Formal and Bureaucratic Norwegian | Norwegian Grammar

When you open a letter from a Norwegian government agency, a bank, or an insurer, you meet a register that can feel like a different language: dense, abstract, full of nouns and passives and old connectors. This traditional officialese is called kansellistil ("chancery style"), and it is built on centuries of Danish administrative writing. The crucial modern twist — which most learner resources miss entirely — is that Norway has an official policy pushing agencies away from this style, called klarspråk (plain language). So the prestige of dense formal prose is actively declining. The goal of this page is to let you (1) read kansellistil, (2) recognise its markers, and (3) understand why you should aim for clear, not ornate, even when you need to be formal. General passive grammar is covered on the Complex Grammar pages; here we focus on register.

What makes Norwegian sound bureaucratic

Bureaucratic Norwegian is recognisable by a cluster of features that, taken together, push agency and human beings out of the sentence.

1. Nominalisation (turning verbs into nouns)

The hallmark of kansellistil is replacing a plain verb with a heavy noun built from it, plus a colourless light verb. Gjennomføre (to carry out) becomes foreta gjennomføring av; søke (to apply) becomes innlevering av søknad. The action gets frozen into an abstract thing, and the doer disappears.

Behandling av søknaden vil finne sted etter mottak av nødvendig dokumentasjon.

Processing of the application will take place after receipt of necessary documentation. (heavy nominalisation: behandling, mottak, dokumentasjon)

Vi behandler søknaden din når vi har fått papirene vi trenger.

We'll process your application once we've received the papers we need. (the plain-language rewrite — verbs and a person)

2. The s-passive and agent-deletion

Officialese leans heavily on the s-passive and on phrases that delete the responsible party. Det vises til… ("Reference is made to…"), det gjøres oppmerksom på… ("Attention is drawn to…"), søknaden avslås ("the application is rejected") — in each, who acts is hidden. This is exactly the effect bureaucracies often want and exactly what plain-language reform attacks.

Det vises til Deres henvendelse av 3. mai. Søknaden kan dessverre ikke imøtekommes.

Reference is made to your enquiry of 3 May. The application unfortunately cannot be granted. (impersonal s-passives, no human agent)

Vi viser til e-posten din fra 3. mai. Vi kan dessverre ikke gi deg det du søker om.

We refer to your email of 3 May. Unfortunately we can't give you what you're applying for. (rewrite with vi and deg)

3. Archaic and bureaucratic connectors

A specific stock of conjunctions and prepositions flags the register instantly. They are not wrong — they are just heavy, old, and Danish-flavoured. The most important ones to recognise (you rarely need to produce them):

Bureaucratic connector	Rough meaning	Plain equivalent
vedrørende	regarding, concerning	om
hva angår	as regards	når det gjelder
i henhold til	in accordance with	etter / ifølge
jf. (jamfør)	cf., compare	se
herved	hereby	(usually just omit)
således / således	thus, in this way	slik / derfor
i forbindelse med	in connection with	om / for
dersom	if (formal)	hvis / om

Vedrørende Deres søknad gjøres det herved oppmerksom på at fristen i henhold til § 4 er utløpt.

Regarding your application, attention is hereby drawn to the fact that the deadline pursuant to § 4 has expired. (peak kansellistil)

4. Long sentences and front-loaded subordination

Kansellistil packs several clauses into one period, often opening with a long subordinate or prepositional run before the main verb finally arrives. The reader has to hold a lot in memory before the sentence resolves. Plain language breaks these into shorter sentences.

5. The archaic capitalised De/Dem/Deres

Old formal letters address the reader with the polite De / Dem / Deres (capitalised), the now-archaic formal "you." You will meet it in older official correspondence and very stiff modern letters. Today it sounds distant or old-fashioned; modern plain-language guidance recommends plain du/deg/din. (This form has its own dedicated page.)

Vi anmoder Dem om å oversende Deres legitimasjon snarest.

We request that you submit your identification as soon as possible. (archaic De/Deres + the formal verb anmode)

The klarspråk reaction

Since the late 2000s, the Norwegian state has run a deliberate klarspråk (plain language) programme: the Language Council and the government press agencies, ministries, courts, and the tax authority to write so that ordinary citizens can understand the first time they read. The principles are essentially the opposite of kansellistil:

Use verbs, not nominalisations (behandle, not foreta behandling av).
Name the agent — write vi (the agency) and du (the reader) instead of hiding behind passives.
Use short sentences and everyday connectors (om not vedrørende, hvis not dersom).
Drop the empty ceremony (herved, således).

