7 Grammar

7 Grammar

VERBS

Past tense (preterite)

We use past tense when we want to describe something that has already happened at a certain time in the past (e.g. i går - (yesterday):

Hun kjøpte ei jakke i går. She bought a jacket yesterday.


Regular verb groups

The regular verbs are divided into four groups.

Group 1

The verbs add the ending -et. In this group you will find most verbs with two consonants in front of the infinitive -e and some verbs with t, g, and d:

Infinitive å snakke (speak/talk) å vente (wait) å lage (make)
Past tense snakket ventet laget


Group 2

The verbs add the ending -te. Most verbs with one consonant belong in this group:

Infinitive å kjøpe (buy) å spise (eat)
Past tense kjøpte spiste


Notice that there are also some verbs with a double consonant in group 2:

Infinitive å begynne (begin)
Past tense begynte


Group 3

The verbs add the ending -de. Verbs with v and ei belong in this group:

Infinitive å prøve (try) å greie (manage) å leie (rent)
Past tense prøvde greide leide


Group 4

The verbs add the ending –dde. Verbs without -e in the infinitive belong in group 4:

Infinitive å bo (live) å bety (mean, signify)
Past tense bodde betydde


Irregular verbs

The irregular verbs have other forms. In most cases they change vowel in the past tense:

Infinitive å dra (go/travel) å drikke (drink) å finne (find)
Past tense dro drakk fant


Some other irregular verbs in Chapter 7:

Infinitive Past tense
å bli become ble
å gå walk gikk
å ha have hadde
å komme come kom
å se see så
å si say sa
å sitte sit satt
å skrive write skrev
å slå på turn on slo
å ta take tok
å treffe meet traff
å være be var


For more irregular verbs, see Chapter 8.

NOUNS

Masculine nouns with special plural forms

In Chapter 3 we learnt that the indefinite and the definite plural form of the masculine nouns normally is formed by adding -(e)r and -(e)ne: biler ((cars) and bilene ((the cars).

Some masculines however do not follow the normal rule:

1. Nouns ending in -er, mostly denoting persons, have the plural forms -e and -ne:

en lærer læreren lærere lærerne
a teacher the teacher teachers the teachers


2. When the noun ends in -el, one -e is dropped when adding -er and -ene. The double consonant is reduced to one:

en nøkkel nøkkelen nøkler nøklene
a key the key keys the keys

ADJECTIVES

Other patterns

Adjectives ending in -el and -en, like gammel (old) and sulten (hungry) do not follow the main pattern for adjectives. One -e disappears when adding the plural -e. In addition, adjectives with a double consonant drop one consonant in the plural form:

Attributive form

Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
en gammel bil ei gammel veske et gammelt bord gamle biler/vesker/bord
an old car an old handbag an old table old cars/handbags/tables
en sulten gutt ei sulten jente et sultent barn sultne gutter/jenter/barn
a hungry boy a hungry girl a hungry child hungry boys/girls/children


Predicative form

Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Bilen er gammel. Veska er gammel. Bordet er gammelt. Bilene/veskene/bordene er gamle.
The car is old. The handbag is old. The table is old. The cars/handbags/tables are old.
Gutten er sulten. Jenta er sulten. Barnet er sultent. Guttene/jentene/barna er sultne.
The boy is hungry. The girl is hungry. The child is hungry. The boys/girls/children are hungry.


Combination with the verb to look

The expression to look + adjective (He looks old) is in Norwegian constructed by the verb å se + adjective + (the adverb) ut.

The adjectives follow the pattern described under Predicative form in Chapter 5, Chapter 6 and Chapter 7. Below this is demonstrated with the adjectives fin (here: nice) and gammel (old).

Singular Plural
Masculine Feminine Neuter
Bilen ser fin ut. Boka ser fin ut. Huset ser fint ut. Bilene ser fine ut.
The car looks nice. The book looks nice. The house looks nice. The cars look nice.
Bilen ser gammel ut. Boka ser gammel ut. Huset ser gammelt ut. Bilene ser gamle ut.
The car looks old. The book looks old. The house looks old. The cars look old.

WORDS FOR QUANTITIES

Mange (many) and noen (some) are used together with countable nouns:

Det er mange kaféer i sentrum. There are many cafés downtown.
Ben har noen hyller på kontoret. Ben has some shelves in his office.


Noen is also used about persons in the meaning someone:

Noen kommer der borte. Someone is coming over there.


Mye (much/a lot of) and noe (some) are used together with uncountable (mass) nouns:

Sjefen kommer med mye informasjon. The boss gives much information.
Ben drikker mye kaffe. Ben drinks a lot of coffee.
Ben kjøper noe kaffe. Ben buys some coffee.


Noe can also be used without a noun. Then it has the meaning something or anything:

Vil dere ha noe å spise? Do you want something to eat?