"Have you ever been to Spain?" "I went there last year." "I've never tried surfing." "I haven't seen that film yet." Talking about experience pivots on one choice: the perfect tense (har været) for an experience at no specified time, versus the past tense (var) when you anchor it to a definite point. Danish draws this line almost exactly where English does — which is good news, because the habit transfers. This page gives you graded models, a slot table, and the four experience adverbs you need: nogensinde (ever), aldrig (never), allerede (already), and endnu ikke (not yet).
The core split: perfect for experience, past for a specific time
Use the perfect (har/er + past participle) when the point is whether something has happened at all, with no particular time attached — the "experience" reading.
Har du nogensinde været i Spanien?
Have you ever been to Spain?
Use the past (var, så, spiste) the moment you name when — sidste år, i går, for to uger siden. A definite past time and the perfect tense are incompatible.
Ja, jeg var der sidste år.
Yes, I was there last year.
Notice the natural exchange: the question asks about experience (Har du været — perfect), and the answer, now pinned to sidste år, switches to the past (var). This back-and-forth is exactly how the two tenses share the work. For the underlying contrast, see past vs perfect.
Vi har spist på den restaurant mange gange.
We've eaten at that restaurant many times.
Vi spiste på den restaurant i fredags.
We ate at that restaurant last Friday.
være or have in the perfect?
Most verbs form the perfect with har (har spist, har set). But verbs of motion and change of state take er when the focus is on the resulting location or state: er rejst (have travelled/gone), er kommet (have arrived), er blevet (have become). With været ("been"), Danish uses har: har været.
Jeg har aldrig været i Norge, men jeg er rejst meget i Sverige.
I've never been to Norway, but I've travelled a lot in Sweden.
The full rule lives on the perfect with have and være.
The four experience adverbs
These adverbs do the heavy lifting in experience talk. Their position matters: in a main clause they sit right after the finite verb; in a question they follow the subject.
nogensinde — "ever", almost always in a question or a negative.
Har du nogensinde prøvet at stå på ski?
Have you ever tried skiing?
aldrig — "never". It replaces ikke and turns the sentence negative on its own.
Jeg har aldrig smagt østers.
I've never tasted oysters.
allerede — "already", marking that something happened sooner than expected.
Har du allerede læst bogen? Den udkom jo først i går.
Have you already read the book? It only came out yesterday.
endnu ikke / ikke endnu — "not yet". Endnu ikke is the tighter, slightly more formal order; ikke endnu is common in speech, especially at the end.
Jeg har endnu ikke set den nye film.
I haven't seen the new film yet.
Build-your-own: the substitution table
Frame: [Har du / Jeg har] + [adverb] + [past participle] + ...?
| Subject + aux | Adverb | Participle + rest |
|---|---|---|
| Har du | nogensinde | været i Japan? |
| Jeg har | aldrig | spist sushi. |
| Har du | allerede | spist? |
| Jeg har | endnu ikke | besøgt min mormor. |
| Vi har | (tre gange) | set den forestilling. |
Har du allerede pakket? Vi skal jo først af sted i morgen.
Have you already packed? We're not leaving until tomorrow.
Word order: adverb placement and the subordinate clause
In a subordinate clause (after at, fordi, hvis…), these adverbs move before the finite verb — the standard subordinate-clause rule.
Hun sagde, at hun aldrig havde været i udlandet.
She said that she had never been abroad.
Here aldrig precedes havde, because the at-clause is subordinate. In the matching main clause it would be Hun havde aldrig været.... See time and frequency adverbs for more on where these words land.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg har set ham i går.
Incorrect — a definite past time (i går) cannot go with the perfect.
✅ Jeg så ham i går.
I saw him yesterday.
❌ Var du nogensinde i Spanien?
Questionable — for an open-ended life experience, Danish prefers the perfect.
✅ Har du nogensinde været i Spanien?
Have you ever been to Spain?
❌ Jeg har ikke aldrig prøvet det.
Incorrect — aldrig is already negative; don't stack ikke with it.
✅ Jeg har aldrig prøvet det.
I've never tried it.
❌ Jeg er aldrig været i Norge.
Incorrect — været takes har, not er, in the perfect.
✅ Jeg har aldrig været i Norge.
I've never been to Norway.
❌ Hun sagde, at hun havde aldrig været i udlandet.
Incorrect — in the subordinate at-clause, aldrig must come before the verb havde.
✅ Hun sagde, at hun aldrig havde været i udlandet.
She said she had never been abroad.
Key Takeaways
- Perfect (har/er
- participle) for experience with no fixed time; past the instant you name when.
- A definite past time (i går, sidste år) and the perfect never go together.
- været takes har; motion/state verbs take er (er rejst, er kommet).
- aldrig is self-negating — no extra ikke. In subordinate clauses, the experience adverb goes before the verb.
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
- Datid vs Perfektum: Choosing the PastB1 — When to use the simple past (datid) and when to use the present perfect (perfektum) — with the one clean test that decides it: a definite past-time adverbial forces datid and blocks the perfect.
- Choosing Have or Være in the PerfectB1 — Why most Danish verbs build the perfect with have, but verbs of motion and change of state use være — and how the same verb can take either.
- Adverbs of Time and FrequencyA2 — Danish time and frequency adverbs — nu, så, altid, aldrig, ofte, snart — and the tricky stadig (still) vs endnu (yet) vs allerede (already) split.