komme ("to come") is among the first verbs you will ever need in Norwegian — jeg kommer ("I'm coming"), kom hit! ("come here!") — and it hides two things worth getting right from day one. First, it is a strong verb with a vowel-change past: kom (preterite), kommet (supine). Second, and most useful of all, komme til å + infinitive is the most natural everyday way to talk about the future and to make predictions — det kommer til å regne ("it's going to rain"). Get those two right and you have unlocked a workhorse verb.
Conjugation
Class: strong. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å komme | to come |
| Presens | kommer | come(s); am/is/are coming |
| Preteritum | kom | came |
| Perfektum | har kommet | have/has come |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde kommet | had come |
| Futurum | skal/vil komme | will come |
| Imperativ | kom! | come! |
| Presens partisipp | kommende | coming (adjective: den kommende uka, "the coming week") |
The strong preterite: kom
As a strong verb, komme forms its past tense by changing the vowel and shortening, not by adding -et or -te. The result is kom — one form for every person: jeg kom, du kom, han/hun kom, vi kom, de kom. There is no -te ending here, so resist the urge to write "kommte" or "komte."
Han kom for sent til møtet.
He came / arrived too late for the meeting.
Vi kom hjem rundt midnatt.
We got home around midnight.
Bussen kom ikke i dag.
The bus didn't come today.
The supine: har kommet — with ha, never være
After the auxiliary ha, use the supine kommet (double m, ending -et): har kommet, hadde kommet. This is the single most important point on the page for English speakers who also know German or Dutch.
In German you say ich *bin gekommen and in Dutch ik **ben gekomen — verbs of motion take *be as their auxiliary. Norwegian does not. Modern Bokmål uses ha ("have") for the perfect of practically every verb, including verbs of motion like komme, gå, dra, and reise. So it is har kommet, never "er kommet."
For an English speaker this is actually a relief — English also says have come, not "is come" (outside archaic phrases like "Christmas is come"). The trap is only for polyglots importing the sein/zijn habit from German or Dutch.
Har de kommet ennå?
Have they arrived yet?
Toget har akkurat kommet.
The train has just arrived.
Da vi ankom, hadde gjestene allerede kommet.
When we arrived, the guests had already come.
Sense 1: come / arrive
The core meaning is come — motion toward the speaker or toward a stated point — and very often, by natural extension, arrive (to reach a destination). Norwegian uses one verb where English sometimes prefers "arrive": Når kommer toget? is literally "When does the train come?" but means "When does the train arrive?"
Jeg kommer nå!
I'm coming now! (e.g. shouted back when someone calls you)
Kommer du i bursdagen min?
Are you coming to my birthday party?
Hvor kommer du fra?
Where are you from? (literally: where do you come from?)
The future: komme til å + infinitive
This is the headline construction. komme til å + infinitive is the everyday way to express the future, especially a prediction — something you expect will happen, based on how things are going. It corresponds almost exactly to English "going to": det kommer til å regne = "it's going to rain."
Norwegian has three main ways to talk about the future. skal signals plan or intention ("I'm going to / I will, deliberately"); vil leans toward willingness or a more neutral prediction; and komme til å is the natural choice for predictions and developments outside anyone's control — what you foresee, not what you intend. You don't plan for it to rain; you predict it. So det kommer til å regne, not det skal regne (which would sound like rain has an appointment).
Det kommer til å regne i morgen.
It's going to rain tomorrow. (prediction — outside your control)
Dette kommer til å gå bra.
This is going to go well / turn out fine.
Hun kommer til å bli sint hvis du ikke ringer.
She's going to get angry if you don't call.
Jeg tror det kommer til å ta lang tid.
I think it's going to take a long time.
Note the fixed shape: komme is conjugated for tense (kommer, kom), then invariable til å, then a bare infinitive. In the past, kom til å often means "happened to / ended up (accidentally)": Jeg kom til å si det = "I happened to / accidentally said it."
Particles and reflexive idioms
komme combines with little words into several high-frequency idioms. Treat each as a unit:
- komme på — "think of / remember (suddenly)," and also "cost": Jeg kommer ikke på navnet ("I can't think of the name"); Det kommer på 200 kroner ("It comes to / costs 200 kroner").
- komme over — "come across / get over": Jeg kom over en gammel bok ("I came across an old book").
- komme seg (reflexive) — "recover, get better"; and in the imperative, "get going / get a move on": Kom deg! ("Get going!"); Han kommer seg etter operasjonen ("He's recovering after the operation").
- komme fram — "arrive, get there; come through (be understood)."
Jeg kommer ikke på hva hun heter.
I can't think of what she's called.
Kom deg ut av sengen — vi er sene!
Get out of bed — we're late!
Bestemor kommer seg sakte etter influensaen.
Grandma is slowly recovering from the flu.
Common Mistakes
❌ De er kommet allerede.
Incorrect — Norwegian uses ha for the perfect, even for motion verbs
✅ De har kommet allerede.
They have already arrived.
❌ Det skal regne i morgen.
Awkward for a forecast — skal sounds like rain is a deliberate plan
✅ Det kommer til å regne i morgen.
It's going to rain tomorrow. (prediction)
❌ Han komte for sent.
Incorrect — komme is strong; the preterite is kom, no -te ending
✅ Han kom for sent.
He came too late.
❌ Har du kommt?
Incorrect — the supine keeps the -et ending and double m: kommet
✅ Har du kommet?
Have you arrived?
Key Takeaways
- komme / kommer / kom / har kommet / kom! — strong verb; preterite kom (single m, no -te), supine kommet (double m).
- Perfect is har kommet — ha, never være. English agrees (have come); only German/Dutch speakers need to unlearn bin/ben gekommen.
- komme til å
- infinitive is the everyday future / prediction, the equivalent of English "going to": det kommer til å regne.
- Core senses: come / arrive. Key idioms: komme på (think of / cost), komme over (come across), komme seg (recover / get going).
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- The Present Perfect: har + supineA2 — How to build the Norwegian present perfect with har plus the invariant supine — and why Norwegian uses har for every verb, including come, go and be.
- The Future: skal, vil, kommer til å, presentA2 — Norwegian has no dedicated future tense — instead it uses four strategies (present, skal, vil, kommer til å), each with its own nuance, and vil is a trap for English speakers.
- gå (to go / walk)A1 — Full conjugation of the strong verb gå (gå / går / gikk / har gått / gå!), with the meaning split English lacks: gå means walk / go on foot, so 'I'm going to Spain' is reiser/drar, not går. Covers the perfect with ha (har gått, never er gått), the idiom det går bra ('it's going fine'), and the particles gå på, gå av, gå ut, gå ned, gå an.
- 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).