What irregular verbs are
In the previous lesson, you learned the form preteritum and saw that many verbs form the past tense according to a clear pattern. But Norwegian also has a very important group of verbs that do not follow the general rule. These forms must be learned separately. Such verbs are called irregular.
At A2 level, it is especially important to recognize the most frequent irregular verbs in speech and in texts, because they appear constantly: in stories about yesterday, in dialogues, in news, and in everyday communication.
The main idea
With irregular verbs, the infinitiv form and the preteritum form are often quite different. Sometimes the vowel changes, and sometimes the whole form looks unexpected. Compare:
å komme → kom
å gå → gikk
å se → så
å få → fikk
These forms cannot be built reliably from one universal pattern, so it is better to learn them in small groups and immediately in short sentences.
The most important irregular verbs at A2
Below is a group of verbs that are especially useful at this stage:
å være → var — быть
å ha → hadde — иметь
å bli → ble — становиться, оказываться
å gå → gikk — идти, ходить
å komme → kom — приходить
å se → så — видеть
å gjøre → gjorde — делать
å få → fikk — получать
å ta → tok — брать
å gi → ga — давать
å finne → fant — находить
å skrive → skrev — писать
å sitte → satt — сидеть
å ligge → lå — лежать
å stå → sto — стоять
å drikke → drakk — пить
You may have seen some of them before, but now it is important to treat them as ready-made past tense forms.
How to learn these forms
It is better not to memorize a verb completely without context. It is much more useful to see it in a short phrase. That helps you notice more quickly how the form works in a normal sentence.
I går var jeg hjemme.
Hun gikk til jobb.
Vi kom sent.
Han så filmen i går.
Jeg fikk en melding.
Notice that sentences often contain time markers such as i går, but the verb form itself already shows that the action happened in the past.
Irregular verbs and word order
Although the verb form changes, the word order in a normal statement stays the same as you already know. The finite verb stands in second position.
Jeg gikk hjem.
I går gikk jeg hjem.
In the second example, the time expression comes first, so the verb comes immediately after it. This is an important transition point from A1 to A2: you need to recognize the past form and also pay attention to inversion.
Common pairs worth distinguishing
Some verbs are similar in meaning but are used in different situations. If you learn them side by side, they become easier to remember.
å gå → gikk is used when talking about going on foot or leaving:
Hun gikk hjem.
å komme → kom shows arrival:
De kom tidlig.
å ta → tok is often connected with taking or choosing something:
Jeg tok bussen.
å få → fikk usually means receiving something:
Han fikk et brev.
Verbs that are especially common in past narratives
If you are telling how your day went, you will very likely need exactly these forms:
var, hadde, gikk, kom, så, gjorde, fikk.
For example:
I går var jeg trøtt.
Jeg hadde mye å gjøre.
Jeg gikk til sentrum.
Jeg så en venn.
Vi gjorde leksene sammen.
Even if your vocabulary is still limited, these verbs already allow you to build many natural statements.
What to pay special attention to
The first difficulty is not trying to add the usual ending of weak verbs to an irregular verb. For example, gådde is incorrect; the correct form is gikk.
The second difficulty is not mixing the infinitive and the past form in the same sentence. After a past time marker, you need preteritum if you are speaking about a completed action in the past:
I går jeg gikk til skolen. — incorrect structure.
I går gikk jeg til skolen. — correct structure.
The third difficulty is remembering that some forms are very short: så, ga, tok, kom. Because of that, they are easy to miss in a text, even though they often carry the main meaning of the sentence.
A useful way to memorize them
Try to learn each verb in three parts at once: the infinitive, the preteritum form, and a short example.
å se → så → Jeg så henne i går.
å få → fikk → Vi fikk besøk.
å skrive → skrev → Han skrev en e-post.
This way, you remember not only the form but also how it is actually used.
Connection with later topics
These verbs will be important not only for simple stories about the past. In the next lessons, they will also matter for perfektum, where many irregular verbs again keep special forms. That is why it is important to build a solid foundation now: recognize the verb, understand its meaning, and quickly connect the infinitive with the past tense form.
Lesson summary
In this lesson, you saw that irregular verbs in Norwegian must be learned as separate forms rather than built from one rule. At A2 level, verbs such as å være, å ha, å gå, å komme, å se, å gjøre, å få, å ta, å gi, å finne and other frequent forms are especially important. The main goal now is to start recognizing them confidently in texts and using them in simple statements about the past.