When two or more people do something to one another — they help each other, they look at each other, they email each other — Norwegian uses hverandre, "each other / one another." It is a single, unchanging word, and the only real difficulty is keeping it apart from the reflexive seg: de vasker seg (each washes his own body) and de vasker hverandre (they wash one another) describe two genuinely different scenes. English papers over the difference with one phrase, "each other," and relies on context; Norwegian forces the choice into the pronoun itself. This page covers hverandre, its genitive hverandres ("each other's"), and the reciprocal-vs-reflexive contrast.
hverandre = mutual action across a plural subject
The core idea is direction. A reflexive sends the action back onto the same subject (each person acts on themselves). A reciprocal sends it across the members of the subject — A acts on B, and B acts on A. That crossing-over is what hverandre expresses. It requires a plural subject (at least two people), because there has to be more than one party for the action to pass between.
Vi liker hverandre godt.
We like each other a lot. (mutual — I like you, you like me)
De så på hverandre uten å si et ord.
They looked at each other without saying a word. (gaze passes between them)
Vennene hjalp hverandre gjennom en tøff tid.
The friends helped one another through a hard time. (each helps the other)
Vi sender hverandre meldinger hver dag.
We text each other every day. (reciprocal — back and forth)
Crucially, hverandre never changes shape. It does not inflect for the gender, number, or person of the subject — vi, dere, and de all take the same hverandre. There is no *hverandren or *hverandret. Whatever the subject, the word is hverandre.
The contrast that matters: hverandre vs seg
This is the whole point of the page. Compare a single verb with the two pronouns:
De vasker seg.
They wash (themselves). (each person washes his or her own body — reflexive 'seg')
De vasker hverandre.
They wash each other. (one washes the other — reciprocal 'hverandre')
In de vasker seg, the action loops back on each individual: everyone scrubs their own body. In de vasker hverandre, the action travels between them: one person washes a second person. Norwegian makes you pick, and the pronoun alone decides the meaning. The contrast gets even sharper with an emotional verb:
De elsker seg selv.
They love themselves. (each loves him/herself — reflexive, possibly conceited)
De elsker hverandre.
They love each other. (mutual love between them — reciprocal)
These are opposite situations — narcissism versus a relationship — and only the pronoun tells them apart. English "they love each other" is unambiguous because of the phrase "each other"; the danger for learners is reaching for seg (the word they learned first) and accidentally saying the couple love only themselves.
hverandres: the genitive "each other's"
To say "each other's" — possession that runs both ways — add -s to make hverandres. As with all Norwegian genitives in -s, there is no apostrophe (English writes each other's; Norwegian writes hverandres).
De lånte hverandres bøker hele semesteret.
They borrowed each other's books all semester.
Naboene passer hverandres hus når noen er på ferie.
The neighbours look after each other's houses when someone's on holiday.
Vi husker fortsatt hverandres bursdager.
We still remember each other's birthdays.
The -s attaches straight to the word — hverandres hus, hverandres barn — and, like any genitive in Norwegian, it puts the possessed noun in its plain indefinite form (hverandres hus, not *hverandres huset). This mirrors the regular genitive -s you already know from nouns.
A note on stå/sitte/ligge ved siden av hverandre
Hverandre also turns up in fixed spatial expressions where English uses other words entirely — next to one another, one after the other, on top of each other:
Bøkene lå oppå hverandre i en stabel.
The books lay on top of one another in a stack.
Gjestene kom etter hverandre hele kvelden.
The guests arrived one after another all evening.
These are worth memorising as set phrases, because here hverandre is doing organisational rather than strictly "mutual" work, and a word-for-word English mapping won't predict it.
Common Mistakes
Using seg where you mean "each other." The classic error: seg is the first reflexive learners meet, so they over-extend it to reciprocal situations, accidentally saying everyone acted on themselves.
❌ De møtte seg på kafeen.
Wrong meaning ('each met himself') — to meet one another use 'hverandre': 'De møtte hverandre på kafeen'.
✅ De møtte hverandre på kafeen.
They met each other at the café.
Forgetting that hverandre needs a plural subject. A single subject can't act reciprocally; you need at least two parties.
❌ Jeg liker hverandre.
Incorrect — one person has no one to be reciprocal with; you need a plural subject: 'Vi liker hverandre'.
✅ Vi liker hverandre.
We like each other.
Writing the genitive with an apostrophe. Norwegian genitives take a bare -s; the English apostrophe does not transfer.
❌ Vi leste hverandre's bøker.
Incorrect punctuation — no apostrophe in Norwegian: 'Vi leste hverandres bøker'.
✅ Vi leste hverandres bøker.
We read each other's books.
Trying to inflect hverandre to agree with the subject. It is invariable — never *hverandren, never a plural ending.
❌ Barna kranglet med hverandren.
Incorrect — 'hverandre' never inflects: 'Barna kranglet med hverandre'.
✅ Barna kranglet med hverandre.
The children quarrelled with each other.
Key Takeaways
- hverandre = "each other / one another": action that crosses between the members of a plural subject.
- It needs two or more people and is invariable — no agreement, no plural ending.
- seg (reflexive) loops the action back on each individual; hverandre (reciprocal) sends it across them. De vasker seg ≠ de vasker hverandre.
- The genitive is hverandres ("each other's"), written without an apostrophe, with the possessed noun in its plain form.
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- Reflexive Pronouns: meg, deg, segA2 — Norwegian reflexives copy the object pronouns in the 1st/2nd person (meg, deg, oss, dere) but use a dedicated word — seg — in the entire 3rd person, so 'han vasker seg' (washes himself) and 'han vasker ham' (washes another man) are different sentences English can't keep apart without -self.
- sin vs hans/hennes: The Reflexive PossessiveB1 — The classic Scandinavian trap: sin/si/sitt/sine refers possession back to the SUBJECT of the clause (han tok jakken sin = his own jacket), while hans/hennes/deres points to someone else (jakken hans = another man's). sin agrees with the possessed noun's gender and number, never the owner, and can never be part of the subject — two rules English has no analogue for.
- The Genitive -s and PossessionA2 — Norwegian shows possession with a bare -s and NO apostrophe (Olas bil, barnets leke) — apostrophe only after a final s/x/z (Anders' hus) — while everyday speech often prefers a til-phrase (bilen til Ola).
- Pronouns: OverviewA1 — A map of the Norwegian pronoun system — subject vs object forms, the universal du, the reflexive seg and possessive sin, the den/det gender split, and the headline traps.