vise (to show) | Norwegian Grammar

vise means to show — to let someone see something, to point it out, to demonstrate. It is a well-behaved weak Class 2 verb (vise / viser / viste / vist), and like its English twin it is naturally ditransitive: you vise noen noe, "show someone something." It also anchors one of the most useful idioms in Norwegian, vise seg ("to turn out / to appear"), the everyday way to say "it turned out that…." The one real hazard is spelling: the preterite viste ("showed") is a near-twin of visste ("knew"), and keeping them apart matters.

Conjugation

Class: weak Class 2 (endings -te / -t). Auxiliary: ha.

Tense / mood	Norwegian	English
Infinitiv	å vise	to show
Presens	viser	show(s)
Preteritum	viste	showed
Perfektum	har vist	have/has shown
Pluskvamperfektum	hadde vist	had shown
Futurum	skal/vil vise	will show
Imperativ	vis!	show!
Presens partisipp	visende	showing (adjective)
Passiv (s-form)	vises	is shown / is on (screening)

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The whole paradigm has a single s: vise, viser, viste, vist. That single s is exactly what separates it from vite ("to know"), whose preterite visste has a double s. One s = showed; two s's = knew.

vise noen noe — showing someone something

The core frame is ditransitive, with the person first and the thing second, no preposition between them — just like English "show me the photo":

Vis meg bildet. — Show me the photo.
Hun viste oss veien. — She showed us the way.

You can also show a thing to someone with explicit til when the object comes first or for emphasis (Han viste passet til vakten), but the bare double-object pattern is the everyday default.

Vis meg hvordan du gjorde det — jeg får det ikke til.

Show me how you did it — I can't manage it.

Hun viste oss bryllupsbildene på mobilen.

She showed us the wedding photos on her phone.

Har du vist legen det utslettet?

Have you shown the doctor that rash?

Guiden viste turistene rundt i gamlebyen.

The guide showed the tourists around the old town.

vise seg — to turn out / to appear

Reflexive vise seg is one of the highest-value idioms on this page. It has two related senses:

to turn out (that…): Det viste seg at… — "It turned out that…." This is the standard way to report that reality differed from expectation.
to show oneself / appear: Solen viste seg endelig. — "The sun finally appeared." Also vise seg fram, "to show off."

Det viste seg at han hadde rett hele tiden.

It turned out that he was right all along.

Etter en uke med regn viste solen seg endelig.

After a week of rain, the sun finally came out.

Han liker å vise seg fram foran de andre.

He likes to show off in front of the others.

vise til — to refer to

A useful formal collocation: vise til means "to refer to / point to" a source, a rule, or earlier remarks. You'll meet it in writing, emails, and academic prose.

I rapporten viser de til forskning fra 2019. (academic)

In the report they refer to research from 2019.

Jeg viser til vår samtale i forrige uke. (formal)

I refer to our conversation last week.

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The s-form vises means "is shown / is being screened": Filmen vises på kino nå ("The film is showing in cinemas now"). It's the natural passive for what's on at the cinema, on TV, or in an exhibition.

viste vs visste — the one s / two s trap

This is the error every learner must guard against. Two different verbs collide in the past tense:

Verb	Preterite	Meaning
vise (to show)	viste (one s)	showed
vite (to know)	visste (two s's)	knew

They sound almost identical in speech, so writing is where the distinction lives. The memory hook: vite ("know") is built from more sound, so it earns the extra s — visste. vise ("show") is the plainer, single-s word — viste.

Hun viste meg veien, men jeg visste den allerede.

She showed me the way, but I already knew it.

vise vs vise fram — show vs show off / display

Two more pairings are worth keeping straight. Plain vise is the neutral "let someone see"; adding fram (or frem, the more eastern spelling) gives vise fram, "to show off / put on display / present." You viser a friend a photo; you viser fram a new car to the whole street. The particle adds a flavour of displaying-with-pride or putting-something-forward.

There is also the everyday gesture verb peke (på), "to point (at)" — useful to distinguish because English "show" sometimes covers pointing. If you physically point with your finger, that's peke på, not vise. Vise is letting someone see the thing; peke på is indicating where it is.

Hun viste fram tegningene sine for hele klassen.

She showed off her drawings to the whole class.

Han pekte på fjellet og sa at de skulle dit.

He pointed at the mountain and said that's where they were going.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hun viset meg bildet.

Incorrect — vise is Class 2; the preterite is viste, not viset

✅ Hun viste meg bildet.

She showed me the photo.

❌ Jeg visste deg huset i går.

Incorrect — visste means 'knew'; to mean 'showed' use viste (one s)

✅ Jeg viste deg huset i går.

I showed you the house yesterday.

❌ Jeg har viste det til henne.

Incorrect — viste is the preterite; after har use the supine vist

✅ Jeg har vist det til henne.

I've shown it to her.

❌ Det viste at han hadde rett.

Incorrect — for 'it turned out' the idiom is reflexive: vise seg

✅ Det viste seg at han hadde rett.

It turned out that he was right.

Key Takeaways

vise / viser / viste / har vist / vis! — weak Class 2, single s throughout.
Ditransitive: vise noen noe (show someone something), or vise noe til noen.
vise seg = turn out / appear; vise til = refer to (formal); vises = is shown/screening.
The trap: viste (one s = showed) vs visste (two s's = knew, from vite).

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