You already know -s as the passive ending (selges "is sold") and as the lexical marker on deponent verbs (synes, finnes). This page covers a third job for that same little -s: the middle voice. A middle verb is neither fully active (a subject doing something to an object) nor a true passive (an object having something done to it). It sits in between — and the most useful sub-type, the reciprocal, packs the whole meaning "each other" into the verb itself. Vi ses is one word that means "we'll see each other." English has nothing this compact, which is exactly why these forms are worth mastering: they are everywhere in spoken Norwegian, especially in goodbyes.
What "middle voice" means
In an active sentence, the subject acts on something else: Jeg vasker bilen ("I wash the car"). In a passive, the subject undergoes the action: Bilen vaskes ("The car gets washed"). The middle breaks this doer/done-to split. The subject is involved in the action but you cannot cleanly say it is the agent acting on a separate patient. With reciprocals, the participants act on each other — each one is simultaneously doer and done-to. There is no way to draw a one-way arrow, so neither "active" nor "passive" fits. That is the core insight: the middle -s resists the doer/done-to analysis on purpose.
Vi møtes utenfor kinoen klokka sju.
We'll meet (each other) outside the cinema at seven.
De to lederne møttes for første gang i Genève.
The two leaders met (each other) for the first time in Geneva.
Reciprocal -s: the meaning "each other" baked in
This is the heart of the page. A reciprocal -s verb needs a plural subject (or a coordinated "X and Y") and means the participants do the action to one another. The -s itself carries the "each other" — you do not add hverandre.
| Infinitive | Present | Preterite | Supine (with ha) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| møtes | møtes | møttes | møttes | meet (each other) |
| ses / sees | ses / sees | sås | (har sett hverandre) | see each other |
| slåss | slåss | sloss | slåss | fight (each other) |
| enes | enes | entes | entes | agree, come to terms |
| skilles | skilles | skiltes | skiltes | part, separate |
| kjekles | kjekles | kjeklet(s) | kjeklet(s) | bicker, squabble |
| snakkes | snakkes | snaktes | — | talk (to each other) / "talk soon" |
A note on two of these forms. ses takes its present in two accepted spellings, ses or sees, and its preterite is sås (vi sås ofte den sommeren "we saw each other often that summer"). But there is no settled perfect form: a clean supine of ses is genuinely avoided, and speakers rephrase instead. For "we have seen each other," say har sett hverandre, not a forced har *setts/sees. Møtes and snakkes, by contrast, have unproblematic perfects (har møttes, har snakkes) — it is specifically ses whose perfect speakers route around.
The standout fact: ses, møtes and snakkes are the standard Norwegian leave-takings. Where English says "See you!" / "Talk soon!", Norwegian says the reciprocal verb on its own.
Vi ses!
See you! (literally: we see each other)
Vi snakkes!
Talk soon! / We'll be in touch! (literally: we talk to each other)
Takk for i dag — vi ses i morgen.
Thanks for today — see you tomorrow.
Note that vi snakkes is a fixed phrase: it does not specify when or how (phone, text, in person), just that contact will happen. It is the warm, casual sign-off of friends and colleagues alike, and producing it naturally is one of the clearest markers that you have internalised the middle voice.
De slåss om hvem som skulle sitte foran.
They were fighting over who got to sit in front.
Til slutt entes partene om en pris.
In the end the parties agreed on a price.
A note on orthography: slåss keeps a double s in every form (slåss, sloss, har slåss) — the -s of the stem plus the reciprocal -s fuse, and the spelling reflects it. Watch the å too: slåss, sås, and the preterite sloss with an o.
Middle (non-reciprocal): minnes and the sensory verbs
Not every middle is reciprocal. Some are single-subject middles, where the subject experiences or is the locus of the action rather than acting on an object. minnes ("recall, remember fondly") is the classic example — a slightly literary, evocative verb for calling the past to mind.
Jeg minnes barndommen på gården hver gang jeg kjenner lukten av høy.
I remember my childhood on the farm every time I smell hay.
Vi minnes en kollega som gikk bort i fjor.
We remember a colleague who passed away last year.
minnes is more elevated than the everyday huske ("remember"); reserve it for reflective, often emotional remembering. Then there are the sensory middles — høres ut, kjennes, synes in the sense "be visible/show" — where the subject is how something comes across to the senses.
Det høres ut som en god idé.
That sounds like a good idea.
Vannet kjennes iskaldt på føttene.
The water feels ice-cold on your feet.
Skjorta er hvit, men flekken synes fortsatt.
The shirt is white, but the stain still shows / is still visible.
