đŸ‡©đŸ‡°Snak Dansk Nu

Grammar

The Danish irregular verbs you will actually meet

Published 16 September 2026

Of the 20 verbs Danes use most, 17 break the past-tense rules. That sounds like bad news. It is actually the good kind: the irregular verbs you need are a short, fixed list, they come up in every conversation, and several of them follow patterns once you see them side by side. Here is that list, in the order you will need it.

vĂŠre [ˈvɛːʁə] gĂ„ [ËˆÉĄÌŠÉ”Ë€] se [ˈseˀ]

What counts as irregular

Regular verbs add -ede or -te

A regular Danish verb makes its past tense with one of two endings: arbejde becomes arbejdede, and bruge becomes brugte. Once you know which ending a verb takes, you're done, and there are clues for that in how the Danish past tense works.

An irregular verb does something else. Usually the vowel changes (gĂ„ [ËˆÉĄÌŠÉ”Ë€] "go" becomes gik "went"), sometimes the whole word does (vĂŠre [ˈvɛːʁə] "be" becomes var "was"). English works the same way, which is why go, went, gone looks nothing like walk, walked.

The most common verbs are the most irregular in both languages, for the same reason: words used thousands of times a day resist being tidied up. Every verb in the table below is also on the list of the 100 most common Danish verbs, with its present tense and pronunciation.

The list

40 irregular verbs, most common first

These are every verb among the 100 most common whose past tense is not -ede or -te. The number is the verb's place among those 100, so the top of the table is what to learn first.

#VerbPastPerfectEnglish
1 vĂŠre var vĂŠret be
2 have havde haft have
3 kunne kunne kunnet can
4 skulle skulle — shall
5 ville ville villet want
6 blive blev blevet become
7 fÄ fik fÄet get
8 komme kom kommet come
9 sige sagde sagt say
10 se sÄ set see
11 gÄ gik gÄet go
12 gĂžre gjorde gjort do
14 tage tog taget take
15 give gav givet give
16 finde fandt fundet find
17 stÄ stod stÄet stand
19 holde holdt holdt hold
21 ligge lÄ ligget lie
22 lade lod ladet let
29 skrive skrev skrevet write
33 synes syntes syntes think
35 sidde sad siddet sit
45 betyde betĂžd betydet mean
50 hjĂŠlpe hjalp hjulpet help
59 forstÄ forstod forstÄet understand
65 burde burde — should
67 lĂžbe lĂžb lĂžbet run
70 falde faldt faldet fall
73 findes fandtes fandtes exist
75 lĂŠgge lagde lagt lay
77 drikke drak drukket drink
79 slÄ slog slÄet hit
80 modtage modtog modtaget receive
82 lide led lidt suffer
85 vinde vandt vundet win
86 sove sov sovet sleep
87 hedde hed heddet be called
91 trĂŠkke trak trukket pull
97 bestÄ bestod bestÄet consist
99 undgÄ undgik undgÄet avoid

A dash means the dictionary we build from has no form for that slot. The modal verbs (kunne, skulle, ville, mÄtte, burde) are in the table because their past tense looks exactly like the infinitive: kunne is the dictionary form "to be able to" and also the past, as in jeg kunne "I could".

Patterns

Learn one verb, get three free

Irregular does not mean random. Three patterns cover a good part of the table.

Compounds copy their base verb

Learn stĂ„ [ˈsd̄ɔˀ] "stand", stod, stĂ„et, and you already know forstĂ„ [fʌˈsd̄ɔˀ] "understand": forstod, forstĂ„et. The same goes for bestĂ„ "pass, consist" from stĂ„, undgĂ„ "avoid" from gĂ„, and modtage "receive" from tage. This is the best deal in Danish grammar.

i, a, u

A group of verbs runs the vowel through i, a and u, the way English runs sing, sang, sung: drikke, drak, drukket "drink", finde, fandt, fundet "find", vinde, vandt, vundet "win". If a new verb has an i and you have to guess, guess this.

The short -Ă„ verbs

gĂ„ [ËˆÉĄÌŠÉ”Ë€], stĂ„ [ˈsd̄ɔˀ], fĂ„ [ˈfɔˀ] "get" and slĂ„ "hit" are tiny, extremely common and all irregular: gik, stod, fik, slog. Their perfect forms are kinder, just -et on the end: gĂ„et, stĂ„et, fĂ„et, slĂ„et.

Try it

Cover the Past column

Scroll back to the table, cover the Past column with your hand, and say the past tense of the first ten verbs out loud. Then check.

If you only drill two, make them blev and fik. They look nothing like their infinitives, and you will need them in the first story you ever tell in Danish: Jeg fik et job, og sÄ blev jeg i KÞbenhavn, "I got a job, and then I stayed in Copenhagen".

The app puts these verbs in its first groups, with all their forms on each card. Practise the common verbs

Start with the verbs that come up first

The app teaches Danish in frequency order, so these verbs arrive early, with their past and perfect forms.

Start with the first 50 words See all 100 common verbs