Verbs: Imperative — Norwegian Grammar

The imperative gives an instruction, an invitation or a piece of advice: "Eat!", "Come in!", "Don't worry!". Norwegian uses the same form whether you speak to one person or several.

Forming the Imperative

Take the infinitive and remove the final -e. What is left is the imperative.

→ (Eat!)
→ (Buy!)
→ (Call!)
→ (Wait!)

A double consonant before the -e stays double (tt, kk, ll, nn), except mm: Norwegian never ends a word in mm, so it is written with a single m.

→ , →
→ , →

Spis litt frukt.
Have some fruit.
Kom inn!
Come in!
Ring meg hvis du trenger noe.
Call me if you need anything.

Short Verbs Stay the Same

An infinitive that does not end in -e is already its own imperative. (be) loses its -e as expected and becomes .

Gå til butikken.
Go to the shop.
Se, dette er huset mitt.
Look, this is my house.
Ha en fin dag.
Have a nice day.
Vær stille!
Be quiet!

When the -e Has to Stay

If removing the -e would leave a cluster of consonants that cannot end a Norwegian word, the imperative keeps the -e.

Åpne døren!
Open the door!
Ikke bekymre deg.
Don't worry.

Telling Someone Not to Do Something

Put (not) in front of the imperative.

Ikke spis det!
Don't eat that!
Ikke vær trist.
Don't be sad.
Ikke glem osten.
Don't forget the cheese.

Making It Polite

On its own, an imperative can sound abrupt. Norwegian softens it with (please, literally "be so kind") at the end, or with the formal at the start, which is common in writing and announcements.

Snakk høyere, vær så snill.
Speak louder, please.
Vennligst ring oss når du ankommer.
Please call us when you arrive.

Commands with an Object

An object, whether a noun or a pronoun, follows the imperative directly, just as in English. A person who receives something comes before the thing.

Kjøp den!
Buy it!
Glem dem.
Forget them.
Gi meg saltet.
Give me the salt.
Nyt ferien.
Enjoy the holiday.

Let's: La oss

To suggest doing something together, use (let us) and a bare infinitive.

La oss spise pizza.
Let's eat pizza.
La oss gå hjem.
Let's go home.

Imperatives with a Pronoun

A verb that needs a pronoun such as (yourself) or (yourselves) keeps it after the imperative.

Sett deg ned.
Sit down.
Vennligst sett dere ned.
Please sit down (all of you).

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Norwegian course

62 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 9. A few of them, with the words “Verbs: Imperative” is about in bold:

Ja. La oss spise kinesisk mat.
Yes. Let's eat Chinese food.
Lesson 127
Gå og sjekk kjøkkenet. Det er så lite.
Go and check out (pl.) the kitchen. It is so small.
Lesson 322
Ikke spis det! Det er svinekjøtt!
Don't eat that! That's pork!
Lesson 366

Comments

Loading comments…