innebære ("to entail, to imply, to involve") is a formal, slightly bookish verb you meet constantly in news writing, contracts, reports and discussion: Dette innebærer at… ("This entails that…"). Like foreslå, it is a prefix verb hiding a strong base: inne- ("inside, within") plus bære ("to carry, to bear"). The image is exact — something carries within itself a consequence. That is precisely what "entail" means.
Conjugation
Class: strong, built on bære. Auxiliary: ha. The prefix inne- is inseparable.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å innebære | to entail / to imply |
| Presens | innebærer | entail(s), implies |
| Preteritum | innebar | entailed |
| Perfektum | har innebåret | have/has entailed |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde innebåret | had entailed |
| Futurum | skal/vil innebære | will entail |
| Imperativ | (innebær!) — rare | entail! (almost never used) |
| Presens partisipp | innebærende | entailing (rare) |
The strong verb inside it
innebære is strong because bære is strong. Norwegian keeps the ablaut alive through the prefix, exactly as in foreslå (from slå) or forstå (from stå):
- bære: bære / bærer / bar / båret
- innebære: innebære / innebærer / innebar / innebåret
The vowel journey æ → a → å is the same one you see in the base verb, so if you can say jeg bar sekken / jeg har båret sekken ("I carried the bag / I have carried the bag"), you already know det innebar / det har innebåret. English speakers tend to expect a regular -ed-type ending on such an abstract, formal word, but it stays Germanic and strong.
Den nye loven innebærer at alle må registrere seg.
The new law entails that everyone has to register.
Endringen innebar store kostnader for kommunen.
The change involved large costs for the municipality.
Avtalen har innebåret en rekke kompromisser.
The agreement has entailed a number of compromises.
How it is used: Det innebærer at…
By far the most common pattern is impersonal det as subject:
- Det innebærer at + clause — "It means / entails that…"
- noun + innebærer + noun — "X involves Y": Jobben innebærer mye reising. ("The job involves a lot of travelling.")
innebære almost never takes a personal subject and is rarely used in the imperative — it describes logical or practical consequences, not actions you order someone to perform. It belongs to (formal / academic) register; in casual speech people say betyr or fører til instead.
Å ta dette valget innebærer at vi må flytte.
Taking this decision means we have to move.
Stillingen innebærer ansvar for et helt team.
The position involves responsibility for a whole team.
innebære vs bety — entail vs mean
These overlap, and learners blur them. The distinction is real:
- bety ("to mean") — covers both the meaning of a word and the significance of something. Everyday, neutral register. Hva betyr dette ordet? ("What does this word mean?")
- innebære ("to entail/involve") — only the consequence-carrying sense, never the dictionary-meaning sense. Formal. Dette innebærer ekstra arbeid. ("This entails extra work.")
You can never use innebære to ask what a word means — that is always bety. But where English "this means that…" points at a result, Norwegian writing often upgrades to innebærer for precision and formality.
Hva betyr forkortelsen NAV egentlig?
What does the abbreviation NAV actually mean?
At han sa ja, innebærer at vi kan starte i morgen.
His saying yes means (entails) that we can start tomorrow.
Common Mistakes
❌ Det innebærte mye arbeid.
Incorrect — innebære is strong, not weak; the preterite is innebar, not *innebærte
✅ Det innebar mye arbeid.
It involved a lot of work.
❌ Avtalen har innebar store endringer.
Incorrect — after har use the supine innebåret, not the preterite innebar
✅ Avtalen har innebåret store endringer.
The agreement has entailed major changes.
❌ Hva innebærer dette ordet?
Incorrect — for the meaning of a word use bety, not innebære
✅ Hva betyr dette ordet?
What does this word mean?
❌ Det innebar at vi måtte vente, men det innebærer ingen problem.
Incorrect — mixing tenses; keep one timeframe and use det innebærer for the present claim
✅ Det innebærer at vi må vente, men det er ikke noe problem.
It means we have to wait, but that's no problem.
Key Takeaways
- innebære / innebærer / innebar / har innebåret — strong, built on bære.
- Vowel path æ → a → å: innebære → innebar → innebåret.
- inne- is inseparable; the verb is (formal / academic) and rarely imperative.
- Use Det innebærer at… for consequences; use bety for the meaning of words.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Weak Verbs: The Four ClassesA2 — A map of the four regular Norwegian past-tense classes (-et/-a, -te, -de, -dde) — how to predict a verb's class from its stem and how the supine differs from the preterite.
- 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.