til: To, Until, Of, For | Norwegian Grammar

til is one of the most-used prepositions in Norwegian, and it does far more than English "to." It marks direction (til Oslo), serves as the everyday spoken possessive (boka til Kari = Kari's book), sets a time limit (til klokka tre), introduces a recipient (en gave til mor), and locks into dozens of fixed phrases. The single most important thing for an English speaker to absorb: in speech, til — not the -s genitive — is how Norwegians normally say "X's Y."

Direction: "to / towards"

The core sense is motion to a goal:

Vi reiser til Bergen på fredag.

We're travelling to Bergen on Friday.

Hun går til skolen hver morgen.

She walks to school every morning.

Kan du komme til meg etter jobb?

Can you come to my place after work?

Note two things. First, with institutions, til often takes the bare or definite noun without any English-style article fuss — til skolen, til jobben, til byen. Second, til contrasts with mot ("towards," motion in a direction without necessarily arriving):

Han gikk mot døra, men snudde.

He walked towards the door but turned back. (direction, no arrival)

Han gikk til døra og åpnet den.

He went to the door and opened it. (reached the goal)

The big exception — "home" takes no til. Hjem ("home, homewards") is already directional and refuses til. You say gå hjem, dra hjem, komme hjem — never til hjem. (The noun hjemmet = "the home" as a place can take a preposition, but the adverb hjem cannot.)

Jeg er sliten, jeg drar hjem nå.

I'm tired, I'm going home now.

Når kommer du hjem?

When are you coming home?

The spoken possessive: boka til Kari

This is the feature English-language courses bury, and it is essential. Norwegian has an -s genitive (Karis bok; see The Genitive -s), but in everyday speech the normal way to say "Kari's book" is boka til Kari — literally "the book to Kari." The possessed noun goes in the definite form (boka, not bok), and til links it to the owner:

Det er huset til naboen.

That's the neighbour's house.

Har du sett bilen til Per?

Have you seen Per's car?

Faren til Ola jobber på sykehuset.

Ola's father works at the hospital.

Dette er ikke jakka mi, det er jakka til Lise.

This isn't my jacket, it's Lise's jacket.

So "Whose is this?" is naturally answered with a til-phrase: Det er til Marius ("It's Marius's"). The -s genitive (Marius' bok) is not wrong, but it reads as (formal) or written register; til is the (informal), spoken default and is also completely acceptable in writing. If you only learn one possessive construction for conversation, learn this one.

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For "X's Y" in speech, default to Y-en til X: put the thing owned in the definite form, then til, then the owner. "Anna's dog" = hunden til Anna, not hund til Anna. Forgetting the definite ending is the most common slip.

Recipient: "to / for"

til introduces the person something is given, sent, or meant for — English "to" or "for":

Jeg kjøpte en gave til mor.

I bought a present for Mum.

Det kom et brev til deg i dag.

A letter came for you today.

Kan du si til Jonas at jeg ringer senere?

Can you tell Jonas I'll call later?

Time limit: "until / till"

til marks the endpoint of a span — English "until / till." It pairs naturally with fra ("from") to frame a whole stretch:

Butikken er åpen til klokka ti.

The shop is open until ten o'clock.

Vi venter til i morgen med å bestemme oss.

We'll wait until tomorrow to decide.

Jeg jobber fra ni til fem.

I work from nine to five.

Note the fixed pattern til i morgen / til i kveld ("until tomorrow / until tonight"): the time-adverbial keeps its own i, and til stacks in front of it.

Fixed phrases and verb + til

A large slice of til is idiom, where no general rule applies — you memorise the phrase. High-frequency ones:

Phrase	Meaning
glede seg til	look forward to
gå til sengs	go to bed (set phrase, archaic genitive -s)
til fots	on foot
til og med	even / up to and including
til slutt	finally, in the end
bli til	turn into, come about

Jeg gleder meg til ferien.

I'm looking forward to the holiday.

Vi gikk til fots hele veien hjem.

We walked the whole way home on foot.

Til slutt ble alt bra.

In the end everything turned out fine.

Common Mistakes

English speakers slip by reaching for the -s genitive in speech, by dropping the definite ending in til-possessives, and by forcing til onto hjem.

❌ Det er Per sin... eh... Pers bil. (in casual speech)

Not wrong, but stiff — speech prefers a til-phrase.

✅ Det er bilen til Per.

It's Per's car. (natural spoken possessive)

❌ Det er bil til Per.

Incorrect — the possessed noun must be definite (bilen).

✅ Det er bilen til Per.

It's Per's car.

❌ Jeg drar til hjem nå.

Incorrect — 'hjem' takes no til.

✅ Jeg drar hjem nå.

I'm going home now.

❌ Vi venter til morgen.

Incomplete — the time-adverbial keeps its 'i'.

✅ Vi venter til i morgen.

We'll wait until tomorrow.

❌ Jeg gleder meg på ferien.

Wrong preposition — the verb governs til.

✅ Jeg gleder meg til ferien.

I'm looking forward to the holiday.

Key takeaways

til = direction to a goal (til Bergen), but hjem takes no til.
til is the everyday spoken possessive: huset til naboen = "the neighbour's house," with the owned noun in the definite form. This beats the -s genitive in conversation.
til also marks recipients (en gave til mor) and time limits (til klokka ti), and pairs with fra for spans (fra ni til fem).
A large set of fixed phrases (glede seg til, til fots, til slutt) must be memorised.
Spelling: til has a single l.

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