A yes/no question is one you can answer with "yes" or "no" — Do you like coffee? Have you eaten? In Norwegian these are the easiest questions to build: you simply put the finite verb first. The genuinely new thing for English speakers is not the question itself but the answer: Norwegian has three answer words where English has two, and choosing between them is something you have to learn deliberately.
Forming the question: verb first
To make a yes/no question, take the finite (conjugated) verb and move it to the very front of the sentence. The subject then follows the verb. Nothing else changes.
Snakker du norsk?
Do you speak Norwegian?
Kommer han i dag?
Is he coming today?
Har du spist?
Have you eaten?
Compare each with its statement and you'll see the verb and subject have simply swapped places:
| Statement | Question |
|---|---|
| Du liker kaffe. (You like coffee.) | Liker du kaffe? |
| Han kan svømme. (He can swim.) | Kan han svømme? |
| De har bil. (They have a car.) | Har de bil? |
Whatever the verb is — a main verb (liker), a modal (kan, vil, må), or an auxiliary (har, er) — that same word goes to the front. There is never a separate helper verb to insert.
Kan du hjelpe meg?
Can you help me?
Vil du ha mer kaffe?
Do you want more coffee?
No do-support — the English reflex to unlearn
English splits its verbs into two camps. With "be", "have" and modals, English inverts directly: Are you...? Can you...? Have you...? With every other verb it inserts "do": Do you like...? Did he come...? Norwegian treats all verbs like the first camp. So the verbs where English needs "do" are exactly the ones English speakers get wrong.
Liker du fisk?
Do you like fish?
Bodde dere i Bergen?
Did you live in Bergen?
In the second example the past-tense verb bodde moves to the front. There is no equivalent of "did" — the tense is already carried by the verb that inverts.
Where the rest of the sentence goes
Once the verb is in front and the subject is in second slot, everything else stays in its normal order: objects, adverbs, time expressions follow as usual. The sentence adverb ikke ("not") goes right after the subject.
Drikker du ikke kaffe om morgenen?
Don't you drink coffee in the morning?
Har du ikke sett den filmen?
Haven't you seen that film?
These negative questions matter because they set up the most important point on this page — the answer word jo.
Answering: ja, jo, nei
Here is where Norwegian diverges sharply from English. English has two answer words, "yes" and "no". Norwegian has three:
- ja — "yes", answering a positive question affirmatively.
- nei — "no", a negative answer (to either kind of question).
- jo — "yes", but specifically to contradict a negative question or statement.
The split is between ja and jo. Both mean "yes", but they are not interchangeable. You use jo when the question was framed negatively and you want to push back: "Yes — actually I do / it is."
Liker du kaffe? – Ja, veldig godt.
Do you like coffee? – Yes, very much.
Liker du ikke kaffe? – Jo, jeg elsker kaffe!
Don't you like coffee? – Yes (I do), I love coffee!
Vil du ikke ha mer? – Jo, takk.
Don't you want any more? – Yes please (I do).
In that last exchange, answering ja would sound wrong to a Norwegian ear — almost like agreeing with the negative ("yes, [that's right, I don't]"). When someone offers you something with a negative question and you do want it, the natural reply is Jo, takk.
| Question type | Affirmative answer | Negative answer |
|---|---|---|
| Positive: Vil du ha te? (Do you want tea?) | Ja (yes, I do) | Nei (no, I don't) |
| Negative: Vil du ikke ha te? (Don't you want tea?) | Jo (yes, I do) | Nei (no, I don't) |
The logic is precise: jo lives only in the top-right corner — affirming against a negative. Everywhere else, "yes" is ja and "no" is nei.
Why English has no "jo"
English actually had this distinction once: "yes" versus "yea", and "no" versus "nay", were used in exactly this way in older English — "yes" was the contradicting form. English then collapsed both pairs into "yes/no", which is why "Don't you like it?" – "Yes" is famously ambiguous in English ("Yes I do" or "Yes, you're right, I don't"?). Norwegian keeps the distinction alive, so the answer is never ambiguous. Jo always means "yes — contrary to what your negative question assumed."
Jo also rebuts a negative statement, not just a question:
Du har ikke ryddet rommet. – Jo, det har jeg!
You haven't tidied your room. – Yes I have!
Common Mistakes
❌ Gjør du like kaffe?
Incorrect — do-support; 'gjør' has no business here.
✅ Liker du kaffe?
Do you like coffee?
Never translate the English "do" of a question. Move the real verb (liker) to the front and stop.
❌ Liker du ikke kaffe? – Ja.
Incorrect — answering a negative question with 'ja' to mean 'yes I do'.
✅ Liker du ikke kaffe? – Jo.
Don't you like coffee? – Yes (I do).
This is the classic jo error. To affirm against a negative, it must be jo.
❌ Du snakker norsk?
Acceptable as a casual echo, but as a neutral question it lacks inversion.
✅ Snakker du norsk?
Do you speak Norwegian?
Statement word order with a question mark works only as a chatty echo. The standard yes/no question inverts.
❌ Har spist du?
Incorrect — only the finite verb 'har' inverts; the participle 'spist' stays in place.
✅ Har du spist?
Have you eaten?
When the verb is a compound (har + spist), only the finite part (har) moves to the front. The participle (spist) stays after the subject.
❌ Gjorde han kom i går?
Incorrect — 'did' + finite verb; double error.
✅ Kom han i går?
Did he come yesterday?
For a past-tense yes/no question, invert the past-tense verb itself.
Key Takeaways
- Yes/no question = finite verb first, subject second. Works for all verbs.
- No do-support — never use gjøre.
- Only the finite verb inverts; participles and other verbs stay put.
- Three answers: ja (yes to positive), nei (no), jo (yes, contradicting a negative).
- Reflex to build: negative question + "yes" answer → jo.
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Answering with jo, ja, neiA2 — Norwegian has three answer words, not two — ja (yes to a positive question), nei (no), and jo, an untranslatable 'yes, on the contrary' that you must use to affirm against a negative question or statement.
- Questions: OverviewA1 — How Norwegian builds questions — yes/no questions by putting the verb first, hv-questions by fronting a question word, and why there is no English-style 'do'.
- Word Order in QuestionsA1 — How Norwegian builds questions — yes/no questions put the finite verb first, hv-questions front the question word then invert, and there is no 'do' to insert anywhere.
- Tag Questions: ikke sant, eller, hvaB1 — Norwegian confirmation tags are invariant — one fixed ikke sant covers all of English's 'isn't it / aren't you / don't they', so there is no verb-copying tag to build.