Bruke ("to use") is a workhorse verb that English speakers underestimate, because it does three jobs that English splits across three different words. It means "use" (a tool, a word), it means "spend" (time and money), and — in a construction that surprises everyone — it can mean "usually / tend to". Master the spread and you cover a huge amount of everyday Norwegian with one short verb.
Conjugation
Bruke is weak Class 2: preterite in -te, supine in bare -t. The stem ends in -k, a voiceless consonant, which is exactly why it lands in Class 2 in the first place — voiceless stems take the -te ending.
| Form (Norwegian term) | Bruke | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv (infinitive) | (å) bruke | (to) use |
| Presens (present) | bruker | use(s) / am using |
| Preteritum (past) | brukte | used |
| Perfektum (perfect) | har brukt | have used |
| Imperativ (imperative) | bruk! | use! |
The preterite brukte keeps the k and adds -te; the supine brukt is that form minus its final -e. Do not be tempted into *bruket (a Class 1 form that does not exist for this verb). The imperative bruk! is simply the stem.
Bruker du gaffel eller spiser du med hendene?
Do you use a fork, or do you eat with your hands?
Vi brukte en hel dag på å male stua.
We spent a whole day painting the living room.
Har du brukt opp all melken igjen?
Have you used up all the milk again?
Sense 1: use a thing
The core meaning is straightforward "use" — a tool, an object, a method, a language. The grammar matches English almost exactly: subject + bruke + direct object.
Hvilket program bruker du for å redigere bilder?
Which program do you use to edit pictures?
Hun brukte et ord jeg aldri hadde hørt før.
She used a word I had never heard before.
Sense 2: bruke tid/penger på — spend time and money
Here is the first thing that trips up English speakers. English has two verbs — you spend time but you also spend money — yet it never says "use time". Norwegian uses bruke for both, and crucially it governs the preposition på ("on") before the activity or object:
- bruke tid på = spend time on
- bruke penger på = spend money on
| Norwegian | Literal | Natural English |
|---|---|---|
| bruke tid på noe | use time on something | spend time on something |
| bruke penger på noe | use money on something | spend money on something |
| bruke opp | use up | use up / finish off |
Jeg bruker altfor mye penger på kaffe.
I spend far too much money on coffee.
Hvor lang tid brukte du på hjemmeleksene?
How long did you spend on the homework?
Sense 3: bruke å + infinitive — the habitual "usually"
This is the construction nobody sees coming. Bruke å + infinitive expresses a habit — "usually do / tend to do" — and is interchangeable with the more textbook pleie å. It describes what typically happens, not what is happening right now.
Vi bruker å spise middag rundt seks.
We usually have dinner around six.
Han brukte å sykle til jobben før i tiden.
He used to cycle to work back in the day.
Note the crucial overlap and the crucial difference with English. English "I used to cycle" maps neatly onto the preterite brukte å sykle ("used to, but no longer"). But English "I usually cycle" (a present habit) maps onto the present bruker å sykle. Do not let the English word "used" pull you always into the past tense — match the tense to whether the habit is current or finished.
bruke vs pleie
For the habitual sense, pleie å is the more neutral, slightly more written-standard choice; bruke å is common in everyday speech, especially in many dialects, and is fully acceptable in Bokmål. They mean the same thing. Both take å + infinitive, and neither has a continuous form — Norwegian expresses habit lexically, with these verbs, rather than with a special tense.
Jeg pleier å stå opp tidlig, men i dag sov jeg lenge.
I usually get up early, but today I slept in.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg spenderer mye tid på dette.
Awkward — spendere exists but is uncommon; for time Norwegian uses bruke.
✅ Jeg bruker mye tid på dette.
I spend a lot of time on this.
❌ Vi bruker mye penger mat.
Incorrect — missing the governed preposition på.
✅ Vi bruker mye penger på mat.
We spend a lot of money on food.
❌ Har du bruket den nye telefonen?
Incorrect — Class 1 -et; bruke is Class 2 with supine brukt.
✅ Har du brukt den nye telefonen?
Have you used the new phone?
❌ Vi bruker spise middag klokka seks.
Incorrect — habitual bruke needs å before the infinitive.
✅ Vi bruker å spise middag klokka seks.
We usually have dinner at six o'clock.
Key takeaways
- bruke / bruker / brukte / har brukt / bruk! — weak Class 2, single-t supine.
- One verb covers "use" and "spend": bruke tid/penger på (the på is mandatory).
- bruke å
- infinitive = "usually / tend to", a synonym of pleie å.
- Match the tense to the habit: present bruker å = "usually"; preterite brukte å = "used to".
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.
- 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.
- i vs på vs om: TimeA2 — The full systematic range of time prepositions — i (duration, this-period, years), på (named days, completion-within), om (future, habitual times of day), plus ved and for…siden — with the duration-vs-completion trap.
- The Infinitive and the Marker åA1 — The dictionary form of the verb, the infinitive marker å ('to') and when it appears, why modal verbs take a bare infinitive, and how å contrasts with the identical-sounding conjunction og.