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) is 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?