Strong verbs.  Unfortunately, as I mentioned previously, you cannot tell by looking at a verb if it is sterk or svak.  Additionally, there isn’t exactly an easy way to learn the past tense of sterke verber; memorization is the only answer.  Unlike svake verber, sterke verber do not follow any kind of pattern.  Isn’t it interesting to think about how all of these words came to be?  Did someone decide that there were going to be 2 different ”classes” of verbs and that one would follow a pattern and the other class wouldn’t?  The history of the evolution of the Norwegian language probably has enough content for another dozen posts, so I’ll end my curiosity there for now.  Back to sterke verber…

The following is a list of sterke verber in the infinitive and the past tenses (as with svake verber, sterke verber receive an ‘r’ after the stem in the present tense…more on this later).  Notice the forskjeller (differences) between the infinitiv and the preteritum-lots of vowel changes in the stem.

INFINITIV                          PRETERITUM

gå (go)                                gikk

sitte (sit)                            satt

se (see)                              så

bli (become)                      ble

drikke (drink)                    drakk

få (get/receive)                  fikk

skrive (write)                     skrev

står (stand)                        stod

synge (sing)                       sang

være (be)                            var

forstår (understand)           forstod

Again, there is no rhyme or rhythm to this sterk verb madness.  The only thing you might have noticed that seems like a pattern is with the words står and forstår, in which the vowels in the stems both changed to ‘o’ and there is a ‘d’ at the end in the preteritum.  If the stem is the same (in this case, står), chances are the change will be the same from infinitiv to preteritum.

The time is ripe to talk about negation, although many of you have probably caught on to the methods of negation på norsk-that is-how to deny that something is true.  There are several different words to use, the most common of course is ikke, which means ‘not.’   One can also use knapt (hardly) and alldri (never). 

There are a few regler (rules) that we should look at before I start just rattling off examples of how to use these negation words in sentences.  Usually, the negation word falls after the verb in the sentence (and if there are two verbs, i.e. a modal verb and an active verb, it would fall between them).  Man bør ikke reise til Minnesota (notice ikke comes after the modal verb ’should,’ bør). 

If there are several adverbial phrases in the sentence, the negation word comes in the final position before the end, which in the following case, is a prepositional phrase.  For example, Du kommer nesten aldri i tide (You almost never come on time). 

The negation word can come at the beginning of the sentence as well, however, ikke and knapt must be part of a clause that modifies another phrase.  For example, Ikke en bil var der (Not one car was there) or Knapt fem år har gått forbi siden han døde (Barely five years have gone by since he died).  Aldri can stand alone at the beginning of a sentence, without being part of a clause that modifies another phrase- Aldri har jeg gjort noe så skremmende (Never have I done something so scary).

Since ikke is the most common negation word used, let’s concentrate on ikke.

If the word ‘if’ is used, for example ‘If the computer doesn’t work…’ ikke is placed before the verb, Hvis datamaksinen ikke fungerer…

One can say hvis ikke… if not…

Another common phrase is ikke sant?  which means basically ‘isn’t that right?’

Jeg vil ikke jobbe i dag, men jeg må hvis jeg vil tjene penger, ikke sant?  I don’t want to work today, but I must if I want to earn money, right?

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