Ha (To Have) in Norwegian

In Brief

Norwegian ha means “to have.” Its most important forms are har in the present and hadde in the past, and the form does not change with the subject: jeg har, hun har, and vi har. You use it both as a main verb for possession and as an auxiliary (a helping verb) in perfect tenses: Jeg har spist means “I have eaten.”

Overview

Å ha is one of the essential Norwegian verbs. At A1, it lets you talk about what you own, what is available, relationships, time, and several everyday states: Jeg har en bil (“I have a car”), Vi har tid (“We have time”), and Hun har vondt (“She is in pain”). It is irregular, but its short set of forms is easy to learn.

Unlike an English verb, a Norwegian verb does not change to agree with the subject (the person or thing doing or experiencing the action). English distinguishes “I have” from “she has”; Norwegian uses har for both. The same principle applies in the past: every subject takes hadde.

Later, you will meet ha as an auxiliary in the present perfect and past perfect. A perfect tense connects an earlier action to a later point in time. This is introduced more fully at A2, but recognizing combinations such as har spist and hadde reist is useful from the beginning.

How It Works

The main forms

The infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb. Norwegian infinitives are commonly shown with the marker å, comparable to “to” in English.

Form	Norwegian	Typical English equivalent	Example
Infinitive	(å) ha	(to) have	Jeg vil ha kaffe. — I want coffee.
Present	har	have / has	Hun har en katt. — She has a cat.
Past (preterite)	hadde	had	Vi hadde god tid. — We had plenty of time.
Past participle	hatt	had	De har hatt besøk. — They have had visitors.
Imperative	ha	have	Ha en fin dag! — Have a nice day!

A past participle is the verb form used with an auxiliary to build a perfect tense. For this verb, it is hatt. Do not use hadde after har: “have had” is har hatt, not har hadde.

One present form for every subject

Norwegian	English	Note
Jeg har en sykkel.	I have a bicycle.	First-person singular
Du har rett.	You are right.	Literally uses “have”
Han har en idé.	He has an idea.	No equivalent of English has
Hun har tid.	She has time.	Same verb form
Vi har et møte.	We have a meeting.	Plural subject
Dere har mange spørsmål.	You have many questions.	Plural “you”
De har to barn.	They have two children.	Plural subject

This uniform pattern is a major simplification for English-speaking learners. There is no special third-person singular form: hun har, never hun hars or a separate equivalent of “has.”

Basic sentence patterns

In a statement, the usual pattern is:

subject + har/hadde + rest of the sentence

• Jeg har en hund. — I have a dog.
• De hadde det gøy. — They had fun.

To make the sentence negative, place ikke (“not”) after the finite verb (the verb carrying tense):

subject + har/hadde + ikke + rest

• Jeg har ikke bil. — I do not have a car.
• Vi hadde ikke tid. — We did not have time.

In a yes/no question, put the finite verb before the subject:

har/hadde + subject + rest?

• Har du søsken? — Do you have siblings?
• Hadde dere det hyggelig? — Did you have a nice time?

Norwegian does not add a separate equivalent of English “do” or “did” here. The verb har or hadde moves to the front itself.

After modal verbs

After a modal verb such as kan (“can”), må (“must”), skal (“will/shall”), or vil (“want/will”), use the bare infinitive ha, without å:

• Jeg må ha hjelp. — I need help / I must have help.
• Kan jeg få ha vinduet åpent? — May I keep the window open?
• Vi vil ha et større bord. — We want a larger table.

Be careful with vil ha. Although its pieces look like “will have,” it very often means “want” in everyday Norwegian: Jeg vil ha te is “I want tea.” Context can also give vil a future meaning, but a request for food or an object is normally about wanting it.

Possession and availability

With a concrete object, ha often maps directly to English “have”:

• Hun har en ny telefon. — She has a new phone.
• Vi hadde et lite hus. — We had a small house.

Norwegian often omits the article with nouns used in a broad, non-specific sense, especially for transport, family relationships, and things treated as a general resource:

• Har du bil? — Do you have a car?
• Han har jobb. — He has a job.
• Har dere barn? — Do you have children?

An article is natural when the noun is a particular countable item or is described more specifically: Han har en interessant jobb (“He has an interesting job”).

Ha as an auxiliary

As an auxiliary, har or hadde is followed by the past participle of another verb:

Tense	Pattern	Example	English
Present perfect	har + past participle	Jeg har spist.	I have eaten.
Past perfect	hadde + past participle	Jeg hadde spist.	I had eaten.

Here, har does not describe possession. It helps locate the action in time. The other verb supplies the main meaning: spist is the past participle of spise (“to eat”).

Examples in Context

The following examples show possession, everyday expressions, questions, past time, and auxiliary use.

Norwegian	English	Note
Jeg har en hund.	I have a dog.	Possession
Hun har vondt i hodet.	She has a headache.	Literally, “has pain in the head”
Vi har tid før toget går.	We have time before the train leaves.	Availability
Har du søsken?	Do you have siblings?	Yes/no question
Han har ikke bil.	He does not have a car.	Negative statement
Barna har fri på fredag.	The children have Friday off.	Common expression ha fri
Jeg vil ha en kopp kaffe.	I would like / want a cup of coffee.	Everyday request
Har dere lyst til å bli med?	Would you like to come along?	ha lyst til expresses desire
Hun hadde en god idé.	She had a good idea.	Past possession
De hadde det gøy på festen.	They had fun at the party.	ha det gøy
Vi hadde ikke nok mat.	We did not have enough food.	Past negative
Ha det bra!	Take care! / Goodbye!	Fixed farewell
Jeg har allerede spist.	I have already eaten.	Present perfect auxiliary
Toget hadde gått da vi kom.	The train had left when we arrived.	Past perfect auxiliary
Hun har hatt mye å gjøre.	She has had a lot to do.	har hatt, not har hadde

Common Mistakes

Using an English-style form for “has”

• Wrong: Hun has en katt.
• Right: Hun har en katt.
• Why: Norwegian har is used with every subject. There is no separate third-person form corresponding to English “has.”

