Learn Hardcore Norwegian: Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen.

Literally, kommer til å looks like “comes to to” (since å can mean “to” before a verb), but you should not translate it word for word. As a chunk, kommer til å + infinitive is a common way to talk about the future.

In practice, Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen is close to English “I’m going to drink coffee tomorrow” or “I will (probably) drink coffee tomorrow.”

So:

kommer = present tense of å komme (“to come”)
til = part of the fixed expression; you don’t translate it separately
å drikke = “to drink” (infinitive)

Treat kommer til å here as one future-like construction, not as “come” in the physical sense.

How is kommer til å different from skal or vil in Norwegian?

All three can talk about the future, but they have different typical uses and nuances:

skal + infinitive
- Often expresses intention, plan, or obligation.
- Jeg skal drikke kaffe i morgen.
  = “I’m going to drink coffee tomorrow” (because that’s my plan).
kommer til å + infinitive
- Often used for prediction, something you think will happen, based on evidence or expectation.
- Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen.
  = “I’ll (probably) end up drinking coffee tomorrow / I’m likely to drink coffee tomorrow.”
vil + infinitive
- More formal or written; often used for will/would, desire, or more abstract future.
- Jeg vil drikke kaffe i morgen.
  = “I want to drink coffee tomorrow” (desire) or in some contexts “I will drink coffee tomorrow.”

In casual speech:

skal is very common for personal plans.
kommer til å is common when you’re predicting something (about yourself or others).

Is kommer til å a tense, like the future tense in English?

No. Norwegian does not have a dedicated future tense like English will + verb.

Instead, Norwegian uses:

Present tense + future time word:
- Jeg drikker kaffe i morgen.
  = “I’ll drink coffee tomorrow / I’m drinking coffee tomorrow.”
skal + infinitive
kommer til å + infinitive

So kommer til å is a periphrastic construction (a phrase that expresses a grammatical idea), not a separate tense form of the verb. The finite verb here is kommer in the present tense.

What is the role of å in å drikke?

å is the infinitive marker in Norwegian, similar to “to” before a verb in English.

drikke = “drink” (bare infinitive)
å drikke = “to drink”

In the sentence Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen, the pattern is:

finite verb: kommer
til å introducing the infinitive
infinitive verb: drikke

So å here does not mean “to” in the direction sense (like “go to the store”), but in the infinitive sense (like “to drink”).

Why is the verb drikke in the infinitive and not conjugated?

Norwegian only conjugates the first verb in the verb phrase for tense and person. All following verbs stay in the infinitive.

Structure:

Jeg (subject)
kommer (finite verb in present tense)
til å drikke (infinitive verb phrase)
- å drikke = infinitive

Compare:

Jeg vil drikke kaffe. (I want to drink coffee.)
Jeg liker å drikke kaffe. (I like to drink coffee.)
Jeg begynner å drikke kaffe. (I start to drink coffee.)

In all of these, the second verb is in the infinitive (with or without å depending on the verb before it).

Can I say Jeg drikker kaffe i morgen instead, and how does it differ?

Yes, Jeg drikker kaffe i morgen is perfectly correct.

Differences in feel:

Jeg drikker kaffe i morgen.
- Present tense used with a future time adverbial (i morgen).
- Often sounds like a fixed plan / scheduled event.
- Similar to English “I’m drinking coffee tomorrow” or “I’ll be drinking coffee tomorrow.”
Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen.
- Sounds more like a prediction or expectation: you believe this will happen.
- Similar to “I’m going to (end up) drinking coffee tomorrow / I’ll probably drink coffee tomorrow.”

In everyday speech, the nuance is subtle, and all these future-like patterns are very common.

What exactly does til do in kommer til å? Is it a preposition I can move or drop?

In kommer til å, the til is part of a fixed verbal expression. You should learn it as kommer til å + infinitive.

You cannot:

Drop it: ✗ Jeg kommer å drikke kaffe i morgen. (wrong)
Move it somewhere else: ✗ Jeg kommer å drikke til kaffe i morgen. (wrong)

So in this construction:

kommer til å drikke = “will (probably) drink / is going to drink”

Outside this structure, til is an ordinary preposition (“to”, “towards”, “for”), but here you should not try to give it an independent meaning.

Can i morgen be placed in a different position in the sentence?

Yes. Time adverbials like i morgen are quite flexible.

All of these are correct:

Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen. (neutral, very common)
I morgen kommer jeg til å drikke kaffe. (emphasizes tomorrow)
Jeg kommer i morgen til å drikke kaffe. (grammatical but sounds awkward/marked; usually avoided)

The most natural choices:

Put i morgen at the end:
- Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen.
Or put it at the very beginning:
- I morgen kommer jeg til å drikke kaffe.

Starting with I morgen is useful when you want to highlight the time.

Why is i morgen written as two words, not imorgen?

Standard Norwegian writes it as two words:

i morgen = “tomorrow”

imorgen (one word) does appear informally in texting or casual online writing, but it is not standard and should generally be avoided in formal contexts, schoolwork, etc.

So in correct, standard Norwegian, use:

i dag (today)
i morgen (tomorrow)
i går (yesterday)

Why is there no article before kaffe? Could I say en kaffe?

kaffe can be:

A mass noun (uncountable), like “coffee” in English:
- Jeg drikker kaffe i morgen.
- General coffee, not a specific cup. Very natural here.
A countable noun, meaning “a cup (or serving) of coffee”:
- Jeg skal ha en kaffe.
  = “I’ll have a coffee.”

In your sentence, you are talking about drinking coffee in general, not ordering a specific item, so no article is used:

… drikke kaffe … is the most natural form.

How would I make this sentence negative?

To negate it, put ikke after the finite verb kommer:

Jeg kommer ikke til å drikke kaffe i morgen.
- “I’m not going to drink coffee tomorrow / I won’t drink coffee tomorrow.”

Word order pattern:

Subject: Jeg
Finite verb: kommer
Negation: ikke
Rest of verb phrase: til å drikke kaffe
Time adverbial: i morgen

How do you pronounce Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen approximately?

Approximate pronunciation in a fairly neutral Eastern Norwegian (Oslo-ish) style, using rough English-like hints:

Jeg ≈ “yai” (like English eye with a y at the start)
kommer ≈ “KOM-mer” (first syllable stressed; o like in English lot/cot)
til ≈ “til” (short i as in sit)
å ≈ “aw” (like British law, rounded, long)
drikke ≈ “DRIK-ke” (short i as in sit, double k makes the vowel short)
kaffe ≈ “KAF-fe” (like KAF-feh, short a like in cat, but a bit more open)
i ≈ “ee” (as in see)
morgen varies by dialect:
- In many Eastern dialects: closer to “MÅRR-en” (first syllable like English more but shorter)
- In more careful speech: “MOR-gen”

Very roughly:

“Yai KOM-mer til aw DRIK-ke KAF-fe i MÅRR-en.”

Different regions of Norway will pronounce several of these words quite differently, especially jeg and morgen.

Is this sentence formal, informal, or neutral? In what contexts can I use it?

Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen. is neutral in style:

Suitable for spoken and written Norwegian.
Works in everyday conversation, and also in fairly neutral written contexts (emails, messages, etc.).
It’s not slangy, and not especially formal either.

Examples of contexts:

Talking to friends:
I morgen kommer jeg til å drikke kaffe igjen.
Talking at work:
Jeg kommer til å drikke kaffe i morgen også, som vanlig.

If you needed to be extra formal (e.g., in a very official document), you might rephrase the entire sentence, but grammatically and stylistically this one is fine for most normal uses.