Norwegian verb tenses: present, past, perfect and future with tables

In everyday use Norwegian has five tenses worth knowing: present, past, present perfect, past perfect and future. They line up closely with English, and each has just one form for every person, so there is no “he/she/it + s” to remember.

Norwegian has no continuous tenses: jeg spiser means both “I eat” and “I am eating”. If you need to stress that something is in progress, you can say jeg holder på å spise (“I’m in the middle of eating”).

You form the present by adding -r to the infinitive: å snakke → snakker, å bo → bor. It covers what is happening now, habits and, with a time expression, the future: Jeg reiser i morgen (“I’m leaving tomorrow”).

There are only a few exceptions, but they are very common verbs:

• å være → er

  to be → am, are, is

• å kunne → kan

  can, be able to → can

  Like the other modals: vil, skal, må, bør.

• å gjøre → gjør

  to do → do, does

• å si → sier

  to say → say, says

• å vite → vet

  to know (a fact) → know, knows

• å spørre → spør

  to ask → ask, asks

Regular (weak) verbs form the past and the past participle with one of four endings: -et, -te, -de or -dde. The participle is the form used after har in the perfect.

• Group 1 (-et): typically a stem ending in two consonants: snakke, vaske, jobbe. In bokmål you may also write -a: snakka, vaska.
• Group 2 (-te): typically a stem with a single consonant: spise, lese, kjøre (kjørte), plus verbs in -nn or -mm: kjenne → kjente.
• Group 3 (-de): stems ending in -v, -g or a diphthong: prøve, leve, bygge, leie.
• Group 4 (-dde): short verbs ending in a stressed vowel: bo, tro, nå, sy.

Strong (irregular) verbs change their vowel in the past and take no ending, exactly like English sing – sang – sung: drikke – drakk – drukket. There are not many, but they are among the most frequent verbs.

Some have accepted bokmål variants, such as skreiv alongside skrev and blei alongside ble. You will see both in writing.

The rule is almost the same as in English: the preteritum is for something finished at a specific time in the past (i går, i fjor, da jeg var liten), and the perfektum is for experiences without a date, results that matter now, or situations that started earlier and are still true.

• Jeg var i Bergen i fjor.

  I was in Bergen last year.

  Specific time: preteritum.

• Har du vært i Bergen?

  Have you been to Bergen?

  Experience, no date: perfektum.

• Jeg har mistet nøkkelen.

  I’ve lost my key.

  The result matters now.

• Jeg har bodd i Norge i to år.

  I’ve lived in Norway for two years.

  Started earlier, still true.

• Jeg bodde i England i fem år.

  I lived in England for five years.

  Finished.

• Da jeg kom hjem, hadde de spist.

  When I got home, they had eaten.

  Pluskvamperfektum: hadde + participle.

Norwegian has no future ending. You use skal + infinitive for plans, kommer til å + infinitive for predictions, vil + infinitive in a more formal style, or simply the present with a time expression. After skal and vil the infinitive has no å.

• Jeg skal jobbe i helgen.

  I’m working this weekend.

  Plan or decision.

• Det kommer til å regne i morgen.

  It’s going to rain tomorrow.

  Prediction.

• Det vil ta litt tid.

  It will take some time.

  More formal.

• Vi reiser til Tromsø neste uke.

  We’re going to Tromsø next week.

  Present with future meaning.

Skal and vil are also modal verbs with other meanings; see Norwegian modal verbs. And remember that the finite verb always comes second: I morgen skal jeg jobbe (more in Norwegian word order).