anbefale ("to recommend") is the verb you reach for when giving advice, writing a reference, or suggesting a restaurant — so it earns its place in any practical vocabulary. Grammatically it is a tidy weak verb, but it carries an important structural lesson: the an- at the front is an inseparable, unstressed prefix borrowed from Low German, and treating it as a detachable particle (the way English breaks up "recommend" — no, but think of "throw out") is the cardinal error. Once you see an- as fused to the stem, everything else falls into place.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1-type (-te / -t on the stem -fal-); inseparable prefix an-. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å anbefale | to recommend |
| Presens | anbefaler | recommend(s) |
| Preteritum | anbefalte | recommended |
| Perfektum | har anbefalt | have/has recommended |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde anbefalt | had recommended |
| Futurum | skal/vil anbefale | will recommend |
| Imperativ | anbefal! | recommend! |
| Presens partisipp | anbefalende | recommending |
| Perfektum partisipp (adj.) | anbefalt | recommended |
The inseparable prefix an-
anbefale is built from the prefix an- plus the verb befale ("to command, order") — itself already carrying the inseparable prefix be-. Both an- and be- are Middle Low German loans that entered Norwegian (via Danish) during the Hanseatic centuries, and both behave the same way: they are unstressed, fused, and never separable. The stress falls on the root syllable (-fal-), which is exactly why the prefix sounds swallowed.
This matters for conjugation. Because an- is glued on, you conjugate the whole word as a unit on its weak stem anbefal-: preterite anbefalte, supine anbefalt. You do not, as in German separable verbs or English phrasal verbs, peel the prefix off and send it to the end of the clause. This is the opposite of a particle verb like kaste ut, where the particle ut happily detaches (han kastet det ut); inseparable an- has no independent life and never stands alone.
These prefixed verbs also carry a register flavour: they sound a touch more formal and abstract than native particle verbs. anbefale is more measured than the everyday tipse om ("give a tip about") or si at du bør... ("say that you should..."), which is why it dominates in reviews, references, and official advice.
Jeg anbefaler denne boka til alle som liker krim.
I recommend this book to anyone who likes crime fiction.
Legen anbefalte mer hvile og mindre kaffe.
The doctor recommended more rest and less coffee.
Restauranten ble varmt anbefalt av en venn.
The restaurant was warmly recommended by a friend.
anbefale å + infinitive
To recommend doing something, anbefale takes the infinitive marker å: anbefale å + infinitive. There is no subjunctive and no "that"-clause needed for the simple case.
Jeg anbefaler å bestille bord på forhånd — det blir fullt.
I recommend booking a table in advance — it gets full.
Han anbefalte å ta toget i stedet for å kjøre.
He recommended taking the train instead of driving.
When you recommend something to a specific person, the natural pattern is the double object anbefale noen noe ("recommend someone something"), or anbefale noe til noen with the preposition til. Unlike forklare (which takes for for its listener), anbefale uses til for the recipient — a small but real difference, because anbefale is about handing over a suggestion to someone, not addressing an audience. Don't carry the for of forklare over to this verb.
Kan du anbefale meg en god tannlege i nærheten?
Can you recommend me a good dentist nearby?
Jeg vil anbefale denne kuren til alle med vondt i ryggen.
I'd recommend this treatment to anyone with a bad back.
The opposite of anbefale is fraråde ("to advise against"), built on the same Low-German -råde family — useful to know when you want to recommend that someone not do something: Jeg vil fraråde å kjøre i dette været ("I'd advise against driving in this weather").
Eksperten anbefalte den ene metoden og frarådet den andre.
The expert recommended one method and advised against the other.
The noun en anbefaling
The action noun is en anbefaling ("a recommendation"), formed with the productive suffix -ing on the same stem. It is the word for a written reference, a piece of advice, or an endorsement — etter anbefaling fra legen ("on the doctor's recommendation"), en god anbefaling ("a good reference").
Hun fikk jobben på grunn av en sterk anbefaling fra sjefen sin.
She got the job thanks to a strong recommendation from her boss.
Følg anbefalingene fra myndighetene.
Follow the authorities' recommendations.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg befaler boka an til deg.
Incorrect — an- is inseparable; it never detaches to the end of the clause
✅ Jeg anbefaler boka til deg.
I recommend the book to you.
❌ Legen anbefalet mer hvile.
Incorrect — the stem is -fal-, so the preterite is anbefalte, not anbefalet
✅ Legen anbefalte mer hvile.
The doctor recommended more rest.
❌ Jeg har anbefalte denne filmen.
Incorrect — after har use the supine anbefalt, not the preterite anbefalte
✅ Jeg har anbefalt denne filmen.
I've recommended this film.
❌ Jeg anbefaler å bestiller bord.
Incorrect — after å use the bare infinitive bestille, not the present bestiller
✅ Jeg anbefaler å bestille bord.
I recommend booking a table.
Key Takeaways
- anbefale / anbefaler / anbefalte / har anbefalt / anbefal! — weak, conjugated on the stem -fal-.
- The prefix an- is inseparable and unstressed (anbeFAler); never split it off.
- Recommend doing something with anbefale å
- infinitive; recommend something to someone with anbefale noen noe or anbefale noe til noen.
- Supine anbefalt (no -e) vs preterite anbefalte — the usual -t / -te trap.
- The noun is en anbefaling; prefixed verbs like this carry a more formal tone.
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Weak Verbs: The Four ClassesA2 — A map of the four regular Norwegian past-tense classes (-et/-a, -te, -de, -dde) — how to predict a verb's class from its stem and how the supine differs from the preterite.
- Verb Reference: How to Use These TablesA2 — How to read the Norwegian verb-reference pages — the five principal parts, weak vs strong classes, and the supine (the har-form).
- Prefixed Verbs: be-, for-, an-, unn-B2 — The inseparable, unstressed verb prefixes (mostly Low German) — be- (betale), for- (forstå), an- (anbefale), unn- (unngå), gjen-, mis-, sam- — that fuse to the front of a verb, never separate, and shift its meaning into a more abstract, formal register.
- Danish Influence and Danisms in BokmålC1 — Bokmål descends from written Danish — the legacy of four centuries of union — so its backbone is Danicised: this page maps the Danish substrate (vocabulary doublets like efter/etter historically, the be-/for-/an- loan prefixes from Low German via Danish, the -et participle, soft and silent consonants, spellings reformed away from Danish), shows how conservative Riksmål-style Bokmål leans ever closer to Danish, and gives you the recognition skill that lets you date and place a Norwegian text on a Norwegian–Danish continuum.