This is the conjugation reference for gjøre, "to do / to make." It carries two surprises for English speakers. First, the initial g is silent: gjøre sounds roughly like "YØ-re," and gjør like "yør." Second — and this is the conceptual headline — Norwegian has no do-support. English props up questions and negatives with "do" (Do you...? I don't...), but Norwegian doesn't, so gjøre stays a full lexical verb and never becomes a grammatical helper.
Principal parts
Gjøre is irregular throughout. Note the ø in the infinitive and present, and the silent g in every form. The supine gjort and preterite gjorde also keep the silent g.
| Infinitive | Present | Preterite | Perfect (har + supine) | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| å gjøre | gjør | gjorde | har gjort | gjør! |
| to do / make | do(es) / make(s) | did / made | have done | do! |
Hva gjør du i helga?
What are you doing this weekend?
Jeg gjorde leksene før middag.
I did my homework before dinner.
Har du gjort alt du skulle?
Have you done everything you were supposed to?
gjøre = do, and gjøre vs. lage = make
Gjøre covers the broad sense of do — to perform an action or activity:
Det er ikke mye å gjøre her i dag.
There's not much to do here today.
For "make" in the sense of produce / build / prepare something concrete, Norwegian usually prefers lage, not gjøre. Lage mat = "make food/cook," lage en avtale = "make an appointment." Reach for gjøre when no physical object is being produced (do a task, make an effort, make a mistake as an action), and lage when something tangible results.
Jeg lager middag, så kan du gjøre rent etterpå.
I'll make dinner, then you can do the cleaning afterwards.
Han gjorde en stor feil, men prøvde å rette den opp.
He made a big mistake, but tried to fix it.
There is genuine overlap and you'll meet exceptions, but the rule of thumb — lage makes a thing, gjøre does an action — gets you the right verb most of the time.
The pro-verb: gjøre det (do so)
Gjøre det ("do so / do it") stands in for a verb phrase already mentioned, the way English uses "do" to avoid repeating:
«Kan du rydde rommet?» «Ja, jeg skal gjøre det med en gang.»
'Can you tidy your room?' 'Yes, I'll do it right away.'
Hun lovte å ringe, og det gjorde hun.
She promised to call, and she did.
That last pattern — ...og det gjorde hun ("and she did") — is the natural Norwegian echo answer. Note the inversion: gjorde comes before the subject hun because det sits first in the clause.
Honest difficulty: there is NO do-support
This is the point that trips up every English speaker, so it deserves its own section. In English, "do" is recruited as a grammatical helper in three places where Norwegian simply does not use gjøre:
Questions — English inserts "do"; Norwegian just inverts the verb and subject (see questions/yes-no-questions):
Snakker du norsk?
Do you speak Norwegian? (literally 'Speak you Norwegian?' — no 'do')
Negation — English uses "don't"; Norwegian just adds ikke after the verb (see negation/ikke-placement):
Jeg liker ikke kaffe.
I don't like coffee. (literally 'I like not coffee')
Emphasis — English says "I do know"; Norwegian uses stress or an adverb like faktisk / jo, never gjøre:
Jeg vet det faktisk.
I do know that. (faktisk carries the emphasis, not gjøre)
So the rule is blunt: never insert gjøre to form a question, a negation, or emphasis. It only ever appears as a real verb meaning "do/make" or as the pro-verb gjøre det. Once this clicks, you stop producing the most common English-transfer error in the language.
Idioms with gjøre
A few high-frequency fixed expressions:
- gjøre det godt / bra — to do well, to succeed: bedriften gjør det godt i år.
- ha med ... å gjøre — to have to do with / be connected to: det har ingenting med deg å gjøre.
- gjøre seg ferdig — to finish up (reflexive).
Laget gjorde det bra i sesongen og endte på andreplass.
The team did well in the season and ended up in second place.
Det har ingenting med deg å gjøre.
That has nothing to do with you.
The imperative: gjør
The command is gjør (the bare present stem, silent g):
Gjør det nå, så slipper du å tenke på det senere.
Do it now, so you don't have to think about it later.
Common Mistakes
❌ Gjør du snakke norsk?
Incorrect — Norwegian has no do-support; invert the verb instead.
✅ Snakker du norsk?
Do you speak Norwegian?
❌ Jeg gjør ikke like kaffe.
Incorrect — no 'don't'; negate with ikke after the verb.
✅ Jeg liker ikke kaffe.
I don't like coffee.
❌ Har du gjørt leksene?
Incorrect — the supine is gjort, not 'gjørt'.
✅ Har du gjort leksene?
Have you done your homework?
❌ Jeg gjorde middag.
Incorrect — for preparing food use lage, not gjøre.
✅ Jeg lagde middag.
I made dinner.
❌ gjøre (pronounced with a hard English 'g')
Incorrect — the g is silent: 'YØ-re'.
✅ gjøre (pronounced 'YØ-re')
to do / make
Key Takeaways
- gjøre / gjør / gjorde / gjort, imperative gjør — silent g throughout, ø in the infinitive and present.
- gjøre = do an action; lage = make/produce a thing.
- Norwegian has no do-support: questions invert, negation uses ikke, emphasis uses stress — never gjøre.
- gjøre det is the pro-verb "do so / do it"; ...og det gjorde hun = "...and she did."
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Yes/No QuestionsA1 — Forming yes/no questions by putting the finite verb first, and the three-way answer system ja / jo / nei — including jo for contradicting a negative.
- Placing ikkeA2 — Everything about where ikke sits: after the finite verb in main clauses, before it in subordinate clauses, before a non-finite verb, and the object-shift rule — a pronoun jumps in front of ikke, but a full noun stays behind it.
- 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).
- si (to say)A1 — The full conjugation of si — present sier, preterite sa, supine sagt, imperative si — its silent g in sagt, the say/tell/speak split, and the key particles si til, si fra and si imot.