gjøre

Gjøre is a Norwegian verb meaning to do or to make. It is a central, highly productive verb used across tenses and in a wide range of idiomatic expressions. In Bokmål, the infinitive is written å gjøre; in Nynorsk it is å gjere.

The verb originates from Old Norse gjöra and is cognate with Danish gøre and Swedish göra. It carries both the sense of performing an action and bringing about a result. Because of its central role in sentence construction, gjøre/gjere appears in numerous derivations and compounds.

In Bokmål, common conjugations are: infinitive å gjøre; present tense gjør; past tense gjorde; past participle gjort. The passive present form is gjøres (as in Det gjøres ofte). In Nynorsk, the corresponding forms are: infinitiv å gjere; presens gjer; preteritum gjorde; perfektum partisipp gjort. These two varieties share the same past participle gjort/gjort.

Gjøre is used with direct objects to express performing an action on something, for example: Hva gjør du? What are you doing? Jeg har gjort lekser. I perfect tense, the form har gjort is used. The verb also appears in numerous idiomatic phrases, such as gjøre en forskjell (to make a difference), gjøre opp for noe (to make up for something), gjøre ferdig (to finish), and gjøre om (to redo). In everyday Norwegian, the verb functions as both a main verb and an auxiliary in various expressions and complements the meaning of other verbs.