Translating the word “when” into Norwegian is a common challenge for beginners.

You must choose between two completely different words: da and når.

The choice depends entirely on when the event happened and how often it occurred.

Fortunately, there’s a very simple rhyming rule that native Norwegian speakers use to remember the difference.

I’ll explain exactly how to use both words so you never make this mistake again.

The golden rule: den gang da, hver gang når

Norwegian schoolchildren learn a simple rhyme to tell these two words apart.

The rhyme is den gang da, hver gang når.

Den gang translates to “that time” or “that one time”.

Hver gang translates to “every time” or “each time”.

This means you use da for something that happened one single time in the past.

You use når for things that happen repeatedly, or things happening right now and in the future.

If you can memorize this short rhyme, you’ll instantly know which word to choose in almost any situation.

How to use da for single past events

You must use da when talking about an isolated, one-time event in the past.

This includes specific historical events, childhood memories, or single actions that are already finished.

You can’t use når for these situations.

Here are a few examples showing da in action for single past events:

In all of these examples, the event only happened once.

You were only little once, he called at that specific moment, and you only moved to Norway once.

(Note: If you’re learning Nynorsk instead of Bokmål, the word for da is spelled då).

How to use når for present and future events

Any time you’re talking about the present or the future, you must use når.

It doesn’t matter if the event happens once or a hundred times.

If it hasn’t happened yet, or if it’s a general statement about the present, når is the correct word.

Here’s how you use når for future and present events:

How to use når for repeated past events

This is the only situation where når is used in the past tense.

If an action happened multiple times in the past, you use når.

This connects back to the “hver gang når” (every time = når) part of our golden rule.

If you can replace the word “when” in your English sentence with “whenever” or “every time”, you should use når in Norwegian.

Let’s look at some examples of repeated past events:

Notice how these sentences describe habits or routines that happened over and over again.

Using når to ask questions

There’s one final rule that makes your choice incredibly easy.

When you’re asking a question with the word “when”, you always use når.

You never use da as a question word.

This applies regardless of whether the question is about the past, present, or future.

Summary of da vs når

To keep things perfectly clear, use this simple summary table to check your work.