a rift

letslearnnorwegian:

Hey there! c: 

To make a sentence in past tense, all you’ll really have to do is conjugate the verb. Just like English (and most Germanic languages), Norwegian verbs are either weak verbs or strong verbs - which can make things hella complicated - but I’ll do my best to explain the basics!

-

Svake Verb i Preteritum - Weak Verbs in Past Tense

Just like in English, weak verbs are the easiest to learn because they all follow a certain pattern. 

In Norwegian you’ll mainly find 4 different patterns for weak verbs:

-

Pattern #1: the “-te”-ending
When to use: If the verb has a long vowel OR ends with “-mme”

Examples:

Long vowels: (most verbs end on “-e”, which should be replaced by the “-te”)

“Å spise” -> “spiste” (to eat - > ate)
“Å leke” -> “lekte” (to play -> played)
“Å løpe” -> “løpte” (to run -> ran)

“-mme”-endings: (remove one “m” before adding the “-te”-ending)

“Å glemme” -> “glemte” (to forget -> forgot)
“Å klemme” -> “klemte” (to hug -> hugged)
“Å skremme” -> “skremte” (to scare -> scared)

-

Pattern “2″: the “-et”-ending
When to use: If the verb has a short vowel OR ends with “-ge” (even if there’s a long vowel)

Examples:

Short vowels: (if the verb ends on “-e”, simply add the “-t”)

“Å sykle” -> “syklet” (to ride a bike -> rode a bike)
“Å jobbe” -> “jobbet” (to work -> worked)
“Å hoppe” -> “hoppet” (to jump -> jumped)

“-ge”-endings:

“Å lage” -> “laget” (to make - made)
“Å sage” -> “saget” (to saw -> sawed)

*!! you’ll also hear people say “lagde” or “sagde”, both versions are fine/correct

- 

Pattern #3: the “-de”-ending
When to use: If the verb ends on “-eie” OR “-ve”

Examples:

“-eie”-endings:

“Å leie” -> “leide” (to rent -> rented)
“Å eie” -> “eide” (to own -> owned)
“Å greie” -> “greide” (to manage -> managed)

“-ve”-endings:

“Å leve” -> “levde” (to live -> lived)
“Å prøve” -> “prøvde” (to try -> tried)
“Å øve” -> “øvde” (to practice -> practiced) 

-

Pattern #4: the “-dde”-ending
When to use: If the verb does not end on “-e”

Examples:

“Å bo” - “bodde” (to live (at) -> lived (at))
“Å ro” - “rodde” (to row -> rowed)
“Å bety” - “betydde” (to mean -> meant)

-

Sterke Verb i Preteritum - Strong Verbs in Past Tense 

Strong verbs don’t really have any endings, but the verb itself will change, like how “sing” turns into “sang” in English. There aren’t that many (common) strong verbs in Norwegian, thankfully - but, unfortunately, for the ones we do have, there isn’t really any ‘pattern’ to follow.

Some of the common strong verbs would be:

“Å være” -> “var” (to be -> was)
“Å le” -> “lo” (to laugh -> laughed)
“Å gå” -> “gikk” (to walk/go -> walked/went)
“Å sitte” -> “satt” (to sit -> sat)
“Å komme” -> “kom” (to come -> came)

-

*!! Some verbs can have both - a weak verb conjugation AND a strong verb conjugation.

-

If you’d like, I could try to compile a list of common strong verbs.

-

Anyway, hope that helps you out a little bit! c: But keep in mind that some verbs can be conjugated by following more than one pattern, and that exceptions to these rules can occur! <3

-