ringe (to call / ring) | Norwegian Grammar

ringe is the everyday word for phoning someone. It is a tidy weak Class 2 verb — no vowel change, just the dependable -te / -t endings — and it sits at the centre of daily life: you ringer a friend, you ringte yesterday, you ask whether someone har ringt mum yet. The same verb also covers a bell or buzzer that rings, so when you press a doorbell you ringer på. Learn the two patterns ringe (til) noen and ringe på together and you have the whole verb.

Conjugation

Class: weak Class 2 (stem ending in a single voiced/sonorant consonant; endings -te / -t). Auxiliary: ha.

Tense / mood	Norwegian	English
Infinitiv	å ringe	to call / to ring
Presens	ringer	call(s), am/is/are calling
Preteritum	ringte	called
Perfektum	har ringt	have/has called
Pluskvamperfektum	hadde ringt	had called
Futurum	skal/vil ringe	will call
Imperativ	ring!	call! / ring!
Presens partisipp	ringende	ringing (adjective)

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The whole paradigm is built on one rule: drop the infinitive -e, then add -te for the preterite and -t for the supine. So ring- → ringte, ringt. There is no double consonant and no vowel change to remember — this is about as regular as Norwegian verbs get.

Why Class 2, not Class 1

Norwegian weak verbs split mainly into Class 1 (endings -et / -et, like å snakke → snakket) and Class 2 (endings -te / -t, like å ringe → ringte). The rough rule of thumb: stems ending in a single sonorant or voiced consonant — l, m, n, r, v — usually take Class 2. ringe ends in -ng (a single nasal sound), which is exactly the kind of stem that lands in Class 2. That is why *ringet is wrong: English speakers reach for it because Class 1's -et feels like the "default," but ringe has never been a Class 1 verb.

Jeg ringer deg i morgen tidlig, ok?

I'll call you tomorrow morning, okay?

Hun ringte i går, men du var ikke hjemme.

She called yesterday, but you weren't home.

Har du ringt mamma? Hun venter på deg.

Have you called mum? She's waiting for you.

Ring meg når du lander, så henter jeg deg.

Call me when you land, and I'll pick you up.

ringe noen vs ringe til noen — phoning someone

When you phone a person, both patterns are perfectly natural and extremely common:

ringe noen — Jeg ringer deg. The person is a direct object.
ringe til noen — Jeg ringer til deg. The person follows the preposition til.

There is essentially no difference in meaning, and you will hear both from native speakers all day long. The bare ringe noen is the more compact, conversational default; ringe til feels marginally more explicit and is common when the object is a longer phrase (ringe til kundeservice). Use whichever comes out — neither is wrong.

Kan du ringe legen og bestille time?

Can you call the doctor and book an appointment?

Jeg ringte til banken, men de svarte ikke.

I called the bank, but they didn't answer.

ringe på — ringing the doorbell

A separate, fixed sense: when a bell or buzzer rings, you ringer på. ringe på is what you do at someone's front door — you press the button and it rings. It is intransitive (no object), and the på is part of the expression.

Noen ringer på — kan du åpne?

Someone's at the door — can you get it?

Vi ringte på tre ganger, men ingen åpnet.

We rang the bell three times, but nobody answered.

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Don't confuse the verb ringe ("to call/ring") with the noun en ring ("a ring" — the jewellery, or a circle). They share a spelling in the stem but are different words: Han ga henne en ring ("He gave her a ring") is the object; Han ringte henne ("He phoned her") is the verb.

ringe opp and ringe tilbake — calling up and calling back

Two particle combinations round out the verb. ringe opp means "to call up / place a call to" someone, often emphasising the act of getting them on the line; ringe tilbake is "to call back / return a call." Both are extremely common in everyday and workplace Norwegian.

Jeg ringer deg opp så snart møtet er ferdig.

I'll call you as soon as the meeting is over.

Kan du be henne ringe tilbake når hun har tid?

Can you ask her to call back when she has time?

Telefonen ringer — det er sikkert pappa.

The phone is ringing — it's probably dad.

The phone vocabulary cluster

ringe sits at the centre of a small family of words worth learning together, because they recur constantly in daily life:

Norwegian	English
en telefon	a telephone / a phone call
et anrop / en samtale	a call / a (phone) conversation
å legge på	to hang up
å ta telefonen	to answer the phone
en telefonsvarer	an answering machine / voicemail

Note one collocation that surprises English speakers: you tar telefonen ("take the phone") to answer it, but you svarer på a message — the verb for answering a call is ta, not svare, when it's the physical act of picking up.

Han la på før jeg rakk å si farvel.

He hung up before I managed to say goodbye.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hun ringet meg i går.

Incorrect — ringe is Class 2; the preterite is ringte, not ringet

✅ Hun ringte meg i går.

She called me yesterday.

❌ Jeg har ringte deg tre ganger.

Incorrect — ringte is the preterite; after har use the supine ringt

✅ Jeg har ringt deg tre ganger.

I've called you three times.

❌ Ringe meg når du kommer hjem.

Incorrect — for a command use the imperative ring!, not the infinitive ringe

✅ Ring meg når du kommer hjem.

Call me when you get home.

❌ Jeg ga henne en ringte.

Incorrect — the noun 'a ring' is en ring; ringte is the verb's preterite

✅ Jeg ga henne en ring.

I gave her a ring.

Key Takeaways

ringe / ringer / ringte / har ringt / ring! — weak Class 2, endings -te / -t, no vowel change.
Phone a person with either ringe noen or ringe til noen — both are everyday Norwegian.
ringe på = ring the doorbell (intransitive, fixed på).
Spelling traps: it's ringte (not ringet), and the noun en ring is a different word from the verb.

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