Betale ("to pay") is a verb you will use at every till, every restaurant, and every time a bill lands in your inbox. It is a regular weak Class 2 verb built on the inseparable prefix be- plus the stem -tale. The grammar is easy; the two things to watch are the governed preposition for ("pay for something") and the temptation — common among English and German learners — to break the be- off the front of the verb. Norwegian never does that.
Conjugation
Betale is weak Class 2: preterite in -te, supine in bare -t. Because the stem already ends in -l, the endings attach cleanly with no spelling changes.
| Form (Norwegian term) | Betale | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv (infinitive) | (å) betale | (to) pay |
| Presens (present) | betaler | pay(s) / am paying |
| Preteritum (past) | betalte | paid |
| Perfektum (perfect) | har betalt | have paid |
| Imperativ (imperative) | betal! | pay! |
The preterite betalte and the supine betalt differ by a single -e, the hallmark of Class 2: betalte (preterite) → betalt (supine, the preterite minus its final e). The imperative is betal! — strip only the infinitive's final -e. There is no double consonant and no -et anywhere in this verb.
Jeg betaler med kort, takk.
I'll pay by card, thanks.
Hun betalte regningen før vi i det hele tatt rakk å protestere.
She paid the bill before we even managed to protest.
Har du betalt husleia denne måneden?
Have you paid the rent this month?
The inseparable be- prefix
Be- is an unstressed, meaning-bearing prefix glued permanently to the stem. Unlike English phrasal verbs ("pay off", "pay back"), where the particle floats around the sentence, be- never detaches and never moves. You will never see *tale … be or be tale. This matters because German — a language many learners pass through — has separable prefixes, and the instinct to split them off transfers wrongly into Norwegian.
Vi betaler alltid på forskudd her.
We always pay in advance here.
De betalte aldri tilbake det de skyldte oss.
They never paid back what they owed us.
betale for — paying for something
When you name the thing you are paying for, Norwegian uses betale for + the item. This is reliable: the goods, the meal, the ticket — all take for. Beware, though, that you do not use for with the amount or the means: you pay a hundred kroner (no preposition) and you pay med (with) a card.
| Pattern | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| betale for noe | pay for something | betale for maten |
| betale beløp | pay an amount (no prep.) | betale to hundre kroner |
| betale med kort / kontant | pay by card / cash | betale med Vipps |
| betale tilbake | pay back, repay | betale tilbake lånet |
| betale seg | pay off, be worth it | det betaler seg |
Hvem betalte for middagen i går?
Who paid for the dinner yesterday?
Kan jeg betale med kontanter, eller tar dere bare kort?
Can I pay with cash, or do you only take cards?
Det lønner seg å spare nå — det betaler seg i lengden.
It's worth saving now — it pays off in the long run.
betale tilbake — paying back
For "pay back / repay", Norwegian uses the particle verb betale tilbake. As with all Norwegian particle verbs, tilbake is a free word and follows the normal rules of word order — it does not attach to the verb the way English repay fuses into one word. There is also a single-word noun tilbakebetaling ("repayment") if you need the formal register.
Jeg lover å betale deg tilbake på fredag.
I promise to pay you back on Friday.
Han har allerede betalt tilbake halve lånet.
He has already paid back half the loan.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg betalte for hundre kroner.
Incorrect — no for before a bare amount.
✅ Jeg betalte hundre kroner.
I paid a hundred kroner.
❌ Har du betalet regningen?
Incorrect — Class 1 -et ending; betale is Class 2 with supine betalt.
✅ Har du betalt regningen?
Have you paid the bill?
❌ Hun betalte middagen for oss.
Incorrect — to pay FOR something you need the preposition for.
✅ Hun betalte for middagen vår.
She paid for our dinner.
❌ Jeg betaler med hundre kroner.
Incorrect — med is for the means (card/cash), not the amount.
✅ Jeg betaler med kort.
I'll pay by card.
Key takeaways
- betale / betaler / betalte / har betalt / betal! — weak Class 2, single-t supine.
- The prefix be- is inseparable: it never splits off and never moves.
- betale for
- the item; a bare amount takes no preposition; med marks the means (kort, kontant, Vipps).
- betale tilbake = pay back; betale seg (reflexive, impersonal) = pay off / be worth it.
Now practice Norwegian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
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.
- Weak Class 2: -te / -t (spise)A2 — The -te class — preterite in -te, supine in -t (spise → spiste → har spist) — its voiceless-consonant logic, and the one-letter difference between preterite and supine.
- med: With, ByA2 — med covers accompaniment (med vennene mine), instrument (skrive med penn), means of transport (reise med tog), and the high-frequency idioms ha med seg and være med — with the agent-vs-instrument trap (passive agent is av, not med).
- Shopping and TransactionsA2 — Store phrases, asking prices, paying by card in near-cashless Norway, the bag fee, receipts, sizes and returns.