Learn about the Norwegian tenses
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Intro |
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| Michael: How many tenses are there in Norwegian? |
| Anette: And how do they work? |
| Michael: At NorwegianClass101.com, we hear these questions often. In this situation, Sasha Lee is confused about the number of tenses in Norwegian. She asks her teacher, Lise Lyng, "How many tenses are there in Norwegian?" |
| Sasha: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| Lise: Det er tre hovedformer. |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| Michael: "How many tenses are there in Norwegian?" |
| Lise: Det er tre hovedformer. |
| Michael: "There are three main tenses." |
Lesson focus |
| Michael: In the dialogue, Lise tells Sasha that in Norwegian, there are three main tenses, or |
| Anette: tre hovedformer |
| Michael: What are these tenses? Let's go through them! The three main tenses of Norwegian are present, past, and future tense, but each of them also has a perfective version. |
| Anette: So, in total, there are six tenses—Present, preterite, perfect, preterite perfect, present futurum, preterite futurum. |
| Michael: Now, how do these tenses work? How do we use them? Well, let's briefly go through them one by one. Let's start with |
| Anette: present, |
| Michael: the present tense. The present tense is used similarly to the present tense in English, and, obviously, the most common use of it is to explain things that are happening "now" in present time. Let's look at an example. Let's use the verb for "smile" as an example. The infinite form of "to smile" is |
| Anette: å smile. |
| Michael: To conjugate it into the present form, we simply add an "r" to the infinitive form: |
| Anette: smiler. |
| Michael: Now, to say "I smile," you would say: |
| Anette: Jeg smiler. |
| Michael: Let's move on to the the preterite form, or in Norwegian, |
| Anette: preterite, |
| Michael: which is used for completed actions in the past. Unfortunately, there isn't one single way to change all verbs into the preterite tense as this can vary between different verb forms, but, for regular verbs, we often add "-te," "-de," "-et," or "-dde" to the infinitive form. In the case for the verb "smile," |
| Anette: smil; |
| Michael: its preterite tense is: |
| Anette: smilte. |
| Michael: "I smiled" is therefore: |
| Anette: Jeg smilte. |
| Michael: Moving on to the perfect tense, or |
| Anette: perfect, |
| Michael: where we have to combine the verb for "have," |
| Anette: har |
| Michael: in its present tense, and then the verb in its supine verb form. How do we figure out the supine verb form? Well, in the case of the verb "smile," we simply add a "-t" to the infinitive form, as in: |
| Anette: smilt. |
| Michael: Therefore, we find the perfect tense by adding this supine form to the verb "have." To say "I have smiled" is: |
| Anette: Jeg har smilt. |
| Michael: Tenses are truly something to learn slowly over time, so don't worry if you have to go through this a few times. The good news is that the next two tenses are comparatively easy. To figure out the pluperfect tense, or |
| Anette: preterite perfect, |
| Michael: we simply use the same supine form as we used for the perfect tense; |
| Anette: smilt. |
| Michael: The only difference is that, this time, we say the verb for "have" in its past tense, that is, its preterite tense, which would be: |
| Anette: hadde. |
| Michael: Therefore, to say "I had smiled," you simply say: |
| Anette: Jeg hadde smilt. |
| Michael: Next, for the future tense, or |
| Anette: present futurum, |
| Michael: which is used to describe things that will happen in the future. To use a verb in its future tense, we don't have to change the verb form from its infinitive form. Instead, we simply add the verb for "will," or |
| Anette: vil |
| Michael: in front of it. So, to say "I will smile," you simply say: |
| Anette: Jeg vil smile. |
| Michael: Alternatively, if the subject has a plan or purpose, we add the verb for "shall," or |
| Anette: skal. |
| Michael: So, to say "I shall smile," it's: |
| Anette: Jeg skal smile. |
| Michael: Finally, for the preterite future tense, or |
| Anette: preterite futurum, |
| Michael: which is used to describe things that were planned to happen, or went on in in the past but after another action. This time, we say the verb for "will" in its past tense, "would," which in Norwegian is: |
| Anette: ville, |
| Michael: or "shall" in its past tense, "should," |
| Anette: skulle |
| Michael: in front of the verb. So to say "I would smile," it's: |
| Anette: Jeg ville smile. |
| Michael: And similarly, "I should smile," would be: |
| Anette: Jeg skulle smile. |
| [SUMMARY] |
| Michael: Let's listen to these example sentences using "smile" again. Present tense: "I smile." |
| Anette: present: Jeg smiler. |
| Michael: Preterite: "I smiled." |
| Anette: preterite: jeg smilte. |
| Michael: Present Perfect: "I have smiled." |
| Anette: perfect: Jeg har smilt. |
| Michael: Pluperfect: "I had smiled." |
| Anette: preterite perfect: Jeg hadde smilt. |
| Michael: Future: "I will smile." |
| Anette: present futurum: Jeg vil smile. |
| Michael: Preterite future: "I would smile." |
| Anette: preterite futurum: Jeg ville smile. |
| Practice Section |
| Michael: Let's review the sentences we've heard in this lesson. I'll say the sentence in English, and then I want you to try and reply in Norwegian. Anette will then model the correct answer—listen to her carefully and repeat, with emphasis on your pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how to say "How many tenses are there in Norwegian?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anette: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anette: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anette: Hvor mange tidsformer har vi på norsk? |
| Michael: And do you remember how to say "There are three main tenses?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anette: Det er tre hovedformer. |
| Michael: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anette: Det er tre hovedformer. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anette: Det er tre hovedformer. |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Anette: Ha det! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
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