It’s time to take a look at grammatikk (grammar) again. (I bet you’ve savnet – missed – it!) If you … a certain kind of very active words, you can hardly … a sentence. In other words: Verbs are a necessary evil! :-]

Kari spiser is. Ola spiste is. Barna har spist is. (Kari eats ice-cream. Ola ate… The kids have eaten…)

As you know, ordinary – or ”weak” – verbs are piece of cake in Norwegian. You have a root (like spis-), you add an ending (-te or -et in the past tense), and voila! The real problem comes with the ”strong” verbs, since they’re irregular and you have to learn them by heart. It’s a little bit like learning to count.

If you’re the kind of learner that loves systems and little tables, however, I’ve got some good news for you: There’s a method in the madness!

For example, if you know the inflection (the different forms) of å gå to go, you can also inflect å få to receive:

å gå – går – gikk – har gått

å få – får – fikk – har fått

 

However, here comes to stand: å stå – står – stod – har stått. So, unfortunately, nothing is clear-cut in the strong verbs’ gym! But at least there are some patterns to save you from the worst sweat! ’:-)

 

Have you noticed all the verbs that are inflected like å bite to bite?

å bite – biter – beit (or bet) – har bitt

å bli to become – blir – blei (or ble) – har blitt

å skrive to write – skriver – skreiv (or skrev) – har skrevet

å skrike to scream – skriker – skreik (or skrek) – har skreket

 

Then there’s also a huge bunch of verbs echoing å drikke to drink:

å drikke – drikker – drakk – har drukket

å finne to find – finner – fant – har funnet 

å binde to bind – binder – bandt – har bundet

å vinne to win – vinner – vant – har vunnet

å hjelpe to help – hjelper – hjalp – har hjulpet

 

Feel free to explore further patterns in your own list of wicked verbs!