Asking the way is one of the first real conversations you'll have in Danish, and it leans on a small, fixed toolkit: two ways to ask where something is, a set of left/right/straight-on words, and the bare-stem imperative for giving instructions (drej, gå, tag). The grammar is gentle once you see the patterns — questions invert the verb and subject, and commands strip the verb down to its stem. This page collects the high-frequency direction phrases, grouped by whether you're asking or telling, with the spatial vocabulary you need to understand the answer.
Asking where something is
There are two everyday questions. Hvor er...? ("where is...?") asks for a location; hvordan kommer jeg til...? ("how do I get to...?") asks for a route. Both are worth memorising whole.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hvor er stationen? | where is the-station | Where's the station? | neutral |
| Hvordan kommer jeg til centrum? | how come I to centre | How do I get to the centre? | neutral |
| Undskyld, er der et toilet i nærheden? | excuse, is there a toilet in the-nearness | Excuse me, is there a toilet nearby? | polite |
| Hvor langt er der til havnen? | how far is there to the-harbour | How far is it to the harbour? | neutral |
| Kan du vise mig vej? | can you show me way | Can you show me the way? | polite |
Undskyld, hvor er den nærmeste metrostation?
Excuse me, where's the nearest metro station?
Hvordan kommer jeg til Rådhuspladsen herfra?
How do I get to the Town Hall Square from here?
Hvor langt er der til stranden?
How far is it to the beach?
Notice the inversion: in hvor er stationen and hvordan kommer jeg, the verb sits in second position right after the question word, before the subject. This is the normal Danish question pattern; see wh-questions and inversion. Always open with undskyld ("excuse me") to a stranger — it's the standard polite lead-in.
The core direction words
These are the words that come back in the answer. Learn them as a block.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic |
|---|---|---|
| til højre | to right | (to the) right |
| til venstre | to left | (to the) left |
| ligeud | straight-out | straight on / straight ahead |
| tilbage | back | back / backwards |
| første gade | first street | the first street |
| anden gade til venstre | second street to left | second street on the left |
| rundt om hjørnet | round about the-corner | round the corner |
| på den anden side | on the other side | on the other side |
The single most important phrase here is til højre / til venstre. Danish uses the preposition til ("to") for these directions — never på. Saying på højre is the classic English-speaker slip (see Common Mistakes).
Gå ligeud, og tag den anden gade til venstre.
Go straight on, and take the second street on the left.
Banken ligger rundt om hjørnet, til højre.
The bank is round the corner, on the right.
Giving directions: the bare-stem imperative
When someone tells you the way, they use the imperative — and in Danish the imperative is simply the bare stem of the verb, with no ending. Where the infinitive is at dreje ("to turn"), the command is just drej ("turn!"). This is one of the simplest corners of Danish grammar; see the imperative.
| Infinitive | Imperative (command) | English |
|---|---|---|
| at gå | gå! | go / walk! |
| at dreje | drej! | turn! |
| at tage | tag! | take! |
| at fortsætte | fortsæt! | continue! |
| at følge | følg! | follow! |
| at krydse | kryds! | cross! |
Drej til højre ved lyskrydset.
Turn right at the traffic lights.
Fortsæt ligeud, indtil du ser kirken.
Keep going straight until you see the church.
Tag bus 5 og stå af ved biblioteket.
Take bus 5 and get off at the library.
Følg vejen, og så er du der.
Follow the road, and then you're there.
Locating things: spatial prepositions
Once you're close, you need words for where exactly. Two are especially useful and easy to get wrong: ved siden af ("next to") and over for ("opposite"). For the full system, see spatial prepositions.
| Danish | Literal | Idiomatic |
|---|---|---|
| ved siden af | by the-side of | next to / beside |
| over for | over for | opposite / across from |
| bag ved | behind by | behind |
| foran | before-on | in front of |
| mellem | between | between |
Apoteket ligger ved siden af supermarkedet.
The pharmacy is next to the supermarket.
Caféen er lige over for stationen.
The café is right opposite the station.
Postkassen står foran indgangen.
The postbox is in front of the entrance.
A short dialogue putting it together
A tourist asking a local the way, using questions, direction words, imperatives and spatial prepositions together.
— Undskyld, hvordan kommer jeg til Nationalmuseet?
— Excuse me, how do I get to the National Museum?
— Gå ligeud her, og drej så til venstre ved det store kryds.
— Go straight on here, then turn left at the big junction.
— Og så? — Tag den første gade til højre. Museet ligger over for parken.
— And then? — Take the first street on the right. The museum is opposite the park.
— Hvor langt er der? — Cirka fem minutter. Du kan ikke gå forkert.
— How far is it? — About five minutes. You can't go wrong.
Notice how the answer chains imperatives (gå, drej, tag) with direction words (ligeud, til venstre, til højre) and a spatial preposition (over for). That sequence — verb-command plus where-to — is the skeleton of every direction-giving in Danish. For a longer worked example, see the asking-directions dialogue.
Common Mistakes
1. På højre / på venstre instead of til højre / til venstre. Directions take til, not på. This is the number-one error.
❌ Drej på højre ved kirken.
Incorrect preposition — Danish uses til, not på, for directions.
✅ Drej til højre ved kirken.
Turn right at the church.
2. Adding an ending to the imperative. The command is the bare stem — no -r, no -er, no pronoun.
❌ Drejer til venstre her.
Incorrect — that's the present tense; a command drops the ending.
✅ Drej til venstre her.
Turn left here.
3. Forgetting the inversion in the question. After the question word, the verb comes before the subject.
❌ Hvor stationen er?
Incorrect word order — the verb must come before the subject.
✅ Hvor er stationen?
Where's the station?
4. Using foran for "opposite". Foran means "in front of" (same side); "opposite / across from" is over for.
❌ Banken er foran posthuset. (meaning 'across the street from')
Misleading — foran means directly in front, not across from.
✅ Banken er over for posthuset.
The bank is opposite the post office.
5. Dropping undskyld when stopping a stranger. Not ungrammatical, but launching straight into hvor er...? sounds abrupt. Lead with undskyld.
✅ Undskyld, ved du hvor rådhuset er?
Excuse me, do you know where the town hall is?
Key Takeaways
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- The ImperativeA1 — How to give commands, requests and suggestions in Danish — the bare-stem imperative, polite softeners, and the idiomatic 'don't' with lad være med at.
- Dialogue: Asking for DirectionsA2 — An annotated Danish dialogue about finding the train station, with line-by-line commentary on imperatives, the question Hvordan kommer jeg til...?, place prepositions, and the directional adverb hen.
- Spatial Prepositions: Over, Under, Ved, Hos, MellemA2 — The core Danish spatial prepositions beyond i and på — over, under, ved, hos, mellem, bag, foran — with special focus on hos, which English has no single word for.
- Wh-Questions (Hv-spørgsmål)A1 — Danish question words all start with hv- (silent h): hvem, hvad, hvor, hvornår, hvorfor, hvordan, hvilken, hvis — and how hvor + adjective means 'how big/old/many'.
- Inversion After a Fronted ElementA1 — Whenever a non-subject opens a Danish main clause — an adverb, object, prepositional phrase, or subordinate clause — the verb stays second and the subject moves behind it.