snakke (to speak / talk) | Norwegian Grammar

snakke ("to speak / to talk") is the verb you'll reach for constantly, and it's the textbook example of a weak Class 1 verb — the largest and most regular verb class in Norwegian, the one whose past ends in -et (or colloquially -a). If you can conjugate snakke, you can conjugate hundreds of others (jobbe, like, vaske, lage…). The other half of the job is knowing when snakke is the right word at all: English "speak/talk/say/tell" maps onto four different Norwegian verbs, and snakke is only one of them.

Conjugation

Class: weak, Class 1 (-et / -a). Auxiliary: ha (as for every Norwegian verb).

Tense / mood	Norwegian	English
Infinitiv	å snakke	to speak / talk
Presens	snakker	speak(s), am/is/are speaking
Preteritum	snakket (snakka)	spoke, talked
Perfektum	har snakket (snakka)	have/has spoken
Pluskvamperfektum	hadde snakket (snakka)	had spoken
Futurum	skal/vil snakke	will speak
Imperativ	snakk!	speak! / talk!
Presens partisipp	snakkende	speaking (adjective)

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Keep the double kk in every form (snakke, snakker, snakket, snakka, snakk) — the doubled consonant marks the short a. The imperative drops the infinitive -e and ends in the bare double consonant: snakk!

The Class 1 pattern, and the -et / -a variants

A weak verb builds its past with an ending, and Class 1 — by far the biggest class — uses -et for both the preterite and the supine: snakket (spoke) and har snakket (have spoken). Unlike Class 2, here the two past forms are identical, which actually makes Class 1 easier: once you know the past is snakket, it's snakket after har too.

There's a fully accepted spoken/colloquial variant: the preterite and supine may end in -a instead of -et. So jeg snakka and har snakka are both correct, everyday Bokmål — not slang, not an error. The -et form is the more neutral written choice, while -a is extremely common in speech and informal writing, and obligatory in most dialects.

Form	Neutral / written	Colloquial / spoken
Preteritum	snakket	snakka (informal)
Perfektum	har snakket	har snakka (informal)

Jeg snakker norsk hjemme og engelsk på jobben.

I speak Norwegian at home and English at work.

Vi snakket lenge om hvordan vi skulle løse det.

We talked for a long time about how we'd solve it.

Jeg snakka med naboen i går — han skal flytte.

I talked to the neighbour yesterday — he's moving.

snakke + language, snakke med, snakke om

Three collocations carry most of the everyday weight:

snakke + language — name the language directly, with no article: snakke norsk, snakke engelsk, snakke tre språk. This is how you say what someone "speaks."
snakke med — to talk with/to someone. Norwegian uses med ("with") where English often uses "to," and there's no sense of one-sidedness — it's a conversation.
snakke om — to talk about a topic.

Note språk ("language") with å, and that snakke sammen means "talk together / talk to each other" — a handy way to suggest a conversation: Vi får snakke sammen senere.

Har du snakket med henne om det ennå?

Have you talked to her about it yet?

Kan du snakke saktere? Jeg lærer fortsatt norsk.

Can you speak more slowly? I'm still learning Norwegian.

De satt og snakket sammen helt til midnatt.

They sat and talked together right until midnight.

"Speak a language" — snakke vs kunne

There's a subtle split when it comes to languages. snakke norsk describes the act of speaking Norwegian — what you're doing in a conversation. kunne norsk ("know Norwegian") describes the ability — having the skill. So Snakker du norsk? asks whether you can/do speak it, while Kan du norsk? asks whether you have command of it. In practice both are common for "Do you speak Norwegian?", but if you want to say someone is fluent without reference to any particular moment of speaking, kunne is the natural verb: Hun kan flytende fransk. ("She knows fluent French.")

Snakker du norsk, eller skal vi ta det på engelsk?

Do you speak Norwegian, or shall we do this in English?

Han kan både tysk og russisk, men snakker dem sjelden.