In all of these, no agent acts on a patient. The water isn't "felt" by anyone in particular; it simply feels a certain way. That agent-less, experiencer-oriented quality is exactly what the middle voice exists to express.
Middle -s vs the passive -s: how to tell them apart
They look identical, so you separate them by logic, not form. A passive -s always has a hidden agent and can be rephrased with bli + past participle. A middle -s cannot — there is no one "doing it to" the subject.
| Sentence | Type | Test |
|---|---|---|
| Bilen selges i morgen. | passive | = Bilen blir solgt — someone sells it ✓ |
| Vi møtes i morgen. | middle (reciprocal) | ≠ Vi blir møtt — no outside agent ✗ |
| Døra åpnes klokka ni. | passive | = Døra blir åpnet — someone opens it ✓ |
| De slåss på skolen. | middle (reciprocal) | ≠ De blir slått — they act on each other ✗ |
If you can swap in bli + participle and keep the meaning, it is a passive. If that swap turns the sentence into nonsense, you have a middle.
Brevene sendes hver fredag.
The letters are sent every Friday. (passive — someone sends them)
Søsknene ses sjelden nå for tiden.
The siblings rarely see each other these days. (middle — reciprocal)
Middle -s vs reflexive seg
English speakers sometimes reach for the reflexive seg where Norwegian uses a reciprocal -s. The reflexive means the subject acts on itself; the reciprocal means the subjects act on each other. De vasker seg = "they wash themselves (each their own body)." De møtes = "they meet each other." Different relationships, different forms.
Barna kledde på seg før de gikk ut.
The kids got dressed (themselves) before going out. (reflexive)
Vennene omfavnet hverandre på flyplassen.
The friends hugged each other at the airport. (reciprocal with hverandre — a verb that has no -s middle)
Notice that not every reciprocal idea has an -s form available — omfavne ("embrace") has no omfavnes middle, so you use hverandre instead. The -s reciprocal is a closed, memorisable set; outside it, you fall back on hverandre.
Common Mistakes
The recurring English-speaker errors: doubling the meaning with hverandre, confusing the middle with the passive, and dropping the -s on a fixed leave-taking.
❌ Vi møtes hverandre på fredag.
Incorrect — møtes already means 'meet each other'; adding hverandre is redundant.
✅ Vi møtes på fredag.
We'll meet (each other) on Friday.
❌ Vi ses hverandre i morgen!
Incorrect — ses already contains 'each other'; no hverandre.
✅ Vi ses i morgen!
See you tomorrow!
❌ Vi blir møtt klokka sju.
Incorrect — this is the passive ('we get met by someone'); for 'we'll meet each other' use the reciprocal middle.
✅ Vi møtes klokka sju.
We'll meet (each other) at seven.
❌ Vi snakker snart! (as a sign-off)
Off — the fixed leave-taking is the reciprocal snakkes, not active snakker.
✅ Vi snakkes snart!
Talk to you soon!
❌ Guttene slått i skolegården.
Incorrect — 'fought (each other)' is the reciprocal slåss, with double s; slått is the passive participle of slå.
✅ Guttene slåss i skolegården.
The boys were fighting in the schoolyard.
Key Takeaways
- The middle voice -s is neither active nor passive: the subject is involved without cleanly acting on a separate object.
- Reciprocal -s (møtes, ses, slåss, enes, skilles, kjekles, snakkes) means "each other" — never add hverandre.
- Vi ses and vi snakkes are the standard casual goodbyes ("see you", "talk soon").
- minnes ("remember fondly") and the sensory middles (høres ut, kjennes, synes "show") are single-subject middles.
- Tell middle from passive with the bli
- participle test: if the swap works, it's passive; if it's nonsense, it's middle.
- slåss keeps a double s throughout; mind the å in slåss, sås.
Now practice Norwegian
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Deponent s-Verbs: synes, finnes, trivesB1 — The lexical -s verbs that are never passives — synes, finnes, trives, lykkes — and the three-way 'think' split between synes, tror and mener.
- Reciprocal: hverandreB1 — hverandre means 'each other / one another' — mutual action between the members of a plural subject (de hjelper hverandre), with the genitive hverandres ('each other's'); the page contrasts it sharply with the reflexive seg, since 'de vasker seg' (each washes himself) and 'de vasker hverandre' (they wash each other) are two different events Norwegian keeps apart.
- The s-PassiveB1 — How to form the synthetic -s passive (selges, åpnes, gjøres) and why Norwegian reserves it for rules, signs and the present tense.
- Reflexive Verbs and segA2 — How Norwegian reflexive verbs work — the meg/deg/seg paradigm, true reflexives like vaske seg, and the many inherently reflexive verbs (glede seg, føle seg) English has no equivalent for.