English does something Danish does not: after a preposition, it uses the -ing form (a gerund) — "without saying," "by reading," "instead of waiting," "after eating." Danish has no gerund. When a verb follows a preposition, Danish uses the infinitive marked with at — uden at sige, ved at læse, i stedet for at vente. English speakers reliably make one of two errors here: they either reach for a finite verb (uden sagde) or import the English -ing form, which does not exist in Danish at all. This page fixes both.
The core rule
After a preposition, Danish uses preposition + at + infinitive. The verb stays in its plain infinitive form (the form listed in a dictionary), and at is the infinitive marker — equivalent to English "to," not to a conjugation.
Hun gik uden at sige farvel.
She left without saying goodbye.
Man lærer sprog ved at læse meget.
You learn languages by reading a lot.
The mistake is to copy English structure. English "by reading" feels like it should map to ved læser (finite) or to some ved læsende (an -ing form). Neither is Danish. The fix is mechanical and reliable:
The prepositions that take at + infinitive
The most common are for at (in order to), uden at (without), ved at (by / in the act of), i stedet for at (instead of), and efter at (after — with a twist covered below). Compare each with its English -ing counterpart and you can see exactly where the transfer error comes from.
Jeg ringede for at høre, om I kommer.
I called (in order) to ask whether you're coming.
Han forlod festen uden at sige et ord.
He left the party without saying a word.
Vi sparede penge ved at lave maden selv.
We saved money by cooking the food ourselves.
Lad os tage cyklen i stedet for at vente på bussen.
Let's take the bike instead of waiting for the bus.
In every one of these, English uses -ing and Danish uses at + infinitive. There is no exception to memorize here — it is a single consistent pattern. Related conjunction-like uses of these phrases are covered on infinitive conjunctions.
The perfect infinitive after efter
Efter ("after") deserves special attention, because here the form has to express that the action was already completed. Danish uses a perfect infinitive: efter at have + past participle.
Efter at have spist gik vi en tur.
After eating (literally: after to have eaten), we went for a walk.
Efter at have ventet i en time gik hun hjem.
After waiting (after having waited) for an hour, she went home.
Think of it logically: efter at spise would mean "after to eat," which leaves the timing open and sounds wrong, because efter inherently points to something already done. The completed-action logic forces the perfect form at have spist ("to have eaten"). English collapses this into a plain -ing ("after eating"), but Danish keeps the completeness explicit.
This is also why efter at spise (plain infinitive) sounds wrong to native ears: the timing clashes with the meaning of efter.
When you need a clause instead — før, inden, fordi
Not every "after / before / because + verb" maps to a preposition + infinitive. Some of these words are conjunctions, not prepositions, and a conjunction introduces a full finite clause (with a subject and a conjugated verb).
Før and inden ("before") most naturally take a finite clause:
Vask hænder, før du spiser.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Ring til mig, inden du går.
Call me before you leave.
Here you cannot use a bare infinitive the way English allows "before eating"; Danish wants the full clause før du spiser ("before you eat"). And fordi ("because") is always a conjunction taking a finite clause — never an infinitive:
Jeg blev hjemme, fordi jeg var syg.
I stayed home because I was sick.
The takeaway: for at, uden at, ved at, i stedet for at, efter at are prepositional and take at + infinitive; før, inden, fordi, når, da are conjunctions and take a finite clause. For the deeper distinction between at as an infinitive marker and at as the conjunction "that," see the at-infinitive uses page and infinitive and at.
Common Mistakes
❌ Hun gik uden sagde farvel.
Incorrect — a finite verb (sagde) can't follow the preposition 'uden'.
✅ Hun gik uden at sige farvel.
She left without saying goodbye.
After uden you need at + infinitive (at sige), not the past tense sagde. The English -ing ("without saying") hides the fact that a verb form is even involved, which is why learners grab the wrong one.
❌ Man lærer ved reading meget.
Incorrect — there is no '-ing' form in Danish; you cannot borrow the English one.
✅ Man lærer ved at læse meget.
You learn by reading a lot.
Danish has no gerund/-ing form at all. Wherever English would put a verb in -ing after a preposition, Danish puts at + infinitive.
❌ Efter at spise gik vi en tur.
Incorrect — 'efter' needs the completed (perfect) infinitive.
✅ Efter at have spist gik vi en tur.
After eating, we went for a walk.
The plain infinitive at spise doesn't show that the eating was finished first. Efter forces the perfect infinitive at have spist ("to have eaten").
❌ Jeg gør det for at jeg hjælper dig.
Incorrect — same subject, so use the infinitive, not a finite clause.
✅ Jeg gør det for at hjælpe dig.
I'm doing it (in order) to help you.
When the subject of both verbs is the same person, for at takes a bare infinitive (for at hjælpe). You only switch to a finite clause (for at jeg...) when the helper and the helped are different people — and even then så is usually more natural.
❌ Vask hænder, før at spise.
Incorrect — 'før' is a conjunction here and needs a finite clause.
✅ Vask hænder, før du spiser.
Wash your hands before you eat.
Før and inden introduce a full clause with a subject and a conjugated verb (før du spiser), not an infinitive. Don't extend the at + infinitive pattern to them.
❌ I stedet for vente tog vi en taxa.
Incorrect — 'i stedet for' still needs 'at' before the infinitive.
✅ I stedet for at vente tog vi en taxa.
Instead of waiting, we took a taxi.
Even though i stedet for is long, the verb after it still needs its at: i stedet for at vente ("instead of waiting").
Key takeaways
- After a preposition, Danish uses at + infinitive — never an -ing form (it has none), never a finite verb.
- for at, uden at, ved at, i stedet for at — all prepositional, all take at
- infinitive.
- Efter takes the perfect infinitive: efter at have
- past participle, because the action is completed first.
- Før, inden, fordi, når, da are conjunctions and take a finite clause, not an infinitive.
- for at
- infinitive when the subject is the same; switch to a finite clause only when the subjects differ.
Now practice Danish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Uses of the InfinitiveB1 — Where the bare infinitive and the at-infinitive appear in Danish — after modals, after other verbs and prepositions, as subject or object, in for at / uden at / ved at, and as instructions on signs.
- For at, Uden at, I stedet for atB1 — The Danish conjunctions that take an infinitive rather than a finite clause — for at (in order to), uden at, ved at, i stedet for at — and the same-subject rule that governs them.
- The Infinitive and the Marker AtA1 — The Danish infinitive, the infinitive marker at ('to'), when to use it and when to drop it — and the notorious at/og spelling trap.
- Du vs De: The Informality of DanishB1 — Why Danish uses the informal du for almost everyone, when the polite De still survives, and why defaulting to De can sound cold rather than respectful.