drikke ("to drink") is the textbook example of a Norwegian strong verb, and the single best one for an English speaker to learn first. Its three key vowels — i–a–u — line up exactly with English drink / drank / drunk, so the whole pattern is already sitting in your head; you just have to map it onto the Norwegian spellings. Master drikke and you have a template for a whole family of strong verbs.
Conjugation
Class: strong, ablaut i–a–u. Auxiliary: ha (as for every Norwegian verb).
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å drikke | to drink |
| Presens | drikker | drink(s), am/is/are drinking |
| Preteritum | drakk | drank |
| Perfektum | har drukket | have/has drunk |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde drukket | had drunk |
| Futurum | skal/vil drikke | will drink |
| Imperativ | drikk! | drink! |
| Presens partisipp | drikkende | drinking (adjective) |
| Passiv (infinitiv) | å drikkes | to be drunk (s-passive) |
The ablaut, and why it matches English
A strong verb signals the past not by adding an ending but by changing the stem vowel. drikke runs i → a → u:
- i in the present/infinitive: drikke, drikker
- a in the preterite: drakk
- u in the supine: drukket
English inherited the exact same verb from the same Germanic root, and it still runs the same three vowels: drink → drank → drunk. So you do not need to memorise drikke from scratch — you already conjugate it every day in English. The only new thing is the Norwegian dressing: the infinitive ends in -e, the present adds -er, and the supine adds -et.
Why does this matter beyond drikke itself? Because the i–a–u verbs form the largest and most regular strong class in Norwegian, and drikke is its cleanest member. Once the three vowels are fixed in your ear, you recognise the very same shape in finne/fant/funnet ("find"), synge/sang/sunget ("sing"), drikke's near-twin sprekke/sprakk/sprukket ("burst"), and a dozen more. Each of those keeps a doubled consonant and runs i → a → u, so learning drikke well is really learning a template. Be honest about the limit, though: nothing in the spelling of drikke tells you in advance that its past is drakk rather than, say, *drekk. You memorise the first verb of a class; after that the pattern carries you.
Jeg drikker mest vann, men en kaffe om morgenen må jeg ha.
I mostly drink water, but I have to have a coffee in the morning.
Han drakk for mye i bryllupet og angret dagen etter.
He drank too much at the wedding and regretted it the day after.
Har du drukket opp melka? Jeg trenger litt til kaffen.
Have you finished the milk? I need some for the coffee.
Senses and everyday use
The core sense is the plain one: to take liquid into your mouth. As in English, drikke on its own — with no object — also leans toward drinking alcohol: han drikker ("he drinks") strongly implies a drinking problem, exactly as in English. Give it an object and the implication vanishes: han drikker te is just "he drinks tea." This object-versus-no-object contrast is a small but real piece of pragmatics that transfers directly from English, so trust your instinct here.
The noun is closely related but spelled with a -k where the verb has -kk: en drikk is a drink/beverage in general (often a specific named one — en sportsdrikk), and the borrowed en drink is specifically a mixed alcoholic drink (a cocktail). For "something to drink" the everyday phrase is noe å drikke, and the collective "beverages" on a menu is drikkevarer. Notice that the -kk- of the verb survives into these nouns too — Norwegian is consistent about keeping the doubled consonant short-vowel spelling.
Vil du ha noe å drikke? Jeg har juice, vann og brus.
Do you want something to drink? I've got juice, water and soda.
Hun drikker ikke i det hele tatt — hun er helt avholds.
She doesn't drink at all — she's completely teetotal.
Particle and reflexive collocations
Two combinations are worth learning as fixed units:
- drikke opp — to drink up, finish a drink. The particle opp adds the sense of completion, just like English "drink up."
- drikke seg full — to get (oneself) drunk. This is a reflexive resultative: literally "drink oneself full." The reflexive pronoun agrees with the subject (jeg drikker meg full, de drikker seg fulle).
Drikk opp, så går vi — bussen kommer om fem minutter.
Drink up, and then we'll go — the bus is coming in five minutes.
De drakk seg fulle på øl og dansa til klokka tre.
They got drunk on beer and danced until three o'clock.
Etter at han hadde drukket seg full igjen, bestemte hun seg for å gå.
After he'd gotten drunk again, she decided to leave.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg har drakk tre kopper kaffe i dag.
Incorrect — drakk is the preterite; after har you need the supine drukket
✅ Jeg har drukket tre kopper kaffe i dag.
I've drunk three cups of coffee today.
❌ Han drikket en øl etter jobben.
Incorrect — drikke is strong, not weak; there's no -et preterite
✅ Han drakk en øl etter jobben.
He drank a beer after work.
❌ Har du drakket vannet?
Incorrect — double error: wrong vowel and weak ending; the supine is drukket
✅ Har du drukket vannet?
Have you drunk the water?
❌ Vi drakk for brudeparet.
Incorrect — to toast someone you 'skåle for', not 'drikke for'
✅ Vi skålte for brudeparet.
We toasted the bride and groom.
Key Takeaways
- drikke / drikker / drakk / har drukket / drikk! — strong, ablaut i–a–u, identical to English drink/drank/drunk.
- Keep the double k in every form, including drakk and drukket.
- After har/hadde use the supine drukket, never the preterite drakk.
- Useful units: drikke opp (finish a drink), drikke seg full (get drunk).
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
- The Strong Verb Ablaut ClassesB1 — The ablaut (vowel-change) classes of Norwegian strong verbs grouped by pattern — i–a–u, i–e–e, y/ju–ø–ø, a–o–å, e–a–e — each mapped onto its English cognate class so you can often guess the forms.
- finne (to find)A2 — Full conjugation of the strong verb finne (finne / finner / fant / har funnet), plus finnes (to exist) and the idioms finne ut, finne på and finne sted.
- Food, Meals and OrderingA2 — The Norwegian meal names, the takk-for-maten ritual, the matpakke, and how to order food and offer it naturally.
- 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).