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A2🔄Verbs & Tenses
Past Tense – Strong Verbs
Preteritum – sterke verb
Strong verbs change their stem vowel to form the past tense, similar to English (drink→drank). There are about 200 common strong verbs in Norwegian. They must be memorized: skrive→skrev, drikke→drakk, finne→fant.
Rule
Vowel change in stem (no suffix added)
Examples
Jeg skrev et brev.
I wrote a letter.
Hun drakk kaffe.
She drank coffee.
Vi fant nøkkelen.
We found the key.
Common Mistake
✗
Jeg skrivet et brev.
✓
Jeg skrev et brev.
Indian learners often add -et to strong verbs as if they were weak. Strong verbs never take a dental suffix — they change the stem vowel instead.
English vs Norwegian
| English | Norsk |
|---|---|
| I wrote a letter. | Jeg skrev et brev. |
| She drank coffee. | Hun drakk kaffe. |
| We found the key. | Vi fant nøkkelen. |
English
I wrote a letter.
Norsk
Jeg skrev et brev.
English
She drank coffee.
Norsk
Hun drakk kaffe.
English
We found the key.
Norsk
Vi fant nøkkelen.