Negation is how a language says something is not the case. Danish builds it around one indispensable word — ikke ("not") — supplemented by a handful of negative quantifiers (ingen, intet, ingenting, aldrig) and the paired connector hverken...eller ("neither...nor"). Two things make Danish negation worth a careful look: where ikke sits in the sentence is governed by a precise rule, and — unlike English casual speech or Spanish — standard Danish does not allow double negatives. This page gives you the whole toolkit; the dedicated pages drill each piece.
ikke — the workhorse "not"
For "not," Danish uses ikke. It negates the verb, and by extension the whole statement.
Jeg forstår ikke.
I don't understand.
Det er ikke min skyld.
It's not my fault.
Hun kommer ikke i aften.
She's not coming tonight.
Notice there is no auxiliary "do": Danish negates by inserting ikke, not by adding a helper verb the way English does ("I do not understand"). You simply drop ikke in after the verb.
Where ikke goes: the main vs subordinate split
The placement of ikke is the one genuinely tricky part of Danish negation, and it depends on whether you're in a main clause or a subordinate clause.
Main clause: ikke comes after the finite verb (and after any short subject pronoun object).
Jeg drikker ikke kaffe.
I don't drink coffee. (main clause — ikke after the verb)
Subordinate clause: ikke comes before the finite verb.
Han siger, at han ikke drikker kaffe.
He says that he doesn't drink coffee. (subordinate — ikke before the verb)
Look at the contrast: drikker ikke in the main clause flips to ikke drikker once it's tucked inside at.... This switch is one of the defining features of Danish (and mainland Scandinavian) syntax. The full set of rules, including placement relative to objects and adverbs, is on the ikke-placement page.
Negative quantifiers: ingen, intet, ingenting, aldrig
Beyond ikke, Danish has dedicated negative words that fold the negation into a noun or an adverb.
ingen / intet — "no / none." These agree with gender: ingen with common-gender and plural nouns, intet (formal/written) with neuter nouns. Ingen alone also means "no one."
Jeg har ingen penge.
I have no money.
Ingen vidste, hvad der var sket.
No one knew what had happened.
ingenting — "nothing" (the everyday word; intet is its more formal counterpart).
Der er ingenting i køleskabet.
There's nothing in the fridge.
aldrig — "never." It occupies the same sentence-adverbial slot as ikke.
Jeg ryger aldrig.
I never smoke.
The fuller picture of ingen/intet/ingenting and their agreement lives on the ingen-intet page.
hverken...eller — "neither...nor"
To negate two things at once, Danish pairs hverken with eller: "neither...nor."
Jeg kan hverken se eller høre noget.
I can neither see nor hear anything.
Hun drikker hverken kaffe eller te.
She drinks neither coffee nor tea.
This construction has its own neither-nor page.
Danish is a single-negation language
This is the rule English speakers most need to internalise. Standard Danish allows one negative element per clause. When you use a negative quantifier like ingen or aldrig, you do not also add ikke — the quantifier already carries the negation.
Jeg har ingen venner her.
I have no friends here. (one negative — correct)
In English, casual speech tolerates "I don't have no friends" (and Spanish even requires no tengo ningún amigo with two negatives). Danish does neither: ikke and ingen in the same clause is simply ungrammatical. Pick one negative word and stop.
How this compares to English
Three differences stand out. First, no do-support: English props its negation on a helper ("I do not know"), Danish just inserts ikke (jeg ved ikke). Second, placement moves depending on clause type — ikke drikker inside a subordinate clause is something English never does. Third, no negative concord: where colloquial English (and standard Spanish) can stack negatives, standard Danish forbids it, so the negative quantifiers ingen/intet/aldrig must stand alone. The one comforting similarity: the meanings line up neatly — ikke = not, ingen = no/none, aldrig = never, ingenting = nothing.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg har ikke ingen penge.
Incorrect — double negative; ingen already means 'no', so drop ikke.
✅ Jeg har ingen penge.
I have no money.
❌ Jeg ikke forstår.
Incorrect — in a main clause ikke comes after the verb, not before.
✅ Jeg forstår ikke.
I don't understand.
❌ Jeg gør ikke forstå.
Incorrect — Danish has no 'do'-support; negate the verb directly with ikke.
✅ Jeg forstår ikke.
I don't understand.
❌ Han siger, at han drikker ikke kaffe.
Incorrect — in a subordinate clause ikke goes before the finite verb.
✅ Han siger, at han ikke drikker kaffe.
He says that he doesn't drink coffee.
❌ Jeg ryger ikke aldrig.
Incorrect — aldrig is already negative; don't add ikke.
✅ Jeg ryger aldrig.
I never smoke.
Key Takeaways
- ikke is the basic "not," inserted directly — no English-style "do."
- Its position depends on clause type: after the verb in a main clause, before it in a subordinate clause — it fills the sentence-adverbial slot.
- ingen/intet/ingenting = no/nothing; aldrig = never; hverken...eller = neither...nor.
- Standard Danish uses one negative per clause — never combine ikke with ingen/aldrig.
- Each tool here has a dedicated page for the details.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Ikke: Placement and ScopeA1 — Where 'not' goes in Danish — after the finite verb in main clauses but before it in subordinate clauses — plus its scope, object shift, and how it negates single constituents.
- Ingen, Intet and Negative QuantifiersB1 — Danish's incorporated negatives — ingen, intet, ingenting, ingen steder, aldrig — and why they already contain the negation, so ikke must never be added.
- Hverken...eller and Coordinated NegationB2 — How to negate two things at once in Danish — hverken...eller, the additive heller ikke, and the uden at construction.
- Placing Ikke and Sentence AdverbsA2 — Where ikke and adverbs like aldrig, altid, and gerne go — after the verb in main clauses, before it in subordinate clauses.
- The Diderichsen Sentence SchemaC1 — The sætningsskema — the field model taught in Danish schools that generates correct Danish word order, from which V2, inversion, and ikke-placement all fall out automatically.