Danish has two participles, and as adjectives they behave in opposite ways. The present participle ends in -ende and is completely invariable — it never inflects for gender, number, or definiteness. The past participle does the opposite: it agrees like an ordinary adjective, taking the -t of the neuter and the -e of the plural and definite. The two also differ in meaning: the present participle is active and ongoing, the past participle is passive and resultant. Sorting out which one you need, and then inflecting it correctly, is the whole job of this page.
The present participle: -ende, always invariable
Form the present participle by adding -ende to the verb stem: køre → kørende, sove → sovende, synge → syngende, grine → grinende. When used as an adjective it describes something actively doing the verb — a train that is moving, a cat that is sleeping. The crucial grammatical fact: it never changes shape. Common gender, neuter, singular, plural, indefinite, definite — it is always just -ende.
| Context | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| common, indefinite | en sovende kat | a sleeping cat |
| neuter, indefinite | et kørende tog | a moving train |
| plural / definite | de syngende børn | the singing children |
Pas på det kørende tog!
Watch out for the moving train!
Hun listede forbi den sovende kat.
She tiptoed past the sleeping cat.
De syngende børn fyldte hele gården.
The singing children filled the whole courtyard.
Look at the third example: de syngende børn. A normal Danish adjective would take -e in the definite plural (de små børn), but the present participle stays bare — syngende, never *syngene or *syngendt. That invariability is the single rule you must internalise for this participle.
For an English speaker this is the easy half: English present participles in -ing are also invariable (a sleeping cat, the singing children). The map is one-to-one, and the meaning — active, ongoing, "in the middle of doing it" — matches too.
The past participle: agrees like a real adjective
The past participle (the form you also use after har/er in the perfect: malet, bygget, kogt, skrevet) behaves as a full adjective. It describes the result of an action done to the noun — a wall that has been painted, a house that has been built. And like any Danish adjective, it inflects:
- Common gender, indefinite singular: base form — en malet væg (a painted wall)
- Neuter, indefinite singular: add -t — et malet hus (a painted house)
- Plural and all definite forms: add -e — de malede vægge (the painted walls)
| Context | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| common, indefinite | en malet væg | a painted wall |
| neuter, indefinite | et malet hus | a painted house |
| plural | malede vægge | painted walls |
| definite | de malede vægge / det malede hus | the painted walls / house |
De malede vægge lyste op i det mørke rum.
The painted walls brightened up the dark room.
Vi flyttede ind i et nybygget hus.
We moved into a newly built house.
Han serverede en hjemmelavet kage.
He served a homemade cake.
Note that a participle ending already in -t (a -te/-t weak verb like koge → kogt, or lægge → lagt) does not add a second -t in the neuter — et kogt æg (a boiled egg), not *et kogtt. The -e of the plural and definite is added normally: de kogte æg (the boiled eggs).
Til morgenmad fik vi to kogte æg.
For breakfast we had two boiled eggs.
Predicative use: after the verb "to be"
Both participles can also stand predicatively, after a verb like være (to be) or blive (to become). Here the present participle again stays invariable, while the past participle agrees in number with the subject (it takes -t for a neuter singular and -e for a plural).
Væggen er malet.
The wall is painted. (resultant state — past participle, common singular)
Huset er malet.
The house is painted. (neuter singular — the -t form here is identical to the base for this verb)
Vinduerne er stadig ikke malet.
The windows still aren't painted.
The predicative past participle describes a resultant state: Væggen er malet = the wall is now in a painted condition (someone painted it). This overlaps with the blive-passive and være-passive; the boundary is the difference between an ongoing action (Væggen bliver malet — the wall is being painted, blive) and a finished state (Væggen er malet — the wall is painted, være). See the s-passive and blive-passive pages for that contrast.
Active vs. passive: choosing the right participle
The meaning split is reliable and worth stating plainly:
- Present participle (-ende) = active, the noun is doing the verb: et brændende hus (a house that is burning), en grædende mand (a crying man).
- Past participle = passive / resultant, the verb was done to the noun: et brændt hus (a house that has been burnt down), en knust rude (a smashed pane).
Brandfolkene kunne intet gøre ved det brændende hus.
The firefighters could do nothing about the burning house. (it is on fire now — active)
De flyttede ind i et nedbrændt hus.
They moved into a burnt-down house. (it has been destroyed by fire — passive/resultant)
That single minimal pair — brændende (burning, active) vs. brændt (burnt, passive) — captures the whole semantic difference between the two participles.
Common Mistakes
❌ Pas på det kørendt tog!
Incorrect — the present participle in -ende never inflects; no -t is added.
✅ Pas på det kørende tog!
Watch out for the moving train!
❌ De malet vægge så pæne ud.
Incorrect — the past participle must agree in the plural: malede.
✅ De malede vægge så pæne ud.
The painted walls looked nice.
❌ Vi bor i et nybyggede hus.
Incorrect — a neuter indefinite singular takes the base/-t form, not the plural -e: nybygget.
✅ Vi bor i et nybygget hus.
We live in a newly built house.
❌ Børnene var syngende glade.
Confused — here 'singing' modifies a state actively, but for 'happy children' you want the adjective; don't reach for a participle where a plain adjective fits.
✅ De syngende børn var glade.
The singing children were happy. (present participle attributive; plain adjective predicative)
Key Takeaways
- The present participle in -ende is invariable — never add -t or -e to it, in any context.
- The past participle inflects like a normal adjective: base in common indefinite, -t in neuter indefinite, -e in plural and definite.
- Meaning splits cleanly: -ende is active/ongoing (et brændende hus), the past participle is passive/resultant (et brændt hus).
- Predicatively, the present participle stays invariable while the past participle agrees with the subject and names a resultant state (Væggen er malet).
- The English speaker's edge: the -ende participle behaves just like English -ing; the work is all on the agreeing past participle.
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Indefinite Adjective Agreement: -Ø, -t, -eA1 — The Danish indefinite (strong) adjective paradigm: base form for common singular, -t for neuter singular, -e for plural — plus the full set of spelling rules for when -t is and isn't added, and consonant doubling before -e.
- The -s PassiveB1 — The synthetic -s passive — formed by adding -s to the verb (taler → tales) — is the natural Danish passive for general truths, instructions, notices, recipes, and modal constructions. Here is how to build and use it.
- Present and Past ParticiplesB1 — Danish's two participles — the -ende present participle and the -et/-t/strong past participle — their forms, and the active/ongoing versus passive/completed split that governs them.
- Predicative vs Attributive PositionA2 — Where a Danish adjective sits decides how it agrees: attributive (before the noun) takes the full paradigm including the definite -e, while predicative (after være/blive) uses the indefinite paradigm and never the definite -e — even when the subject is definite.