Skal is the workhorse future-of-intention in Norwegian — and English speakers underuse it badly, because English "shall" has shrunk to something stiff and old-fashioned ("Shall we?"). In Norwegian, skal is everyday and indispensable: it states plans, hands out instructions, fixes arrangements, makes offers, and even reports hearsay. This page covers all of that; for how skal fits among Norwegian's several future strategies, see future overview, and for a deep dive on the reportative use, evidential skal/skulle.
The forms at a glance
A pure modal: endingless present (note: skal, no -r), bare infinitive, and a doubled l in the past. Watch the spelling — present skal, preterite skulle.
| Present | Preterite | Infinitive | Supine (perfect) |
|---|---|---|---|
| skal | skulle | å skulle | skullet |
| shall / am going to | was going to / should | to be going to | (have) been going to |
One form for every subject: jeg skal, du skal, hun skal, vi skal, de skal.
Sense 1: planned future and intention
This is the core, and the one to reach for by default. Skal + a bare infinitive states a plan or decided intention — something the subject has resolved to do. It is the everyday Norwegian future for anything you've decided.
Jeg skal reise til Bergen i morgen.
I'm going to travel to Bergen tomorrow.
Vi skal handle etter jobb i dag.
We're going shopping after work today.
Hva skal du gjøre i helga?
What are you doing this weekend?
This contrasts sharply with vil. Where vil announces a desire, skal announces a plan or commitment — neutral, with no flavour of "wanting." So jeg skal betale is "I'll pay" (settled), while jeg vil betale is "I want to pay." For a plain, undramatic future, skal is almost always the right choice.
Sense 2: obligation and instruction ("are to / shall")
Skal also delivers an obligation imposed from outside — a rule, an order, an instruction. English keeps "shall" alive here, in commandments and regulations ("Thou shalt not…"), and Norwegian uses skal the same way, but far more casually too.
Du skal rydde rommet før du går ut.
You're to tidy your room before you go out.
Barna skal legge seg klokka åtte.
The children are to go to bed at eight.
Du skal ikke stjele.
Thou shalt not steal. / You shall not steal.
The difference from må ("must / have to") is the source of the pressure. Må is internal necessity ("I have no choice"); skal in this sense is an obligation someone else has laid on you — a parent, a boss, a law. Du skal rydde = "you've been told to tidy."
Sense 3: arrangements and offers
Because skal fixes intentions, it naturally covers mutual arrangements ("we're meeting") and, in question form, offers ("shall I…?"). The offer use is extremely common and very natural — far more so than English "shall I."
Vi skal møtes utenfor kinoen klokka sju.
We're meeting outside the cinema at seven.
Skal jeg hjelpe deg med oppvasken?
Shall I help you with the dishes?
Skal vi ta en kaffe etterpå?
Shall we grab a coffee afterwards?
Skal vi...? ("shall we...?") is the standard way to propose doing something together — at a level of frequency English "shall we" never reaches.
Sense 4: the evidential — skal as hearsay ("is said to be")
Here is the sense competitors omit, and it has no single English modal equivalent. Skal + være (or another infinitive) can report what people say — information you have second-hand and don't personally vouch for. Han skal være rik does not mean "he shall be rich"; it means "he's said to be rich / supposedly he's rich."
Filmen skal være veldig god.
The film is supposed to be very good. (so I've heard)
Han skal være rik, men det vet jeg ikke sikkert.
He's said to be rich, but I don't know that for sure.
Den nye restauranten skal være helt fantastisk.
The new restaurant is reportedly absolutely fantastic.
English has to spell this out with "is said to be," "is supposed to be," "apparently," or "reportedly." Norwegian folds the whole evidential meaning into skal. The signal that you're in this sense rather than the plan sense is usually the stative verb være with a non-volitional subject: a film can't plan to be good, so skal være must be hearsay.
The weather forecast is the everyday home of this evidential skal: a forecast is exactly "information someone reported," so Norwegians naturally say det skal regne i morgen — "it's supposed to rain tomorrow / they say it'll rain." The weather has no plans of its own, so this can only be the reportative reading.
Det skal regne i morgen, ifølge værmeldingen.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow, according to the forecast.
The preterite skulle: "was going to / should (have)"
The doubled-l preterite skulle carries the past versions of all these senses: a past plan ("was going to"), reported obligation, and the very common "should (have)" of regret or advice.
Vi skulle egentlig dra klokka åtte, men vi forsov oss.
We were actually going to leave at eight, but we overslept.
Du skulle ha sagt det før!
You should have said so earlier!
Jeg skulle ønske at jeg kunne bli lenger.
I wish I could stay longer.
That last formula, jeg skulle ønske... ("I wish…"), is fixed and worth memorising whole.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg vil reise til Bergen i morgen. (meaning a settled plan)
Misleading — heard as 'I WANT to travel', not a fixed plan.
✅ Jeg skal reise til Bergen i morgen.
I'm going to travel to Bergen tomorrow.
For a decided plan, use skal, not vil. Vil would inject "want."
❌ Han skal være rik, betyr 'he will be rich'.
Wrong reading — with være + stative subject this is hearsay.
✅ Han skal være rik = 'he's said to be rich'.
He's supposedly rich (so I've heard).
Don't miss the evidential sense: skal være reports what people say, not a future fact.
❌ Jeg skaler hjelpe deg.
Incorrect — an -r/-er ending forced onto the modal.
✅ Jeg skal hjelpe deg.
I'll help you.
The present is skal, endingless, for every subject. Never skaler or skalr.
❌ Skal jeg å hjelpe deg?
Incorrect — å inserted after the modal.
✅ Skal jeg hjelpe deg?
Shall I help you?
A modal governs a bare infinitive — no å.
❌ Du skulle ha sa det før.
Incorrect — supine needed after ha, not the preterite.
✅ Du skulle ha sagt det før.
You should have said so earlier.
In skulle ha + supine, the main verb is the supine (sagt), not the preterite (sa).
Key Takeaways
- Forms: skal / skulle / skullet — endingless present (no -r), bare infinitive, double l in the past.
- The core sense is the planned future / intention: jeg skal reise i morgen. This is the everyday Norwegian future.
- Obligation from outside: du skal rydde "you're to tidy" — pressure imposed by a rule or person.
- Arrangements and offers: vi skal møtes; Skal jeg...? "Shall I…?", Skal vi...? "Shall we…?".
- Evidential / hearsay: X skal være Y = "X is said to be Y" — no English modal matches this.
- Preterite skulle = "was going to / should (have)"; jeg skulle ønske… = "I wish…".
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Start learning Norwegian→Related Topics
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The six core Norwegian modals (kan, vil, skal, må, bør, få), their endingless present forms, their preterites, and the bare infinitive they govern — no å.
- vil / ville: Want, Will, WouldA2 — The modal vil (ville / villet) — primarily volition ('want', vil ha = want), with a secondary prediction/future sense and the conditional 'would', plus the false-friend trap that vil is not neutral English 'will'.
- The Future: skal, vil, kommer til å, presentA2 — Norwegian has no dedicated future tense — instead it uses four strategies (present, skal, vil, kommer til å), each with its own nuance, and vil is a trap for English speakers.
- Reportative skal and skulle: 'Is Said To'C1 — How skal and skulle mark hearsay — han skal være rik means 'he is reportedly rich', not 'he will be rich' — a grammaticalised evidential with no clean English equivalent, central to reading Norwegian news and gossip.