føle (to feel) | Norwegian Grammar

føle ("to feel") is the verb you reach for whenever you talk about a mood, a sensation, or a gut reaction. It is a perfectly regular weak Class 2 verb, so its forms give you no trouble — but its grammar does, because the single most common way an English speaker uses it (I feel tired) requires a reflexive pronoun in Norwegian that English simply doesn't have. Get føle seg right and you have got the verb right.

Conjugation

Class: weak, Class 2 (-te / -t). Auxiliary: ha.

Tense / mood	Norwegian	English
Infinitiv	å føle	to feel
Presens	føler	feel(s), am/is/are feeling
Preteritum	følte	felt
Perfektum	har følt	have/has felt
Pluskvamperfektum	hadde følt	had felt
Futurum	skal/vil føle	will feel
Imperativ	føl!	feel!
Presens partisipp	følende	feeling (adjective)

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Class 2 means the preterite ends in -te and the supine in -t: følte, har følt. Don't borrow the Class 1 ending here: it is never følet. The stem keeps its ø all the way through — føle, føler, følte, følt, føl — so the only thing to watch is the consonant ending, not the vowel.

føle seg + adjective — the reflexive "feel"

Here is the heart of the page. When you describe how you yourself feel — tired, happy, sick, at home — Norwegian uses the reflexive: føle seg plus an adjective. The pronoun agrees with the subject (meg, deg, seg, oss, dere, seg), and the adjective agrees in number with the subject.

English has nothing like this. "I feel tired" has no reflexive pronoun, so learners instinctively drop the seg and say jeg føler trøtt — which sounds wrong to a Norwegian ear, like saying "I feel myself" is missing. The logic is that føle on its own is transitive: it wants an object you are sensing. To turn the sensing inward onto your own state, you supply yourself as that object with the reflexive pronoun.

Jeg føler meg trøtt etter en lang dag på jobb.

I feel tired after a long day at work.

Føler du deg bedre nå, eller skal vi dra hjem?

Do you feel better now, or should we go home?

Hun følte seg helt hjemme i den nye byen.

She felt completely at home in the new city.

Vi har følt oss velkomne her helt fra første dag.

We've felt welcome here right from the first day.

Note that the adjective inflects: one person feels trøtt, but several feel trøtte — Barna følte seg trøtte ("the children felt tired").

føle without seg — sensing something

Used non-reflexively, føle takes a direct object: you feel a thing — a pain, a draught, an emotion, a difference. There is no reflexive pronoun here because something other than yourself is being sensed.

Jeg føler en sterk smerte i ryggen når jeg bøyer meg.

I feel a sharp pain in my back when I bend over.

Kjente du jordskjelvet? Jeg følte ingenting.

Did you feel the earthquake? I felt nothing.

You will also meet føle at ("feel that") to introduce a whole clause — a hunch or an intuition rather than a fact:

Jeg føler at noe er galt, men jeg vet ikke hva.

I feel that something is wrong, but I don't know what.

And the phrasal føle på ("to feel / touch in order to check"), used when you physically run your hand over something to gauge it:

Føl på stoffet — er det ikke utrolig mykt?

Feel the fabric — isn't it incredibly soft?

føle vs kjenne — emotion vs physical sensation

Norwegian splits "feel" across two verbs, and the line is worth drawing carefully. føle leans toward emotion and inner state — moods, intuitions, how you are doing. kjenne leans toward physical, bodily sensation — feeling a touch, a smell, a temperature on your skin, recognising a taste. In many sentences both are possible and the difference is one of emphasis, but the prototypes are clear: you føler sad, you kjenner a cold wind.

The related noun is en følelse ("a feeling, an emotion"), and the plural is følelser — the everyday word for feelings in the emotional sense.

Jeg kjente en kald vind mot ansiktet.

I felt a cold wind against my face.

Det er vanskelig å sette ord på følelsene mine akkurat nå.

It's hard to put my feelings into words right now.

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Rule of thumb: if it happens in your heart, use føle; if it happens on your skin, use kjenne. For "feel tired / happy / at home," always go reflexive: føle seg.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jeg føler trøtt i dag.

Incorrect — to describe your own state you need the reflexive: føle seg

✅ Jeg føler meg trøtt i dag.

I feel tired today.

❌ Hun har følet seg syk hele uka.

Incorrect — føle is Class 2; the supine is følt, not følet

✅ Hun har følt seg syk hele uka.

She has felt ill all week.

❌ Vi føler oss trøtt etter turen.

Incorrect — the adjective must agree in number; plural subject takes trøtte

✅ Vi føler oss trøtte etter turen.

We feel tired after the hike.

❌ Jeg følte en varm sol og følte meg den på huden.

Incorrect — for a physical sensation on the skin, Norwegian prefers kjenne

✅ Jeg kjente den varme sola på huden.

I felt the warm sun on my skin.

Key Takeaways

føle / føler / følte / har følt / føl! — weak Class 2, ø throughout, supine følt (one t).
To say how you feel, use the reflexive føle seg + adjective, and make the adjective agree: føle seg trøtt / trøtte.
Drop the reflexive only when something else is the object: føle en smerte, føle at....
Split "feel" by sense: føle for emotion and inner state, kjenne for physical sensation on the body.
The noun is en følelse (plural følelser) — feelings in the emotional sense.

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