hoppe ("to jump") is a regular weak Class 1 verb that does double duty: it covers literal jumping — children on a trampoline, a skier off a ramp — and a rich set of figurative idioms where you "jump over" a chapter (skip it), "jump off" a project (drop out), or "jump into it" (take the plunge). Because the literal meaning is so transparent, the real learning on this page is in the particles, which carry meanings English speakers won't always guess.
Conjugation
Class: weak, Class 1 (-et / -et). Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å hoppe | to jump |
| Presens | hopper | jump(s), am/is/are jumping |
| Preteritum | hoppet | jumped |
| Perfektum | har hoppet | have/has jumped |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde hoppet | had jumped |
| Futurum | skal/vil hoppe | will jump |
| Imperativ | hopp! | jump! |
| Presens partisipp | hoppende | jumping (adjective) |
The Class 1 pattern
hoppe is about as regular as a Norwegian verb gets. It is Class 1, the weak class that adds -et for both the preterite and the supine. There is no vowel change, no irregular stem — only the steady double p to remember. If you know snakke / snakket ("talk / talked") or kaste / kastet ("throw / threw"), you already know how hoppe behaves.
Barna hopper på trampolinen i hagen.
The kids are jumping on the trampoline in the garden.
Katten hoppet opp på kjøkkenbenken igjen.
The cat jumped up onto the kitchen counter again.
Jeg har aldri hoppet i fallskjerm, men jeg vil gjerne prøve.
I've never gone skydiving, but I'd love to try.
The one thing to get right is the class: because the stem hopp- ends in two consonants, hoppe is firmly Class 1 and takes -et, not the -te of Class 2. Learners who have just met verbs like spise → spiste sometimes over-generalise and produce hoppte — but that form does not exist. The double p of the stem is what tells you to reach for -et: two final consonants almost always signal the -et (Class 1) pattern, so hoppet, never hoppte.
hoppe over — to skip (as well as to jump over)
The single most useful idiom is hoppe over, which spans both a literal and a figurative sense:
- literal: jump over an obstacle. Hesten hoppet over gjerdet.
- figurative: skip something — a meal, a chapter, a step, your turn. Jeg hopper over frokosten i dag.
English uses two different verbs ("jump over" vs "skip"), but Norwegian comfortably uses one. Context tells them apart: you jump over a fence, you skip a chapter.
Vi hopper over kapittel tre og går rett til kapittel fire.
We'll skip chapter three and go straight to chapter four.
Jeg hoppet over lunsj fordi jeg hadde det travelt.
I skipped lunch because I was busy.
hoppe av — to jump off, and to drop out
hoppe av also carries a literal and a figurative meaning:
- literal: jump off something — a bus, a wall, a moving train. Hopp av ved neste stopp.
- figurative: drop out / pull out / quit — leave a course, a project, a team, or (in politics) defect. Tre studenter hoppet av studiet.
Pass på, ikke hopp av bussen før den har stoppet helt.
Be careful, don't jump off the bus before it has fully stopped.
To av deltakerne hoppet av prosjektet midtveis.
Two of the participants dropped out of the project halfway through.
hoppe i det — take the plunge
A favourite everyday idiom is hoppe i det — literally "jump into it," figuratively "take the plunge, just go for it" when facing a daunting decision. It captures exactly that moment of deciding to stop hesitating and commit.
Vi var usikre lenge, men til slutt bestemte vi oss for å hoppe i det.
We were unsure for a long time, but in the end we decided to take the plunge.
Slutt å nøl — bare hopp i det!
Stop hesitating — just go for it!
Common Mistakes
❌ Vi hoppte over middagen.
Incorrect — hoppe is Class 1, so the preterite is hoppet (-et), never the Class 2 -te form hoppte
✅ Vi hoppet over middagen.
We skipped dinner.
❌ Jeg hoppet av bussen ved torget.
Odd — for ordinary 'I got off the bus' use gå av; hoppe av literally means leap off, as if the bus were moving
✅ Jeg gikk av bussen ved torget.
I got off the bus at the square.
❌ Kan vi hoppe denne delen?
Incorrect — 'skip' needs the particle over: hoppe over
✅ Kan vi hoppe over denne delen?
Can we skip this part?
❌ Hun har hoppe i fallskjerm før.
Incorrect — after har you need the supine hoppet, not the infinitive
✅ Hun har hoppet i fallskjerm før.
She has gone skydiving before.
Key Takeaways
- hoppe / hopper / hoppet / har hoppet / hopp! — regular weak Class 1; preterite and supine are identical (hoppet), always with double p.
- hoppe over = jump over and skip; hoppe av = jump off and drop out — one verb, two everyday senses each.
- The particle is a separate, stressed word; don't drop it (you can't "skip" with bare hoppe).
- hoppe i det = "take the plunge" — commit despite the hesitation.
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Weak Class 1: -et / -a (kaste)A2 — The largest weak verb class — preterite and supine both in -et (kaste → kastet → har kastet) — and the fully correct colloquial -a variant (kasta, snakka).
- 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).
- Prefixed Verbs: be-, for-, an-, unn-B2 — The inseparable, unstressed verb prefixes (mostly Low German) — be- (betale), for- (forstå), an- (anbefale), unn- (unngå), gjen-, mis-, sam- — that fuse to the front of a verb, never separate, and shift its meaning into a more abstract, formal register.
- Particle vs Prefix: Stress Changes MeaningC1 — In pairs like bryte ut (break out) vs utbryte (exclaim) and stå opp (get up) vs oppstå (arise), a stressed separable particle gives the literal meaning and an unstressed inseparable prefix gives the figurative one — stress is phonemic, carrying lexical meaning.