Description

We use past tense (preteritum) to tell about something that happened at a specific time in the past, or to tell about something that happened repeatedly in the past.

Norwegian verbs can be classified, like English verbs, as either WEAK (endings are added to the root of the verb to form the past tense) or STRONG (involving a vowel change in the root -- often no ending at all.)

Examples of weak verbs in past tense:
Jeg spiste frokost, pusset tennene og kledde på meg. Så prøvde jeg å vekke broren min.
(spise - spiste || pusse - pusset || kle - kledde || prøve - prøvde)

Examples of strong verbs in past tense:
Jeg satt og skrev et brev til foreldrene mine. Så gikk jeg på kino.
(sitte - satt || skrive - skrev || gå - gikk

Basic Rules

1. You cannot tell by looking at a verb whether it is weak or strong. However, there are many fewer strong verbs than weak verbs, so you should learn to recognize those and then assume that the rest are weak.
   
   
2. There is not an easy way to learn the past tense of the strong verbs. You just need to memorize the forms of each verb (refer to the list of strong verbs and their forms in your textbook).
   
   
3. In contrast, forming the past tense of weak verbs follows an easily recognizable pattern, and it is most efficient to learn what the pattern is and how to apply it rather than to memorize the forms of each individual verb.

   As you will see in the chart below, there are four different endings for weak verbs (-et | -te | de | dde). These endings are always added to the stem or root of the verb. This root is found by dropping the unstressed -e on the end of the infinitive, if there is one.

   (Infinitives: spise, pusse, kle, bo, prøve; | Roots: spis, puss, kle, bo, prøv)

Chart of Weak Verbs

Weak Verb Classes

Infinitive

Past Tense

Present Perfect

The root ends in two consonants

ex.) vaske, snakke

-et (past tense)
-et (present perfect tense)

vaske
(wash)

snakke
(talk)

vasket
(washed)

snakket
(talked)

har vasket
(have washed)

har snakket
(have talked)

The root ends in one consonant, or in some specific two consonant combinations (ll, mm, nn, ng, nk)

ex.) like, spise
ex.) spille, svømme, kjenne, trenge, tenke

-te (past tense)
-t (present perfect tense)

like
(like)

spise
(eat)

spille
(play)

likte
(liked)

spiste
(ate)

spilte
(played)

har likt
(have liked)

har spist
(have eaten)

har spilt
(have played)

The root ends in v or a diphthong, such as "ei".

ex.) prøve, leie, pleie

-de (past tense)
-d (present perfect tense)

prøve
(try)

leie
(rent)

prøvde
(tried)

leide
(rented)

har prøvd
(have tried)

har leid
(have rented)

The root ends in a long vowel

ex.) bo, kle

-dde (past tense)
-dd (present perfect tense)

bo
(live)

kle
(dress)

bodde
(lived)

kledde
(dressed)

har bodd
(have lived)

har kledd
(have dressed)

Chart of Strong Verbs (see charts in textbooks)

Quiz of Past Tense Verbs for Norwegian 112

Quiz of Past Tense Verbs for Norwegian 231