The bli-passive is the everyday passive of spoken Norwegian and the one that works in every tense. Where the s-passive states a general rule, the bli-passive reports a specific event: something happened to something. This page shows how to build it, how it behaves across tenses, and — crucially — how it contrasts with the er + participle construction that English collapses into a single ambiguous "was opened."
How to form it: bli + past participle
Take the verb bli ("become") and follow it with the past participle (the same form you use after har — the perfektum partisipp / supine). The auxiliary bli is irregular, so memorise its forms:
| Tense | Form of bli | Example | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| Present | blir | Huset blir malt. | The house is (being) painted. |
| Preterite | ble | Brevet ble sendt. | The letter was sent. |
| Perfect | har blitt | Han har blitt valgt. | He has been elected. |
| Pluperfect | hadde blitt | Huset hadde blitt solgt. | The house had been sold. |
| Future | skal/vil bli | Det skal bli bygd i år. | It is to be built this year. |
The single most important practical fact: bli works in all tenses, including the past, where the s-passive fails. This is why the bli-passive is the safe default whenever you report a concrete event.
Huset blir malt mens vi er på ferie.
The house is being painted while we are on holiday.
Brevet ble sendt i går.
The letter was sent yesterday.
Don't forget bli in compound tenses
A frequent slip is dropping bli in the perfect and pluperfect. English "has been chosen" has been; Norwegian must have blitt. The chain is har + blitt + participle.
Hun har blitt nominert til prisen tre ganger.
She has been nominated for the award three times.
Da vi kom, hadde alt blitt ryddet bort.
When we arrived, everything had been cleared away.
The agent: who did it, with av
To name the doer, use the preposition av ("by"). This is optional — passives often leave the agent out precisely because it is unknown or irrelevant — but when you want it, av is the word.
Veggen ble malt av naboen, ikke av oss.
The wall was painted by the neighbour, not by us.
Forslaget ble lagt fram av regjeringen i forrige uke.
The proposal was put forward by the government last week.
Event vs state: blir/ble versus er + participle
Here is the insight English speakers must absorb, because their own language hides it. English "the door was opened" is ambiguous: it can mean an event (someone opened it — at that moment it swung open) or a resulting state (it was in an open condition). Norwegian forces you to choose.
- Event → bli
- participle: Døra ble åpnet = the action of opening happened.
- State → være (er/var) + participle: Døra er åpnet / Døra er åpen = the door is in an opened/open condition.
This is the same event-vs-state split that Spanish marks with ser (event) versus estar (state). Norwegian uses bli for the event and være for the resulting state.
Vinduet ble knust under innbruddet.
The window was smashed during the break-in.
Vinduet er knust — vi må bestille nytt glass.
The window is smashed (in a broken state) — we have to order new glass.
In the first sentence something happened (the smashing); in the second we describe the window's current condition. Choose ble when you mean the action and er/var when you mean the result.
The participle: supine vs agreeing adjective
After bli in a true passive, the participle stands in its supine (unchanging) form: Huset ble malt, Veggene ble malt — malt does not change. But in the stative være construction the participle leans toward the adjective side and may agree like an adjective: Døra er åpen, Vinduene er åpne. When the participle is genuinely being used as an adjective describing a state, treat it like one — this overlaps with the topic of verbs/participles-as-adjectives.
Brevene ble skrevet i hånd.
The letters were written by hand.
Alle dørene er åpne, så det trekker.
All the doors are open, so there's a draught.
A brief mention: the få-passive
There is a third, lighter construction worth recognising: få ("get") + participle, the equivalent of English "got something done." It is not a true passive of the same verb but a way to say you arranged for, or managed, an action — the subject is the beneficiary.
Jeg fikk vasket bilen før helga.
I got the car washed before the weekend.
Vi fikk reparert taket akkurat i tide.
We got the roof repaired just in time.
Use få + participle when English uses "got X done" / "had X done" — you organised it, someone did it, and the result benefits you.
Common Mistakes
The errors below come straight from English's single ambiguous "was opened" and from forgetting that bli must appear in compound tenses.
❌ Døra er åpnet av læreren for ti minutter siden.
Incorrect — a past event with an agent needs the eventive bli-passive, not stative er.
✅ Døra ble åpnet av læreren for ti minutter siden.
The door was opened by the teacher ten minutes ago.
❌ Han har valgt til leder.
Incorrect — this means 'he has chosen'; the passive needs blitt: har blitt valgt.
✅ Han har blitt valgt til leder.
He has been elected leader.
❌ Huset ble malt ved naboen.
Incorrect — the passive agent is marked with av, not ved.
✅ Huset ble malt av naboen.
The house was painted by the neighbour.
❌ Maten blir laget av kjøkkenet akkurat nå, så den er ferdig.
Incorrect mixing of event and state — if it's still being made, it is not yet ferdig (in a finished state).
✅ Maten blir laget nå, og er ferdig om ti minutter.
The food is being made now and is ready in ten minutes.
Key Takeaways
- The bli-passive = bli (blir/ble/blitt) + supine participle, and it works in every tense — it is the default in speech and for specific events.
- The agent is introduced with av: malt av naboen.
- Distinguish event (bli: ble knust) from resulting state (være: er knust) — Norwegian forces the choice English hides.
- In compound tenses you must keep blitt: har blitt valgt, hadde blitt solgt.
- For the general/rule-like passive use the s-passive (verbs/s-passive); the choice between the two is laid out in choosing/s-passive-vs-bli-passive.
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
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- s-Passive vs bli-PassiveB2 — When to use the synthetic s-passive (rules, recipes, signs, the present/infinitive) versus the periphrastic bli-passive (specific events, every tense, the spoken default) — with a decision table.
- Passivising Ditransitives and RecipientsC1 — How Norwegian turns two-object verbs (gi, tilby, nekte) into passives — promoting the recipient (Han ble gitt en bok) or the theme, and the recipient-focused få-passive.
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