Past Tense (Preteritum):

● We use preteritum when we talk about something that happened at a specific time
- expressions often used:
i går - yesterday
for … siden - ... ago
( for to dager siden – 2 days ago)
i fjor – last year
i forrige .. – last....
( forrige mandag – last Monday , i forrige uke – last week)
i morges – this morning
i 1655. (with years)

...

Jeg var i Italia i 2008. (I was in Italy in 2008.)

Han flyttet til Oslo for ei uke siden. (He moved to Oslo a week ago.)

● These expressions don’t need to be used in each sentence, we understand when something happened
from the context.

Henrik var i Italia i 2008. Da besøkte han Roma. Han så Colosseum.

(Henrik was in Italy in 2008. He visited Rome. He saw the Colosseum)

● Preteritum is also used in questions with når

Når flyttet du til Norge? (When did you move to Norway?)

● Definition of time can also be somewhat unclear:

Martin har bodd i USA. Han jobbet i en bank der.

(We don’t know when he lived in USA, but we know when he worked at a bank : that is, he worked there
when he lived in USA)
There are regular and irregular verbs

Regular verbs 4 groups:

Class 1 : add – ET to the stem form( stem form: infinitiv minus E) most of the verbs whose stem form
ends in 2 consonants, and some that end in –d or –t

Å Snakke – snakk + et > snakket

Å Vaske - vask+et > vasket
Å Bade – bad + et > badet
Å Hate - hat + et > hatet

Jeg snakket med søstera til Anne i går.

(it’s also possible to add –A, instead of –ET – snakka, vaska ..... )

Class 2 : add – TE; most of the verbs whose stem form ends in 1 consonant, and those that end in
double M, N, L

(å lese) les+te > leste Jeg leste norsk i går.

(å like) lik+te > likte
to forget (å glemme) glem+te > glemte
to play (å spille) spil+te > spilte
to know (å kjenne) kjen + te > kjente

Class 3: add –DE; verbs whose stem form ends in – v, - g or -ei

to live å leve lev+de levde
to manage å greie grei+de greide
å lage lag+de lagde (also Class 1 – laget)

Class 4: add –DDE; short, mostly one-syllable verbs that end in a vowel
å bo bo+dde bodde
å bety bety+dde betydde
to believe/think å tro tro+dde trodde
to snow å snø snø+dde snødde
Irregular verbs
(to be) å være - var
(to see) å se - så
(to get) å få - fikk
(to go) å gå - gikk
(to take) å ta - tok
(to go) å dra - dro
(to understand)å forstå - forsto
(to do) å gjøre - gjorde

etc.. (Tekstboka , page 197. and 198. – a shorter list of irregular verbs )

Modal verbs same as in infnitive:

Inf: pres: pret:
ville (vil ) ville
skulle (skal) skulle
måtte (må) måtte
kunne (kan) kunne
burde (bør) burde