Talking About the Future

This page is about producing sentences that talk about the future — I'm travelling on Monday, I'm going to the dentist, it's going to rain. The big surprise for English speakers is that Danish has no dedicated future tense at all. There is no single word equivalent to will that you can drop in safely. Instead you choose among four strategies, each with its own flavour, and choosing well is what makes you sound natural rather than stiff.

The four tools:

• present tense + a time word — the everyday default for plans and scheduled events
• skal — a planned, arranged, or obligatory future
• vil — want to / intend to, and predictions (carries a whiff of volition)
• komme til at — something inevitable, or will end up happening

The default: present tense + a time word

For most ordinary future statements — anything planned or scheduled — Danes simply use the present tense and let a time adverbial carry the futurity. This is by far the most common pattern and the one to reach for first.

The verb rejser / ses / starter is plain present, exactly the form you would use for right now. The words på mandag, i morgen, klokken otte make it future. English does the same thing more than learners realise (I'm leaving on Monday), so this should feel natural — just trust the present tense and add the time.

skal = a planned or arranged future

skal (the present of at skulle) marks a future that is arranged, agreed, or required — appointments, plans someone has made, things on the schedule. It often translates as am going to or am supposed to. As a modal, it is followed by a bare infinitive (no at), and frequently by just a destination with the motion verb left out.

Notice there is no verb of motion here — skal til tandlæge literally shall to dentist. This bare skal + til + place pattern is extremely common for appointments and trips.

That question — Hvad skal du lave? — is the standard way to ask about someone's plans. It does not imply obligation here; skal simply frames the weekend as already-on-the-schedule.

vil = volition and prediction — handle with care

vil (the present of at ville) is the false friend. It looks like English will, but its core meaning is want to / intend to — it carries volition. Use it freely for wanting and intending:

That second example shows the trap: vil ikke does not mean a neutral won't happen; it means refuses to / doesn't want to. vil is also legitimately used for genuine predictions about the world, often with a sense of confident forecast:

But for a simple, neutral future plan, vil sounds heavy or oddly insistent. Jeg vil rejse på mandag reads as I want to / intend to travel on Monday, not the plain I'm travelling on Monday. So reserve vil for wanting, intending, and forecasting — not as a default translation of will.

komme til at = inevitable / "will end up"

komme til at + infinitive expresses something that is going to happen as an outcome — inevitable, predicted, or accidental. Think is going to / will end up. It is the natural choice for forecasts about weather, consequences, and things outside anyone's control.

Note the structure: kommer til at + plain infinitive. The at here belongs to the fixed expression and is required; do not drop it.

Word order note

All of these follow the ordinary V2 rule — the finite verb is the second element. With the modals (skal, vil) and with kommer til at, the finite verb is the modal/light verb, and the main verb's infinitive goes later. If you front a time word, the finite verb still lands in second position and the subject moves after it:

Read it as: I morgen (slot 1) → skal (finite verb, slot 2) → jeg (subject) → til lægen. The modal skal is what occupies the V2 slot.

Fill the slot

Four strategies, four shapes. Pick the meaning you want and swap the bold slots.

Reading the rows: Jeg flyver på fredag (I'm flying on Friday), Vi skal til Berlin (We're going to Berlin), Jeg vil lære spansk (I want to learn Spanish), Det kommer til at blæse (It's going to be windy).

Common Mistakes

Reaching for vil as a neutral will is the classic English-speaker error. For an ordinary scheduled plan, use the present tense (rejser). vil adds a volitional I want to, which is usually not what you mean.

The weather has no will, so vil sounds off for a forecast. Use kommer til at for inevitable outcomes. (You may also simply say Det regner i eftermiddag with the present tense.)

Modals (skal, vil) drop at before the following verb. Note too that with til + place, the motion verb is usually left out entirely.

The fixed expression is komme til at + infinitive; the at is part of it and cannot be dropped — the opposite of the modal rule.

Key Takeaways

• Danish has no future tense; choose a strategy.
• Present + time word is the default for plans (Jeg rejser på mandag).
• skal = arranged/required future, bare infinitive (Jeg skal til tandlæge).
• vil = want to / intend to and predictions — not a neutral will.
• komme til at
  • infinitive = inevitable / will end up (Det kommer til at regne).