Adding “do” to questions and negatives

• Wrong: Gjør du ha tid?
• Right: Har du tid?
• Why: Norwegian does not use a “do”-support construction here. Put har before the subject in a question; use Du har ikke tid in a negative statement.

Using hadde instead of hatt

• Wrong: Jeg har hadde en travel uke.
• Right: Jeg har hatt en travel uke.
• Why: After auxiliary har, use the past participle hatt. Hadde is the simple past form and can stand as the finite verb: Jeg hadde en travel uke.

Keeping å after a modal verb

• Wrong: Vi må å ha mer tid.
• Right: Vi må ha mer tid.
• Why: After må, kan, skal, and vil, Norwegian normally uses the infinitive without å.

Translating every English “have” literally

• Wrong: Jeg har sult.
• Right: Jeg er sulten.
• Why: English “have” and Norwegian ha overlap, but expressions do not always match. Norwegian says være sulten (“be hungry”) and være tørst (“be thirsty”), while it uses ha in ha vondt (“be in pain”). Learn the whole expression rather than replacing one word at a time.

Misplacing ikke in a simple clause

• Wrong: Jeg ikke har tid.
• Right: Jeg har ikke tid.
• Why: In an ordinary main-clause statement, ikke normally follows the finite verb. More complex subordinate-clause word order comes later in your studies.

Usage Notes

Useful expressions with ha

Many frequent combinations should be learned as complete chunks:

Expression	Natural English meaning	Example
ha tid	have time	Har du tid nå?
ha råd til	be able to afford	Jeg har ikke råd til det.
ha lyst til	feel like / want to	Vi har lyst til å reise.
ha behov for	need / have a need for	Hun har behov for ro.
ha vondt	be in pain / hurt	Jeg har vondt i ryggen.
ha rett	be right	Du har rett.
ha fri	have time off	Jeg har fri i morgen.
ha det bra	be well; take care	Hvordan har du det? / Ha det bra!

Notice ha det in questions about someone’s condition: Hvordan har du det? means “How are you?” The answer may also use ha det: Jeg har det bra (“I’m well”). This is a fixed Norwegian pattern, not a word-for-word match with English.

Requests with vil ha

Jeg vil ha … is grammatically correct and common, especially when stating a choice. Depending on tone and situation, however, it can sound more direct than English “I’d like.” In a café, Jeg tar en kaffe (“I’ll have a coffee”) or a request with kan jeg få …? (“could I have …?”) may sound softer:

• Kan jeg få en kaffe, takk? — Could I have a coffee, please?
• Jeg vil gjerne ha en kaffe. — I would like a coffee.

The adverb gjerne helps make the wish sound friendly: vil gjerne ha is often a good equivalent of “would like.”

Bokmål and pronunciation

The written forms in this article are standard Bokmål: ha, har, hadde, hatt. Spoken Norwegian varies considerably by dialect, so you may hear pronunciation differences, but these written forms remain the normal reference forms in Bokmål.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master everything in this section at A1, but these patterns explain forms you will meet later.

Perfect tenses and word order

In the present perfect, sentence adverbs such as ikke and aldri normally come after the finite auxiliary and before the participle:

• Jeg har ikke sett filmen. — I have not seen the film.
• Hun har aldri vært i Bergen. — She has never been to Bergen.

The past perfect moves the reference point further back: Da jeg ringte, hadde han allerede reist means “When I called, he had already left.” The leaving happened before the call.

Norwegian and English perfect tenses overlap, but they are not identical in every context. Norwegian often uses the present perfect for a period continuing up to now: Jeg har bodd her i tre år (“I have lived here for three years”). When a finished past time is named, the simple past is normally natural: Jeg bodde der i 2020 (“I lived there in 2020”).

Possession with sin and other structures

At a later level, possession also interacts with possessive words such as min (“my”) and the reflexive possessive sin (“his/her/their own”): Hun har bilen sin utenfor (“She has her own car outside”). This is a pronoun rule, not a different form of ha, but the two often occur together.

Norwegian can also express possession without ha. For example, boka til Maria means “Maria’s book,” literally “the book belonging to Maria.” Choose ha when possession is the statement itself (Maria har en bok), and a possessive construction when identifying an owner (Det er Marias bok).

Formal or compact ha-constructions

You may encounter ha followed by an object and another element:

• Vi har døren åpen. — We keep the door open / We have the door open.
• Hun hadde bilen stående utenfor. — She had the car parked outside.

These constructions describe the state or position of the object. They are useful, but beginners can first rely on straightforward possession and the common fixed expressions above.

Practice Tips

1. Build a four-form card: write ha – har – hadde – hatt on one side and “have – have/has – had – had” on the other. Then say one short sentence with each form.
2. Turn statements into questions and negatives: start with Du har tid, then make Har du tid? and Du har ikke tid. Repeat with bil, søsken, and en idé until the word order feels automatic.
3. Learn chunks, not isolated translations: collect useful combinations such as ha lyst til, ha vondt, ha fri, and ha det bra. Add one personal example for each instead of assuming every English expression with “have” uses ha.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Personal Pronouns — learn the subjects used with har and hadde.
• Next step: Expressing Need and Want — expand patterns such as ha behov for and vil ha.
• Next step: Perfect Tense — study har + past participle and its uses in detail.