r/norsk • u/dwchandler • May 30 '21

Søndagsspørsmål #386 - Sunday Question Thread

This is a weekly post to ask any question that you may not have felt deserved its own post, or have been hesitating to ask for whatever reason. No question too small or silly!

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u/Mayungi May 30 '21

I have an A2 exam tomorrow (not the official norskprøve) and i feel ready besides figuring out preteritum and presens perfektum. Does anyone have a trick to help me remember words?

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u/tobiasvl Native Speaker May 31 '21

Do you mean preteritum perfektum (aka pluskvamperfektum) and presens perfektum? Or just regular preteritum and presens perfektum?

Not sure there is a trick, but knowing why the forms are named the weird Latin things they're named might help?

  • Preteritum is just the regular past tense. Example: Jeg kastet ballen. Jeg gikk på skolen.
  • Presens perfektum is the present tense of "å ha" (hence "presens") combined with the perfect participle of the verb (hence "perfektum). The perfect participle is also sometimes called the passive participle, since the verb becomes more passive in this tense. Examples: Jeg har kastet ballen. Jeg har gått på skolen.
  • Preteritum perfektum is, then, the past tense of "å ha" (hence "preteritum") combined with the perfect participle of the verb. Examples: Jeg hadde kastet ballen. Jeg hadde gått på skolen.

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u/Mayungi Jun 07 '21

I'm sorry for not answering, i was overwhelmed with multiple exams. I appreciate your answer, and it helped a bit! I know the rules, but we had so many new words that we had to "guess" what the different ways to say them are. So we got a list and had to "find a pattern" or guess how to change it to be preteritum, presens perfektum, and preteritum perfektum. Again, i appreciate your answer and i apologize for the lack of response.