få is small, irregular, and astonishingly versatile. As a main verb it means get / receive (jeg fikk et brev — "I got a letter"). But it also works almost like a modal: du får gå = "you may go" (permission), and crucially du får ikke = "you're not allowed to" (prohibition). It can mean manage to (få til), and combined with a past participle it forms a causative/resultative — få gjort ("get done"). One tiny verb covers what English splits across get, may, manage, have something done. It is strong: preterite fikk, supine fått.
Conjugation
Class: strong. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å få | to get / receive / be allowed |
| Presens | får | get(s); may; am/is/are allowed to |
| Preteritum | fikk | got; was/were allowed to |
| Perfektum | har fått | have/has got(ten); have been allowed to |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde fått | had got(ten) |
| Futurum | skal/vil få | will get |
| Imperativ | få! | get! (e.g. få se! = "let me see!") |
| Presens partisipp | fående | getting (rare) |
The strong preterite: fikk
få is strong, so the past is fikk — vowel change to i, double k, same for all persons: jeg fikk, du fikk, vi fikk. Beginners sometimes write "fådde" or "fåde"; both are wrong. (Notice the parallel with gå → gikk: two short strong verbs that both jump to -ikk in the past.)
Jeg fikk et brev fra banken.
I got a letter from the bank.
Fikk du beskjeden min?
Did you get my message?
Vi fikk ikke lov til å gå inn.
We weren't allowed to go in.
The supine: har fått (double t)
After the auxiliary ha, use the supine fått (keep the å, double t): har fått, hadde fått. The spelling trap is the double t: not "fåt," not "fådd."
Har du fått pakken ennå?
Have you got the parcel yet?
Jeg har fått nok av dette.
I've had enough of this.
Sense 1: get / receive
The base meaning is get / receive — to come into possession of something, or to have something happen to you. This is the everyday word for getting letters, gifts, news, illnesses, jobs, and children: få barn ("have children"), få en forkjølelse ("catch a cold").
Vi får lønn den 15. hver måned.
We get paid on the 15th of every month.
De fikk en datter i fjor.
They had a daughter last year. (få barn = have children)
Sense 2: permission — du får gå
Here få behaves like a modal verb. få + bare infinitive expresses permission / being allowed: Du får gå = "You may go / you're allowed to go." It overlaps with få lov til å ("be allowed to"), which spells the permission out more explicitly.
Du får gå når du er ferdig.
You may leave when you're done.
Får jeg låne pennen din?
May I borrow your pen?
Barna får lov til å se på TV en time.
The children are allowed to watch TV for an hour.
Sense 3: prohibition — du får ikke
This is the point English speakers most need, and it ties into a classic trap. Negated, få ikke means "not be allowed to / must not" — a prohibition:
- Du får ikke røyke her = "You are not allowed to smoke here."
Compare the må-trap: in Norwegian, du må ikke is ambiguous — by context and tone it can mean "you don't have to" (no obligation) or "you must not" (a prohibition). So when you want to forbid something unambiguously, the safe choice is du får ikke (you're not allowed) or du kan ikke — forms that can only forbid — rather than the two-faced du må ikke. (See errors/maa-ikke.)
Du får ikke røyke her — det er forbudt.
You're not allowed to smoke here — it's prohibited. (få ikke = prohibition)
Vi får ikke parkere på fortauet.
We're not allowed to park on the pavement.
Du får ikke gå før du har spist opp.
You're not allowed to leave until you've eaten up.
Sense 4: manage to — få til
få til means manage to / pull off / succeed in (doing) something — often something that took effort or skill. Jeg får det ikke til = "I can't manage it / I can't get it to work."
Endelig fikk jeg det til!
I finally managed it!
Hun får til alt hun prøver på.
She pulls off everything she attempts.
Sense 5: få + past participle — the causative / resultative
This is the construction English speakers most underuse. få + a past participle means get something done / have it brought about — you cause or achieve a result, often without doing it entirely yourself. It mirrors English "get/have something done":
- få gjort — "get done": Jeg fikk gjort leksene ("I got my homework done").
- få ordnet — "get sorted / arranged."
- få sett / få lest — "manage to see / read (get round to it)."
- få reparert bilen — "get the car repaired."
The nuance is achievement of a result: not just doing the action, but managing to get it accomplished (sometimes by someone else, like a mechanic).
Jeg fikk endelig vasket bilen i helga.
I finally got the car washed this weekend.
Vi må få reparert oppvaskmaskinen.
We need to get the dishwasher repaired.
Fikk du sett den filmen til slutt?
Did you get to see that film in the end?
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg fådde et brev.
Incorrect — få is strong; the preterite is fikk
✅ Jeg fikk et brev.
I got a letter.
❓ Du må ikke røyke her. (intending an unambiguous ban)
Ambiguous for a ban — 'må ikke røyke' can also be heard as 'you don't have to smoke'. Use får ikke.
✅ Du får ikke røyke her.
You're not allowed to smoke here. (unambiguous prohibition)
❌ Har du fåt pakken?
Incorrect — the supine is fått (keep the å, double t)
✅ Har du fått pakken?
Have you got the parcel?
❌ Jeg fikk gjøre leksene.
Wrong construction for 'got done' — use the past participle: få gjort
✅ Jeg fikk gjort leksene.
I got my homework done.
Key Takeaways
- få / får / fikk / har fått / få! — strong verb; preterite fikk (double k), supine fått (keep the å, double t).
- One verb, many jobs: get / receive (få et brev), permission (du får gå = you may), prohibition (du får ikke = not allowed), manage to (få til).
- For forbidding unambiguously, prefer får ikke over må ikke (which is ambiguous — it can also mean "don't have to").
- få + past participle = causative/resultative "get something done": få gjort, få reparert bilen.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- få: Get, Be Allowed, ManageB1 — The multifunctional få — main verb 'get/receive', the permission/prohibition modal (får ikke = 'is NOT allowed to'), 'manage to', and the resultative få + supine ('get something done').
- må / måtte: Necessity and Strong InferenceA2 — The modal må (måtte / måttet) — necessity and obligation ('have to'), strong logical inference ('must be'), and the high-stakes fact that må ikke is ambiguous: it can mean 'must not' OR 'don't have to', so the clear forms (trenger ikke, får ikke) carry the load.
- må ikke: The Dangerous NegationB1 — The one phrase that can invert your meaning: må ikke is genuinely ambiguous — it can mean 'must not' OR 'don't have to' — so to be understood, use the clear forms (trenger ikke for 'don't have to'; får ikke / skal ikke for a prohibition).
- ta (to take)A1 — Full conjugation of the strong verb ta (ta / tar / tok / har tatt / ta!), with its huge idiomatic range — ta bussen, ta en pause, ta feil, ta det med ro — and the particle verbs that English speakers must learn as units: ta med (bring), ta på (touch / put on), ta av (take off / set off), ta opp, ta igjen, ta seg av. Covers the strong preterite tok and the double-t supine tatt.