as til å + infinitive:

Han er utrolig flink til å tegne.

He's incredibly good at drawing.

Du er flink til norsk!

You're good at Norwegian! (a very common compliment to learners)

Jeg er ikke så god til å svømme.

I'm not very good at swimming.

(god i does exist for school subjects in some usage — god i matte "good at maths" — but flink til / god til is the safe, general pattern, and flink i is simply wrong.)

stolt av, lei av, avhengig av — the av group

av (literally "of/off") collects several. Watch lei av, which means "tired/sick of" something — not physically tired (that is trøtt):

Foreldrene er så stolte av henne.

Her parents are so proud of her.

Jeg er dødslei av å vente på bussen hver morgen.

I'm dead sick of waiting for the bus every morning.

Mange er helt avhengige av mobilen sin.

Many people are completely dependent on their phone.

A note on agreement

These adjectives still inflect normally for number and definiteness even with the preposition attached — the preposition just rides along: glad i → glade i, redd for → redde for, stolt av → stolte av, fornøyd med → fornøyde med.

Barna er veldig glade i bestemoren sin.

The children are very fond of their grandmother. (plural: glade)

Vi er ikke fornøyde med servicen her.

We're not satisfied with the service here. (plural: fornøyde)

Common Mistakes

The errors here are almost all English-preposition transfer — you reach for the English preposition and it doesn't match.

❌ Jeg er redd av hunder.

Incorrect — 'afraid of' is NOT redd av; it's redd for.

✅ Jeg er redd for hunder.

I'm afraid of dogs.

❌ Hun er flink i å lage mat.

Incorrect — 'good at' is flink til, not flink i.

✅ Hun er flink til å lage mat.

She's good at cooking.

❌ Jeg er stolt for deg.

Incorrect — 'proud of' is stolt av, not stolt for.

✅ Jeg er stolt av deg.

I'm proud of you.

❌ Jeg er glad for deg.

Wrong meaning — this means 'glad about you (an event)', not 'fond of you'.

✅ Jeg er glad i deg.

I'm fond of you / I love you. (non-romantic)

❌ Vi er fornøyd av resultatet.

Incorrect — 'satisfied with' is fornøyd med, not fornøyd av.

✅ Vi er fornøyde med resultatet.

We're satisfied with the result.

Key takeaways

Learn each adjective with its preposition baked in: redd for, flink til, stolt av, interessert i, fornøyd med, sint på.
The Norwegian preposition rarely matches the English one — don't translate the preposition.
glad i
- person/thing = "fond of / love" (non-romantic); glad for
  - fact = "glad about." One preposition, two meanings.
"good at" is flink til / god til, never flink i.
The adjective still agrees normally (glade i, stolte av); only the preposition is fixed.

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