Medical Norwegian Made Easy

Medical Norwegian Made Easy is a practical and comprehensive book for anyone learning Norwegian with a focus on health and medicine. It is written for a broad audience: doctors, nurses, other healthcare workers – but also for students, immigrants, and anyone who might one day need to talk about illness or health in Norwegian.

The language of healthcare can be challenging. It is not only about learning standard vocabulary, but also about understanding how Norwegians actually talk about the body and illness in everyday speech. That is why this book is built around the kind of language ordinary people use. For example, in Norwegian we say hjernehinnebetennelse (brain inflammation/meningitis), not meningitt. The Latin word is well known among medical professionals, but not to most people. This book is designed to give you the understanding you need to communicate well both with patients and with ordinary people – not just within hospital walls.

The book contains more than 3,000 examples, all translated into English. The examples provide both vocabulary and ready-made sentences that can be used directly in practice. The content spans widely: we have included as many words and expressions as we could think of, covering both the outside of the body and what happens inside. You will find descriptions of symptoms, body parts, illnesses, and conditions.

In addition, the book introduces you to various medical specialties, such as emergency medicine, geriatrics, pediatrics, radiology, psychiatry, and more. At the same time, we emphasize what happens in the meeting between patient and healthcare worker: common questions and answers, expressions related to examinations, diagnoses, and treatment. These range from simple, everyday questions – “Where does it hurt?” – to more detailed formulations needed in professional contexts.

Our goal has been to create a book that is both useful and user-friendly. The examples are written in natural, everyday Norwegian, and with English translations alongside, it becomes easy to understand and remember the expressions.

The book has been written in collaboration with several doctors and nurses who contributed with feedback, proofreading, translations, and corrections. Their experience has been essential to ensure that the content is both practically relevant and linguistically accurate. Their names are listed in the book’s foreword.

Medical Norwegian Made Easy is therefore more than just a list of medical words. It is a tool to build confidence in communication – whether you work in an emergency department, at a nursing home, in a psychiatric ward, or simply want to explain your own symptoms to a doctor in Norwegian.

In short: this is the book that makes medical Norwegian simpler, clearer, and more accessible – in the language that Norwegians actually use.