Hadde

Hadde is the simple past tense form of the Norwegian verb ha, meaning to have. It is used to express possession in the past and appears in both Bokmål and Nynorsk. The form is also common in conditional and hypothetical clauses, where it often introduces a past-conditional scenario or a counterfactual statement.

Conjugation and usage: jeg hadde, du hadde, han/hun hadde, vi hadde, dere hadde, de hadde. The past participle of ha is hatt, which combines with the auxiliary har for perfect tenses (har hatt = have had). Examples: Jeg hadde en bok i fjor. Hvis jeg hadde penger, ville jeg kjøpe en bil. Jeg hadde hatt en travel dag da møtet sluttet.

Cross-language notes: In Danish the past tense of have is havde, while in Swedish it is hade. Norwegian retains hade as its standard past tense form in both main clauses and subordinate clauses. This makes Norwegian distinct from Danish in spelling, even though the two languages share many cognates.

Usage nuances: Hadde is primarily a verb form and does not function as a noun. It is used across t literary and colloquial Norwegian to describe past possession, past conditions, or hypothetical scenarios. In more complex sentences, it often appears in combination with the past participle hatt to express experiences or states that occurred before another past moment.

Etymology: The Norwegian form derives from the same Germanic root as the present tense ha, with historical developments seen across the Scandinavian languages.