Takk for alt!

How to Thank People in Norwegian

If Norwegians are bad at saying “please”, we are pretty good at saying "thank you". We thank people for virtually everything. But we don’t like to SAY “Thank you for Everything”! You’ll see why as Tor takes you through the Do’s and Don’ts of Thanking People in Norwegian.

Right off the bat, let us look at two obligatory thank yous:

Takk for sist - Thank you for the last time (...that we were together – I enjoyed it)

I talk to my students a lot about this expression. Saying Takk for sist when you meet someone again puts you at the required level of politeness and human interaction. It signals that you remember the person(s) in front of you, and that you’re able to comment on the fact that you have spent time together in the past.

Takk for maten - Thank you for the food

Unless we eat alone (and perhaps even then!) we Norwegians always - ALWAYS - say Takk for maten as we finish the meal.

Perhaps it is a remnant of the past when people went hungry; nowadays saying it is virtually a reflex action. Not to say the phrase has lost its meaning, on the contrary:

You thank the person who cooked the food, you thank the people who shared the meal with you, perhaps you thank some higher being for providing you with sustenance…

You also signal that you’ve had enough to eat, which can be a LIFE SAVER in some Norwegian families…

It's a good idea to use Google to find the origin and usage of words and phrases. You get literally thousands or millions of examples of how a word is used in everyday Norwegian:

I’ll start us off

If I look up:

Takk for det

Thank you for that

also used ironically, as in “Thanks for nothing”

I find the information above, and also that it was the title of a hugely popular comedy series in the early days of Norwegian television.

Other common THANK YOU phrases

Now you Google some of the phrases below…

See where it takes you – to some theater show? A movie? A famous author? – to more information about the usage, for sure!

Mange takk

Many thanks

Try googling:

Mange takk, doktor

Many thanks, Doctor

Tusen takk

A thousand thanks (no other number really works)

Takker

Thanking you

Takker og bukker

Thanking and bowing

An upbeat way of expressing extra gratitude and good manners. Notice that we only SAY that we bow, we don’t necessarily DO the bow. That would just be awkward.