vinne ("to win") is one of the first strong verbs you will need in everyday Norwegian — sports results, card games, elections, arguments, lotteries. It belongs to the same i–a–u ablaut family as finne, drikke and synge, and its English cousin win / won shares the very same Germanic root. Once you have the vowel pattern, the only thing left to watch is the consonant: the preterite vant has a single n, while the supine vunnet doubles it.
Conjugation
Class: strong, ablaut i–a–u. Auxiliary: ha.
| Tense / mood | Norwegian | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitiv | å vinne | to win |
| Presens | vinner | win(s), am/is/are winning |
| Preteritum | vant | won |
| Perfektum | har vunnet | have/has won |
| Pluskvamperfektum | hadde vunnet | had won |
| Futurum | skal/vil vinne | will win |
| Imperativ | vinn! | win! |
| Presens partisipp | vinnende | winning (adjective) |
| Passiv (s-form) | å vinnes | to be won |
The ablaut and the English cognate
vinne runs the classic three vowels of this strong class: i → a → u.
- i: vinne, vinner, vinn!
- a: vant
- u: vunnet
The English cousin is win / won / won. As with find/found, English flattened its preterite and past participle into a single form ("won"), while Norwegian keeps preterite (vant) and supine (vunnet) visibly apart. If you have already drilled finne/fant/funnet or drikke/drakk/drukket, then vinne/vant/vunnet costs you almost nothing — same vowels, same consonant doubling in the supine.
Hvem tror du vinner kampen i kveld?
Who do you think will win the match tonight?
Vi vant tre–null, men det var jevnere enn tallene tilsier.
We won three–nil, but it was closer than the score suggests.
Norge har aldri vunnet gull i fotball, men vi lever i håpet.
Norway has never won gold in football, but we live in hope.
Using the supine in the perfect
The supine vunnet is the form that follows har / hadde. Learners coming from English tend to reach for vant here because English uses the same word ("won") for both "we won" and "we have won" — but Norwegian draws a sharp line. After an auxiliary, only the supine works.
Har du noen gang vunnet noe i Lotto?
Have you ever won anything in the lottery?
Da vi kom fram, hadde laget allerede vunnet.
By the time we arrived, the team had already won.
vinne + particle and other uses
vinne takes on extra meanings with particles and prepositions. These are worth learning as fixed units:
- vinne over — to beat, defeat (someone). Vi vant over dem = "we beat them." Note: in everyday speech many Norwegians also just say slå ("Vi slo dem"), but vinne over is fully idiomatic.
- vinne fram — to gain ground, succeed, get through. Used of ideas, people and movements making headway. (Also spelled vinne frem.)
- vinne tilbake — to win back, regain (trust, a title, lost ground).
- vinne tid — to gain time, buy time, play for time. A very common fixed phrase: Han stilte spørsmål bare for å vinne tid = "he asked questions just to buy time."
- en vinner — a winner (noun). The everyday agent noun built straight off the stem. Its opposite is en taper ("a loser").
Til slutt vant hun over storebroren i sjakk for første gang.
In the end she beat her big brother at chess for the first time.
Hun dro ut møtet bare for å vinne tid før fristen.
She dragged the meeting out just to buy time before the deadline.
Det tok tid, men ideen vant til slutt fram i styret.
It took time, but the idea finally gained traction in the board.
Han er en typisk vinner — han gir aldri opp.
He's a born winner — he never gives up.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vi vinnet kampen i går.
Incorrect — vinne is strong; the preterite is vant, not the weak vinnet
✅ Vi vant kampen i går.
We won the match yesterday.
❌ Jeg har vant tre kamper på rad.
Incorrect — vant is the preterite; after har use the supine vunnet
✅ Jeg har vunnet tre kamper på rad.
I've won three matches in a row.
❌ Hun har vunnet en pris.
Incorrect — the supine has a double n: vunnet, not vunet
✅ Hun har vunnet en pris.
She has won a prize.
❌ Vi vant dem i finalen.
Incorrect — to 'beat someone' you need the particle: vinne over (or use slå)
✅ Vi vant over dem i finalen.
We beat them in the final.
Key Takeaways
- vinne / vinner / vant / har vunnet / vinn! — strong, i–a–u, like English win/won.
- Spelling trap: vant (one n) vs vunnet (two n's) — the same split as fant / funnet.
- After har / hadde always use the supine vunnet, never vant.
- To "beat someone" use vinne over (someone) — vinne alone takes a thing won (a match, a prize), not the opponent.
- The agent noun is en vinner ("a winner"); its opposite is en taper.
Now practice Norwegian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- The Strong Verb Ablaut ClassesB1 — The ablaut (vowel-change) classes of Norwegian strong verbs grouped by pattern — i–a–u, i–e–e, y/ju–ø–ø, a–o–å, e–a–e — each mapped onto its English cognate class so you can often guess the forms.
- Strong Verbs: Ablaut and the Vowel-Change ClassesA2 — Strong verbs build the past by changing the stem vowel instead of adding an ending (drikke → drakk → drukket) — the main ablaut series, grouped, with full tables and English cognate hooks.
- 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).
- finne (to find)A2 — Full conjugation of the strong verb finne (finne / finner / fant / har funnet), plus finnes (to exist) and the idioms finne ut, finne på and finne sted.
- synge (to sing)A2 — Conjugation of the strong verb synge (synge / synger / sang / har sunget), the i–a–u ablaut shared with English sing/sang/sung, and uses like synge med and synge i kor.