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The single most important takeaway: in modern Norway, dense bureaucratic prose is a stigma, not a sign of competence. The official direction of travel is toward clarity. When you must write formally, aim for clear and correct, not ornate — that is now the higher-prestige choice.

The contrast is starkest side by side. Here is a bureaucratic sentence and its klarspråk rewrite:

Det gjøres oppmerksom på at manglende innlevering av etterspurt dokumentasjon innen angitt frist vil medføre avslag.

Attention is drawn to the fact that failure to submit the requested documentation within the stated deadline will result in rejection. (kansellistil)

Hvis du ikke sender oss papirene innen fristen, må vi dessverre avslå søknaden.

If you don't send us the papers by the deadline, we'll unfortunately have to reject the application. (klarspråk)

When formality is still expected

Plain language does not mean casual. There are contexts where Norwegian still expects a controlled, formal register: job applications (søknadsbrev), official letters and complaints, contracts, academic writing, and formal speeches. The modern formal register is polite, precise, and complete-sentenced — but still clear. You keep:

Full sentences and correct punctuation (no texting abbreviations).
A courteous, measured tone (Jeg vil gjerne…, Vennligst…, Med vennlig hilsen to close).
Conservative spellings (formal writing tends to avoid the most radical/colloquial spelling variants and slang).
Precise vocabulary.

What you drop, compared with old kansellistil, is the clutter: the nominalisations, the agentless passives, the herved/vedrørende ceremony.

Jeg søker med dette på stillingen som prosjektleder og legger ved CV og attester.

I am hereby applying for the position of project manager and enclose my CV and references. (formal but clear — a good modern application opener)

Med vennlig hilsen Ingrid Bø

Kind regards, Ingrid Bø (standard formal letter closing)

A note for English speakers: the conservative spellings and Danisms that survive in formal Norwegian are a real feature. Formal Bokmål tends to choose the more Danish-derived form where Norwegian offers a choice (e.g. efter-flavoured vocabulary, -het abstractions, the De-forms in old letters). This is why formal Norwegian can look a notch more Danish than speech.

How to read an official document

When you have to parse a dense official letter, attack it in this order: (1) find the main verb of each long sentence — it is often buried after a front-loaded subordinate clause; (2) mentally turn nominalisations back into verbs (behandling av → "they process"); (3) un-delete the agent of each passive (who is doing this — the agency? the reader?); (4) translate the connectors using the table above. After a few letters, the patterns become predictable.

Common Mistakes

❌ Writing 'Vedrørende Deres henvendelse gjøres det herved oppmerksom på…' in a normal email.

Incorrect for most purposes — imitating heavy kansellistil now reads as stiff and dated, not impressively formal.

✅ Jeg viser til e-posten din. Her er svaret du ba om.

I'm referring to your email. Here's the answer you asked for.

❌ Assuming dense, noun-heavy prose is 'good' formal Norwegian to aspire to.

Incorrect — Norway's official klarspråk policy treats clarity, not density, as the higher standard.

✅ Hvis du ikke sender papirene i tide, må vi avslå søknaden.

If you don't send the papers in time, we'll have to reject the application. (formal AND clear)

❌ Reading 'Søknaden kan ikke imøtekommes' and not realising it means YOUR application is rejected.

Incorrect parse — the agentless s-passive hides the decision; read it as 'we are rejecting it.'

✅ Søknaden kan ikke imøtekommes = Vi avslår søknaden din.

The application cannot be granted = We are rejecting your application.

❌ Mistaking formal for casual: 'Hei! Vil ha jobben, sender CV. Sjekk vedlegg.' in a job application.

Incorrect — plain language still requires full sentences and a courteous tone in formal contexts.

✅ Jeg søker på stillingen og legger ved CV og attester.

I'm applying for the position and enclosing my CV and references.

❌ Reading 'i henhold til § 4' as a vague phrase and skipping the section reference.

Incorrect — 'i henhold til' = 'pursuant to'; the § number is a binding legal reference you must follow up.

✅ Etter § 4 er fristen utløpt.

Under § 4, the deadline has expired. (plain rendering)

Key Takeaways

Kansellistil = nominalisation + agentless s-passives + archaic connectors (vedrørende, herved, i henhold til, jf.) + long sentences + the old De/Dem/Deres.
Norway's official klarspråk policy pushes agencies the opposite way: verbs not nouns, named agents (vi/du), short sentences, plain connectors.
Dense bureaucratic prose is now low-prestige — aim for clear, not ornate, even when you must be formal.
Formal still ≠ casual: keep full sentences, courtesy, and conservative spellings; just drop the clutter.
To read officialese: find the main verb, un-nominalise, restore the hidden agent, and decode the connectors.

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