elske ("to love") is grammatically the easiest verb on this page — a textbook weak Class 1 verb with no surprises in its forms. The real lesson here is cultural and lexical, not morphological: Norwegian elske is a strong word, reserved for romantic love and deep passion, and using it the way English uses "love" — for your grandmother, your friends, or your morning coffee with equal ease — will sound startlingly intense to a Norwegian. For warm affection toward people, Norwegians say være glad i.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (-et / -et). Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å elske | to love |
| Presens | elsker | love(s), am/is/are loving |
| Preteritum | elsket | loved |
| Perfektum | har elsket | have/has loved |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde elsket | had loved |
| Futurum | skal/vil elske | will love |
| Imperativ | elsk! | love! |
| Presens partisipp | elskende | loving (adjective) |
elske — strong, romantic love
elske is the verb of romance, passion, and the most profound attachments. You say it to a partner, in wedding vows, in love songs — it carries real weight. Said lightly, to a casual acquaintance or about a sandwich, it lands oddly, because Norwegians keep this word for things that genuinely move them.
Jeg elsker deg — det har jeg gjort fra første dag.
I love you — I have from the very first day.
De har elsket hverandre i over førti år.
They've loved each other for over forty years.
Hun elsket ham, men turte aldri å si det.
She loved him but never dared to say it.
elske å — love doing something
With activities and things, elske softens into enthusiasm — "really love doing X." This usage is perfectly natural and common, especially among younger speakers, and here it overlaps with the looser English "love." Note the infinitive marker å after it.
Jeg elsker å gå på ski når sola skinner.
I love skiing when the sun is shining.
Ungene elsker å bade i sjøen om sommeren.
The kids love swimming in the sea in summer.
være glad i — be fond of (for people you care about)
This is the high-value distinction. For warm, affectionate love toward family and friends — your parents, siblings, kids, close friends — Norwegians overwhelmingly use være glad i ("be fond of, hold dear"), not elske. To a Norwegian, telling your brother jeg elsker deg sounds romantic and out of place; jeg er glad i deg is the warm, everyday thing to say. The construction is være glad i + person/thing, with the preposition i.
English has no clean equivalent — "I'm fond of you" is too cool and formal, while "I love you" is too strong. være glad i sits exactly in that missing middle: heartfelt but not romantic.
Jeg er så glad i deg, lillebror.
I love you so much, little brother.
Hun er veldig glad i besteforeldrene sine.
She loves her grandparents very much.
Vi er glade i deg, og vi er stolte av deg.
We love you, and we're proud of you.
Note that glad agrees in number: one person is glad i, several are glade i.
like — when "love" really just means "like a lot"
When English "love" is hyperbole for ordinary liking — "I love this café" — Norwegian often prefers like ("like"), optionally boosted with veldig godt ("very much"). Reserving elske keeps it meaningful.
Jeg liker denne kafeen veldig godt.
I love this café (= I like it a lot).
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg elsker mamma og pappa.
Too strong — for family, Norwegians say være glad i, not elske
✅ Jeg er glad i mamma og pappa.
I love my mum and dad.
❌ Vi har elskte dette huset i mange år.
Incorrect — elske is Class 1; the supine is elsket, not elskte
✅ Vi har elsket dette huset i mange år.
We've loved this house for many years.
❌ Han elsker reise rundt i verden.
Incorrect — elske + verb needs the infinitive marker å
✅ Han elsker å reise rundt i verden.
He loves travelling around the world.
❌ Jeg er glad deg.
Incorrect — the construction needs the preposition i: glad i
✅ Jeg er glad i deg.
I love you / I'm fond of you.
Key Takeaways
- elske / elsker / elsket / har elsket / elsk! — weak Class 1, both past forms elsket (never elskte).
- elske = strong, romantic love, or genuine enthusiasm for an activity (elske å
- infinitive).
- For affection toward family and friends, use være glad i
- person — heartfelt but not romantic. glad → glade in the plural.
- For mild "love" that just means "like a lot," prefer like (veldig godt).
- Misusing elske for relatives is the single most common transfer error English speakers make here.
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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).
- like (to like)A1 — Conjugation and usage of like, a weak Class 2 verb, including like + noun, like å + infinitive, the reflexive like seg, and the contrast with glad i and elske.
- være (to be)A1 — The complete conjugation of Norwegian's most important verb — present er, preterite var, supine vært, imperative vær — a fully suppletive copula whose forms never change for person.
- Verbs with Fixed PrepositionsB1 — Verbs that govern a fixed, unpredictable preposition you must memorise as a unit: vente på (wait for), tenke på (think about), lete etter (look for), be om (ask for), glede seg til (look forward to), bestemme seg for (decide on) — where the Norwegian preposition almost never matches English.