He knows both German and Russian, but rarely speaks them.

snakke vs prate vs si vs fortelle

English "speak / talk / say / tell" splits four ways, and picking the wrong verb is a frequent error:

Verb	Use it for	Example
snakke	speak/talk (the neutral verb), speak a language	Vi snakker norsk. (We speak Norwegian.)
prate	chat, chatter — lighter, more casual (informal)	Vi sto og prata litt. (We stood chatting a bit.)
si	say — report specific words/content	Hun sa nei. (She said no.)
fortelle	tell, recount — narrate something to someone	Han fortalte en historie. (He told a story.)

The key contrasts: snakke is about the act of speaking, so it doesn't take the words spoken as an object — you can't *snakke "ja". To report the actual content, use si ("say": si ja, si noe) or fortelle ("tell," which always implies recounting to a listener, often with fortelle noen noe — tell someone something). prate is just a lighter, chattier cousin of snakke and is freely interchangeable with it in casual contexts. So snakke med naboen and prate med naboen both work; the prate version just sounds more relaxed.

Hun snakket i en time, men sa egentlig ingenting nytt.

She talked for an hour, but didn't really say anything new.

Fortell meg hva som skjedde — ikke hopp over noe.

Tell me what happened — don't skip anything.

More particles and idioms

snakke combines with particles to make several everyday expressions:

snakke sammen — talk together / talk to each other (see above).
snakke ut (om noe) — talk something through, get it off your chest.
snakke om — besides "talk about," the exclamation Snakk om...! means "Talk about...! / What a...!": Snakk om flaks! ("Talk about luck!").
snakke for seg — speak for oneself, or det taler for seg selv, "it speaks for itself" (note that the more formal tale, "to speak/give a speech," takes over in elevated register).

A useful register note: snakke is the neutral verb, but for giving a formal speech the verb is holde en tale ("hold a speech") or the verb tale (formal) — you wouldn't say *snakke en tale. So a friend snakker, but a minister holder en tale.

Vi må snakke ut om dette før det blir verre.

We need to talk this through before it gets worse.

Snakk om flaks — vi rakk toget med ett sekund til overs!

Talk about luck — we caught the train with one second to spare!

The topic of speaking has its own small vocabulary, partly built on snakke and partly on the more formal tale:

en samtale — "a conversation" (note å); the standard noun for a talk between people.
en prat / en passiar — "a chat" (informal), the nouns matching prate.
en tale — "a speech" (formal address); språk — "a language."
snakkesalig / pratsom — "talkative, chatty," adjectives for someone who loves to talk.

So you might say en lang samtale ("a long conversation"), ta en prat ("have a chat"), or describe a friend as veldig pratsom ("very chatty").

Vi tok en lang prat over en kopp kaffe.

We had a long chat over a cup of coffee.

Hun er utrolig pratsom — det blir aldri stille i bilen.

She's incredibly chatty — it's never quiet in the car.

Common Mistakes

❌ Vi snakte om filmen etterpå.

Incorrect — snakke is Class 1, not Class 2; the preterite is snakket (or snakka), not snakte

✅ Vi snakket om filmen etterpå.

We talked about the film afterwards.

❌ Hun snakket at hun var trøtt.

Incorrect — to report content use si or fortelle; snakke can't take the words as an object

✅ Hun sa at hun var trøtt.

She said she was tired.

❌ Jeg snakker til min sjef i morgen.

Unidiomatic — for a conversation use 'snakke med', not 'snakke til' (which implies talking at someone)

✅ Jeg skal snakke med sjefen min i morgen.

I'm going to talk to my boss tomorrow.

❌ Han snakker det engelske språket.

Unidiomatic — name the language bare: 'snakke engelsk', no article

✅ Han snakker engelsk.

He speaks English.

Key Takeaways

snakke / snakker / snakket (snakka) / har snakket / snakk! — weak Class 1, the model -et verb; the two past forms are identical.
-a (snakka) is fully correct, everyday spoken Bokmål alongside -et (snakket).
Core collocations: snakke norsk (no article), snakke med (talk to), snakke om (talk about).
Don't confuse the four: snakke (act of speaking) vs prate (chat) vs si (say content) vs fortelle (tell/recount).

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