springe (to run/burst) | Norwegian Grammar

springe is a strong i–a–u verb whose English cousin is spring / sprang / sprung. Its meanings spread out from a single core idea of a sudden, energetic movement: to run, to leap, and to burst / break open. Which meaning is primary depends heavily on region — and that regional split, especially the way springe competes with løpe for "run," is the most important thing for a learner to understand on this page.

Conjugation

Class: strong, ablaut i–a–u. Auxiliary: ha (and være in some intransitive motion uses — see below).

Tense / mood	Norwegian	English
Infinitiv	å springe	to run / leap / burst
Presens	springer	run(s), leap(s), burst(s)
Preteritum	sprang	ran, leapt, burst
Perfektum	har sprunget	have/has run, leapt, burst
Pluskvamperfektum	hadde sprunget	had run, leapt, burst
Futurum	skal/vil springe	will run / leap / burst
Imperativ	spring!	run! / leap!
Presens partisipp	springende	running, leaping (adjective)
Perfektum partisipp	sprunget	burst, sprung (adjective)

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The supine is sprunget (u-vowel, single t), not the preterite sprang and not a weak-style *sprungte. Keep the trio in your ear: springer · sprang · sprunget — the same i–a–u shape as synge · sang · sunget and drikke · drakk · drukket.

The ablaut and the English cognate

springe runs the textbook three vowels i → a → u:

i: springe, springer, spring!
a: sprang
u: sprunget

The English cousin is spring / sprang / sprung — and here English actually preserves all three vowels too (spring → sprang → sprung), making this one of the cleanest cognate matches in the whole strong-verb system. If you can say "the trap sprang shut" and "water has sprung a leak," you already feel the Norwegian pattern. The senses line up as well: English "spring" also means leap, and "a leak has sprung" matches the bursting sense.

Hunden sprang etter ballen så fort den kunne.

The dog ran after the ball as fast as it could.

Han sprang over gjerdet i ett eneste sett.

He leapt over the fence in a single bound.

Plutselig sprang en av strengene på gitaren.

Suddenly one of the strings on the guitar snapped.

springe vs løpe — the "run" question

This is the high-value distinction. Both springe and løpe can mean "to run," but their distribution is regional and stylistic, and getting it right makes you sound far more native.

In much of eastern Norway (including the Oslo area), the everyday, neutral word for "run on foot" is springe. Jeg sprang til bussen = "I ran for the bus." Here løpe sounds slightly more formal or written, or is reserved for sport ("å løpe maraton").
In western and northern Norway, and in more formal/written Bokmål generally, løpe is the default verb for "run," while springe often shifts toward "leap / jump." A western speaker may understand springe primarily as "leap."
For organised running as a sport or activity ("go for a run," "running a race"), løpe is the safe, register-neutral choice nationwide: en løpetur ("a run"), å løpe maraton.

There is no single rule that covers every speaker — this is genuine dialectal variation, not a tidy grammatical alternation. Use løpe when you want a form that is correct everywhere; use springe for "run" if you are matching eastern colloquial speech.

Jeg sprang fra meg da jeg innså at toget gikk om to minutter.

I broke into a run when I realised the train was leaving in two minutes.

Hun løper en runde rundt vannet hver morgen.

She runs a loop around the lake every morning.

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If in doubt about "run," reach for løpe — it is understood and accepted everywhere and never gets misread as "leap." Use springe for "run" mainly to match casual eastern speech; in the west and north, listeners may hear it as "jump / leap."

springe + particle and the "burst" sense

The bursting / breaking sense, and several particle verbs, are everyday vocabulary:

springe ut — most famously, of buds and trees: to come into leaf, to burst into bloom. Trærne springer ut i mai = "the trees come into leaf in May." (More recently springe ut is also used figuratively for "to come out," e.g. about sexuality, on the model of English.)
springe i lufta — to blow up, explode (literally "spring into the air").
springe lekk — to spring a leak (of a boat, a pipe).
springe fram / springe ut av — to spring forth from, originate in (of ideas, feelings).

Hagen er på sitt vakreste når epletrærne springer ut.

The garden is at its most beautiful when the apple trees come into bloom.

Hele lageret sprang i lufta da brannen nådde gassflaskene.

The whole warehouse blew up when the fire reached the gas canisters.

Ideen har sprunget ut av mange års forskning.

The idea has sprung out of many years of research.

Using the supine in the perfect

After har / hadde, use the supine sprunget. With intransitive motion that stresses the journey or change of state, you may also encounter være as the auxiliary in older or more formal Bokmål (han var sprunget av gårde), but ha is the modern default and always safe.

Vi har sprunget hele veien hit — gi oss et øyeblikk.

We've run the whole way here — give us a moment.

Da legen kom, hadde blindtarmen allerede sprunget.

By the time the doctor came, the appendix had already burst.

Common Mistakes

❌ Han springet etter bussen.

Incorrect — springe is strong; the preterite is sprang, not the weak springet

✅ Han sprang etter bussen.

He ran after the bus.

❌ Jeg har sprang en mil i dag.

Incorrect — sprang is the preterite; after har use the supine sprunget

✅ Jeg har sprunget en mil i dag.

I've run ten kilometres today.

❌ Jeg løp til bussen. (said to an Oslo friend, expecting it to sound casual)

Not wrong, but in casual eastern speech sprang is the more natural choice for 'ran'

✅ Jeg sprang til bussen.

I ran for the bus.

❌ Blomstene har springet ut.

Incorrect — supine is sprunget; 'come into bloom' is springe ut → har sprunget ut

✅ Blomstene har sprunget ut.

The flowers have come into bloom.

Key Takeaways

springe / springer / sprang / har sprunget / spring! — strong, i–a–u, matching English spring/sprang/sprung exactly.
Core senses: run, leap, and burst / break open.
Regional split: in eastern Norway springe = "run" (neutral); in the west/north and in formal Bokmål, løpe = "run" and springe leans toward "leap." Use løpe when you want a form correct everywhere.
After har / hadde use the supine sprunget.
Key idiom: springe ut = "come into leaf / burst into bloom" (and, more recently, "come out").

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