Once you can compare single words (større, bedst), the next step is comparison and result across whole clauses: "bigger than I thought," "so tired that I fell asleep," "the more, the better," "too young to understand." Danish has a dedicated connector for each of these, and two of them — the case after end and the inversion inside jo…desto — behave in ways that surprise English speakers. This page works through end, som/ligesom, the jo…desto correlative, the så…at result clause and the for…til at "too…to" frame.
end — "than"
Danish uses end for the second term of a comparison — never som, and never fra. After a comparative adjective or adverb, end introduces either a phrase or a full clause.
Huset var større, end jeg troede.
The house was bigger than I thought.
Hun løber hurtigere end de fleste på holdet.
She runs faster than most people on the team.
When a clause follows end, it is a subordinate clause and takes subordinate word order — the subject first, and sentence adverbs like ikke before the verb (see subordinate clauses):
Det tog længere tid, end vi havde regnet med.
It took longer than we had reckoned.
The case after end: subject form
When end is followed by a bare pronoun, traditional careful Danish uses the subject form — end jeg, end han, end vi — on the analysis that an elided verb follows: større end jeg (er). But the object form (end mig, end ham) is now the unmarked norm in everyday speech and informal writing — so widespread that Dansk Sprognævn regards it as essentially correct, and warns that end jeg can sound stiff or hypercorrect. Treat this as a register choice, not right-vs-wrong: reach for end jeg in formal prose, end mig almost everywhere else. (English wavers the same way between "taller than I" and "taller than me.")
Min bror er to år ældre end jeg.
My brother is two years older than I (am).
Hun er dygtigere end ham, hvis du spørger mig.
She's more skilled than him, if you ask me.
som and ligesom — "as / like"
For likeness rather than difference, Danish uses som ("as, like") and the emphatic ligesom ("just like"). These mark equality or resemblance, where end marks inequality. Do not let English "than/as" collapse them: a comparative (-ere, mere) needs end; equality needs som.
Han taler dansk ligesom en indfødt.
He speaks Danish just like a native.
Gør det, som jeg viste dig.
Do it the way I showed you.
The equality frame lige så … som ("as … as") pairs som with lige så:
Bogen er lige så god som filmen.
The book is just as good as the film.
jo … desto / jo … jo — "the … the"
Danish renders the correlative "the more …, the more …" with jo … desto (formal-neutral) or jo … jo (more colloquial). The comparative word is fronted in each clause. The crucial word-order fact: only the second clause — the desto/second-jo clause — has inversion (verb before subject); the first jo-clause keeps ordinary subject–verb order.
Jo mere jeg læser om det, desto mindre forstår jeg.
The more I read about it, the less I understand.
Jo før, desto bedre.
The sooner, the better.
Jo længere vi ventede, jo mere nervøse blev vi.
The longer we waited, the more nervous we got.
så … at — the result clause ("so … that")
To say a quality reaches a degree that produces a result, Danish uses så (+ adjective/adverb) … at (+ result clause): så træt, at jeg sov ("so tired that I fell asleep"). The at-clause is subordinate, so it takes subordinate word order.
Jeg var så træt, at jeg faldt i søvn på sofaen.
I was so tired that I fell asleep on the sofa.
Det regnede så meget, at gaderne stod under vand.
It rained so much that the streets were flooded.
In speech the at is often dropped, much as English drops "that": Jeg var så træt, jeg sov. Both are fine; keep the at in writing.
Hun grinede så meget, hun fik ondt i maven.
She laughed so hard she got a stomachache.
for … til at — "too … to"
The "too … to" frame is for (+ adjective/adverb) … til at (+ infinitive): for træt til at gå ("too tired to walk"). English speakers routinely build this wrong because the surface words tempt a literal "too = for, to = at" mapping that omits the obligatory til. The Danish frame is fixed: for … til at.
Han er for ung til at forstå det.
He's too young to understand it.
Jeg var for træt til at lave mad, så vi bestilte ud.
I was too tired to cook, so we ordered takeout.
Det er aldrig for sent til at begynde forfra.
It's never too late to start over.
Common mistakes
❌ Huset var større som jeg troede.
Wrong — a comparative needs end, not som.
✅ Huset var større, end jeg troede.
The house was bigger than I thought.
❌ Han er klogere end jeg er mig.
Wrong — pick one: either end jeg (with the elided verb) or just end mig, never both.
✅ Min bror er ældre end jeg. / ... end mig.
My brother is older than I/me — end jeg in formal prose, end mig in everyday Danish.
❌ Jo mere jeg læser, desto jeg forstår mindre.
Wrong order — the desto-clause inverts: desto + comparative + verb + subject.
✅ Jo mere jeg læser, desto mindre forstår jeg.
The more I read, the less I understand.
❌ Han er for ung at forstå det.
Wrong — the 'too…to' frame requires til: for … til at.
✅ Han er for ung til at forstå det.
He's too young to understand it.
❌ Jeg var så træt at jeg faldt i søvn — uden komma.
Punctuation slip — Danish sets a comma before the at-clause.
✅ Jeg var så træt, at jeg faldt i søvn.
I was so tired that I fell asleep.
Key takeaways
- end = "than" (inequality); som / ligesom / lige så … som = "as / like" (equality). A comparative always takes end.
- After end, formal prose favours the subject pronoun (end jeg), but everyday Danish uses the object form (end mig); the case can still disambiguate the meaning.
- jo … desto / jo … jo = "the … the"; only the second (desto) clause inverts.
- så … at = result ("so … that"), a finite at-clause; the at may drop in speech.
- for … til at = "too … to," with the obligatory til before the infinitive.
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