What is preteritum
At A1 level, you mostly worked with the present tense. Now we move on to one of the main forms of A2 level — preteritum. This is the simple past tense that shows an action happened in the past and is completed.
The preterite is very often used in stories about yesterday, the weekend, childhood, trips, and events that are already finished.
Compare:
Jeg jobber i dag. — the action is happening now.
Jeg jobbet i går. — the action happened yesterday.
When preteritum is used
This form is especially common when the sentence contains a clear reference to past time. For example:
i går, i fjor, forrige uke, da jeg var liten, på mandag.
Look at the examples:
I går jobbet jeg hjemme.
Vi besøkte venner på lørdag.
Hun studerte norsk i fjor.
In all these sentences, we are talking about a completed action in the past.
How preteritum is formed with regular verbs
In this lesson, we take the most important first step: regular verbs. Many such verbs form the preterite with a special ending. In practice, it is important first to remember the pattern and recognize the whole form.
In beginner study, it is useful to learn verbs in pairs:
å jobbe → jobbet
å snakke → snakket
å kjøpe → kjøpte
å bo → bodde
å lære → lærte
Already at this stage, you can see that regular verbs in the past often have forms ending in -et, -te, or -de. You do not need to memorize all groups perfectly yet. It is much more important to recognize the form and use the most frequent verbs.
Typical patterns
Let us look at several common patterns.
1. Verbs with the ending -et
å snakke → snakket
å vente → ventet
Examples:
Vi snakket sammen etter kurset.
Jeg ventet på bussen.
2. Verbs with the ending -te
å kjøpe → kjøpte
å lære → lærte
Examples:
Jeg kjøpte en ny jakke.
Hun lærte mye på skolen.
3. Verbs with the ending -de
å bo → bodde
å prøve → prøvde
Examples:
Vi bodde i Oslo i to år.
Han prøvde å ringe deg.
At A2 level, it is enough to understand that the form depends on the type of verb. Later in the course, you will see more patterns and exceptions.
Personal pronouns and the verb in preteritum
In Norwegian, the verb form in the preterite does not change according to person. This is very convenient: the same form is used with different subjects.
Compare:
Jeg jobbet.
Du jobbet.
Han jobbet.
Vi jobbet.
This means you do not need to learn separate endings for each person. You only need to remember one past form for each verb.
Preteritum in everyday situations
This form is especially useful when you talk about your day, shopping, travel, meetings, or activities.
For example:
I går sto jeg opp klokka sju.
Jeg spiste frokost hjemme.
Etter jobb handlet jeg mat.
Om kvelden så vi en film.
Even if some verbs in these examples still look new, it is important to notice the general function: the speaker lists completed events in the past.
Word order in the sentence
In a simple affirmative sentence, the preterite stands in the usual place of the verb — after the subject.
Jeg besøkte bestemoren min.
If the sentence begins with a time expression, the rule that the verb comes in second position still applies:
I går besøkte jeg bestemoren min.
This is an important bridge from A1 to A2: you are not only learning a new verb form, but also continuing to strengthen word order.
Negation in the past tense
To make a negative sentence, ikke is usually used. It comes after the verb in a simple sentence.
Jeg jobbet ikke i går.
Hun kjøpte ikke kaffe.
Vi bodde ikke der lenge.
Notice that negation does not change the preterite form itself; it only adds negative meaning.
Questions in preteritum
In questions, the verb usually comes before the subject.
Jobbet du i går?
Kjøpte hun billetten?
Bodde dere i Bergen?
If there is a question word, it stands at the beginning:
Når jobbet du der?
Hvor bodde de?
Hva kjøpte han?
In this way, you can not only talk about the past, but also ask about it.
Common markers of past time
To recognize situations where preteritum is needed more easily, it is useful to pay attention to time markers.
Common ones include:
i går — yesterday
i forgårs — the day before yesterday
forrige uke — last week
i fjor — last year
for to dager siden — two days ago
da — then, when
Examples:
Forrige uke jobbet vi mye.
I fjor lærte jeg norsk.
For to dager siden besøkte de oss.
Why it is important to learn the form together with the infinitive
At A2 level, it is useful to remember a verb not on its own, but immediately in two forms: the infinitive and the preterite. This helps you build speech faster.
For example, it is better to learn like this:
å jobbe — jobbet
å bo — bodde
å kjøpe — kjøpte
å lære — lærte
This method is especially important because later in the course you will meet irregular verbs, and the habit of learning forms in pairs will make the work much easier.
Preteritum and telling about the past
One of the main tasks of this tense is to help you build a short connected story. At A2 level, this is no longer just separate words, but several sentences about events in the correct sequence.
For example:
I går våknet jeg tidlig. Jeg spiste frokost og tok bussen til jobb. Etter jobb møtte jeg en venn, og vi snakket på en kafé. Om kvelden var jeg hjemme og slappet av.
Here the speaker describes a chain of completed actions. That is exactly why preteritum is used so often.
What to pay attention to next
In this lesson, you became familiar with the main function of preteritum and saw how regular verb forms are built. This is enough to begin understanding simple stories about the past and to build your own basic phrases.
In the next lessons of the module, you will continue the topic of the past tense: you will see more important irregular forms and get acquainted with another frequent past construction — perfektum. This will help you better understand the difference between different ways of talking about the past in Norwegian.
Short lesson summary
Preteritum is the simple past tense.
It is used for completed actions in the past.
Regular verbs often have forms ending in -et, -te, and -de.
The verb form does not change according to person.
Preteritum is often used with words such as i går, i fjor, forrige uke.
This form is needed to talk about events that have already happened.