When you report what someone said without quoting them word for word, you use indirect (or reported) speech: not Han sagde: "Jeg kommer" but Han sagde, at han kom — "He said that he was coming." Danish does this with the same machinery as English — a complementiser, a backshift of tense, and a shift of pronouns and place/time words — but the details differ in ways that trip up English speakers. This page walks through each transformation and shows you how to convert a statement, a question, and a command.
The reported clause is always a subordinate clause, so it takes subordinate word order: the subject comes first and sentence adverbs like ikke sit before the verb, not after it. Keep that in mind throughout — it is the single most common place learners slip.
Statements: the complementiser at
A reported statement is introduced by at ("that"), and — unlike in casual English — Danish keeps the at far more often than English keeps "that." There is always a comma before at.
Han siger, at han er træt.
He says (that) he is tired.
Hun fortalte mig, at hun havde fundet en ny lejlighed.
She told me she had found a new flat.
Inside the at-clause, watch the adverb placement:
De sagde, at de ikke ville hjælpe.
They said they wouldn't help.
In the original direct quote — "Vi vil ikke hjælpe" — ikke follows the verb (main-clause order). Reported, it moves before the finite verb because the clause is now subordinate.
Tense backshift
When the reporting verb is in the past (sagde, fortalte, mente, spurgte), the tense of the reported clause typically shifts one step back into the past. This is the same "backshift" you know from English.
| Direct (original) | Reported (backshifted) |
|---|---|
| present: kommer | past: kom |
| past: kom | pluperfect: var kommet |
| perfect: er kommet | pluperfect: var kommet |
| future: vil komme | conditional: ville komme |
Direkte: »Jeg kommer i aften.« → Han sagde, at han kom samme aften.
Direct: 'I'm coming tonight.' → He said he was coming that evening.
Direkte: »Jeg har set filmen.« → Hun sagde, at hun havde set filmen.
Direct: 'I've seen the film.' → She said she had seen the film.
Pronoun and deictic shifts
Reporting from a new vantage point means first- and second-person pronouns usually become third person, and "here/now" words shift to "there/then."
| Direct | Reported | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | han / hun | I → he/she |
| vi | de | we → they |
| min | sin / hans / hendes | my → his/her |
| i dag | den dag | today → that day |
| i morgen | dagen efter / den følgende dag | tomorrow → the next day |
| her | der | here → there |
| nu | da / på det tidspunkt | now → then |
Direkte: »Jeg tager mine børn med i dag.« → Hun sagde, at hun tog sine børn med den dag.
Direct: 'I'm bringing my kids today.' → She said she was bringing her kids that day.
Note mine → sine: because the children belong to the subject of the reported clause (hun), Danish uses the reflexive possessive sine. Using hendes would mean someone else's children. This sin/hendes distinction has no English equivalent and is a frequent error — see sin vs hans.
Reported questions
A reported yes/no question uses om ("whether/if"); a reported hv-question keeps its question word (hvad, hvor, hvornår, hvem). Both become subordinate clauses, so — crucially — there is no inversion: the subject comes before the verb, exactly as in a statement.
Direkte: »Kommer du?« → Han spurgte, om jeg kom.
Direct: 'Are you coming?' → He asked whether I was coming.
Direkte: »Hvor bor du?« → Hun spurgte, hvor jeg boede.
Direct: 'Where do you live?' → She asked where I lived.
In the direct question Hvor bor du? the verb comes before the subject (bor du). Reported, this flips to subject-first (jeg boede) because the clause is now subordinate. Getting this wrong — keeping question inversion in the reported clause — is the classic English-speaker error. See indirect questions for the full treatment.
Jeg ved ikke, hvornår toget går.
I don't know when the train leaves.
Modal backshift
Modal verbs shift to their past forms in backshifted reports. This is mechanical but easy to forget.
| Direct | Reported | Gloss |
|---|---|---|
| vil | ville | will → would |
| skal | skulle | shall/must → was to / had to |
| kan | kunne | can → could |
| må | måtte | may/must → might / had to |
Direkte: »Jeg kan ikke nå det.« → Han sagde, at han ikke kunne nå det.
Direct: 'I can't make it.' → He said he couldn't make it.
Direkte: »Vi skal mødes klokken syv.« → De sagde, at de skulle mødes klokken syv.
Direct: 'We're meeting at seven.' → They said they were meeting at seven.
Reporting a command
Danish does not report an imperative as a finite clause. Instead it uses bede nogen om at + infinitive ("ask someone to") — an infinitive construction, not an at-clause. There is no natural Danish equivalent of making "He said that I should..." the default; the infinitive is far more idiomatic.
Direkte: »Luk døren!« → Hun bad mig om at lukke døren.
Direct: 'Close the door!' → She asked me to close the door.
Direkte: »Vent her!« → Han bad os om at vente der.
Direct: 'Wait here!' → He asked us to wait there.
Note her → der (here → there) survives into the infinitive version too. For the mechanics of these om at + infinitive structures, see infinitive constructions.
The three transforms side by side
| Type | Direct | Reported |
|---|---|---|
| Statement | »Jeg er færdig.« | Han sagde, at han var færdig. |
| Question | »Er du færdig?« | Han spurgte, om jeg var færdig. |
| Command | »Bliv færdig!« | Han bad mig om at blive færdig. |
Common Mistakes
❌ Han spurgte, hvor bor jeg.
Incorrect — keeping question inversion in the reported clause.
✅ Han spurgte, hvor jeg bor.
He asked where I live.
❌ Hun sagde, at hun kommer ikke.
Incorrect — ikke after the verb; the reported clause is subordinate.
✅ Hun sagde, at hun ikke kom.
She said she wasn't coming.
❌ Han spurgte hvis jeg ville med.
Incorrect — 'whether' in a yes/no report is om, not hvis (which means 'if/whose').
✅ Han spurgte, om jeg ville med.
He asked whether I wanted to come along.
❌ Hun sagde, at hun tog hendes børn med.
Incorrect — the children are her own, so the reflexive sine is needed.
✅ Hun sagde, at hun tog sine børn med.
She said she was bringing her (own) children.
❌ Han sagde mig at vente.
Incorrect — 'tell someone to' for a command is bede nogen om at, not sige.
✅ Han bad mig om at vente.
He asked me to wait.
Key Takeaways
- The reported clause is subordinate: subject first, ikke before the verb, comma before at.
- Backshift the tense when the reporting verb is past — but keep the present for enduring truths.
- Yes/no questions → om; hv-questions keep the hv-word, and both lose question inversion.
- Modals shift: vil→ville, skal→skulle, kan→kunne, må→måtte.
- Commands are reported with bede nogen om at + infinitive, not a finite at-clause.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Infinitive ConstructionsB2 — Danish infinitive clauses beyond the bare marker — for at, uden at, ved at, i stedet for at, the accusative-with-infinitive after perception and causative verbs, and til at complements, with the rules of subject control.
- Indirect QuestionsB2 — How Danish embeds questions inside larger sentences — om for yes/no, hv-words for wh-questions, and the crucial loss of verb inversion.
- Subordinate-Clause Word OrderB1 — Danish subordinate clauses follow a different template from main clauses: no V2 inversion, and sentence adverbs like ikke come before the finite verb, not after it.
- Complex Grammar: An OverviewB2 — A map of the advanced syntactic territory of Danish — the full sentence schema, embedded clauses, object shift, extraposition, reported speech, complex passives, and information structure.
- Reporting What Someone SaidB2 — Turn direct speech into a Danish reported statement with sige/fortælle + at — handling backshift, pronoun shifts, and the subordinate word order of the at-clause.