finne ("to find") is among the most-used verbs in Norwegian, and it carries far more than its dictionary meaning. It is a strong verb of the same i–a–u family as drikke, it lives inside a cluster of essential idioms (finne ut, finne på, finne sted), and it has a closely related cousin — finnes — that is the everyday way to say "there is" or "to exist." Learning finne well means learning all of these together.
Conjugation
Class: strong, ablaut i–a–u. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å finne | to find |
| Presens | finner | find(s), am/is/are finding |
| Preteritum | fant | found |
| Perfektum | har funnet | have/has found |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde funnet | had found |
| Futurum | skal/vil finne | will find |
| Imperativ | finn! | find! |
| Presens partisipp | finnende | finding (adjective) |
| Passiv (infinitiv) | å finnes | to be found / to exist |
The ablaut and the English cognate
finne runs the same three vowels as drikke: i → a → u.
- i: finne, finner
- a: fant
- u: funnet
The English cousin is find / found / found. English collapsed its preterite and past participle into one form ("found"), but the deep pattern is the same strong, vowel-changing verb. The Norwegian version keeps preterite (fant) and supine (funnet) visibly distinct — which, helpfully, mirrors the older logic English speakers already feel: nobody says "I have found" expecting it to differ from "I found," yet the two are doing different grammatical jobs, and Norwegian simply spells that difference out.
This is exactly the same i–a–u template as drikke, so if you have already drilled drikke/drakk/drukket you get finne/fant/funnet almost for free. The one wrinkle is the consonant count, which the tip below flags: the preterite drops a letter and the supine keeps it. That single-n / double-n split is the only thing that trips learners up here; the vowels look after themselves.
Jeg finner ikke nøklene mine — har du sett dem?
I can't find my keys — have you seen them?
Hun fant svaret bakerst i boka.
She found the answer at the back of the book.
Har du funnet ut hvor festen skal være?
Have you found out where the party is going to be?
finne vs finnes — find vs exist
This is the high-value distinction on the page. Add an -s to finne and the meaning shifts from transitive "find" to intransitive "exist / be present." finnes is the ordinary, everyday way to say "there is / there are" when you mean something exists somewhere in the world.
- finne (transitive): someone finds something. Jeg finner det — "I find it."
- finnes (intransitive, no object): something exists. Det finnes — "it exists / there is."
finnes conjugates by stacking the -s onto the same strong stem: finnes / fantes / har funnes. Grammarians call this an s-verb (or "deponent" — a verb that wears a passive-looking -s but is active in meaning). The -s here is the same ending that builds the passive elsewhere, which is why å finnes literally feels like "to be found" and shades naturally into "to exist." You will meet the same -s on a small set of high-frequency verbs (synes "think/seem," trives "thrive," lykkes "succeed"), so finnes is worth knowing as your gateway example of the type.
There is a register note worth making: in careful or formal Norwegian, det finnes asserts genuine existence ("such a thing is to be found in the world"), whereas the plainer det er just locates something ("there's a cup on the table"). In casual speech the two blur, but a writer choosing det finnes is usually making a slightly stronger, more general claim.
Det finnes ingen enkel løsning på dette problemet.
There is no simple solution to this problem.
Før internett fantes, måtte man slå opp i leksikon.
Before the internet existed, you had to look things up in an encyclopedia.
Det finnes folk som faktisk liker å stå opp tidlig.
There are people who actually like getting up early.
Idioms with finne
finne anchors several fixed expressions that you must learn as units, because their meanings are not literal:
- finne ut (av) — to find out, figure out. finne ut before a clause, finne ut av before a noun: finne ut hvor but finne ut av problemet.
- finne på — to make up / come up with, or to get up to (mischief). Hva finner du på? = "What are you up to?"
- finne sted — to take place, happen (of an event). Always with sted and no article.
- finne seg i — to put up with, tolerate. Det finner jeg meg ikke i! = "I won't stand for that!"
Vi må finne ut av dette før møtet i morgen.
We have to figure this out before tomorrow's meeting.
Barna fant på en lek mens vi voksne snakket.
The kids made up a game while we adults talked.
Konserten finner sted i Operaen på lørdag.
The concert takes place at the Opera House on Saturday.
Jeg finner meg ikke i å bli snakket sånn til.
I won't put up with being spoken to like that.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vi finnet huset etter en time.
Incorrect — finne is strong; the preterite is fant, not finnet
✅ Vi fant huset etter en time.
We found the house after an hour.
❌ Jeg har fant nøklene.
Incorrect — fant is the preterite; after har use the supine funnet
✅ Jeg har funnet nøklene.
I've found the keys.
❌ Det finner et godt svar på dette.
Incorrect — for 'there is/exists' use finnes, not finne
✅ Det finnes et godt svar på dette.
There is a good answer to this.
❌ Møtet finner plass klokka to.
Incorrect — the idiom is 'finne sted', not 'finne plass' (a calque of 'take place')
✅ Møtet finner sted klokka to.
The meeting takes place at two o'clock.
Key Takeaways
- finne / finner / fant / har funnet / finn! — strong, i–a–u, like English find/found.
- Spelling trap: fant (one n) vs funnet (two n's).
- finnes = "to exist / there is"; use it, not finne, when nothing is being found.
- Learn the idioms whole: finne ut (av), finne på, finne sted, finne seg i.
Now practice Norwegian
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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.
- Deponent s-Verbs: synes, finnes, trivesB1 — The lexical -s verbs that are never passives — synes, finnes, trives, lykkes — and the three-way 'think' split between synes, tror and mener.
- The Presentative det: det er / det finnesA2 — Norwegian's 'there is/are' is det — a dummy that introduces a NEW, indefinite thing which then follows the verb (det er en katt i hagen). It never agrees with number: always det, even before plurals (det er mange biler).
- drikke (to drink)A2 — Full conjugation of the strong verb drikke — the model i–a–u verb (drikke / drikker / drakk / har drukket) with senses, particles, and natural examples.