At-clauses (Content Clauses) | Danish Grammar

An at-clause is a "that"-clause: a whole subordinate sentence that works as the object of a verb of saying, thinking, knowing, or feeling — Jeg ved, at han kommer ("I know that he's coming"). These are the most common subordinate clauses in Danish, and they hide two of the language's biggest traps for English speakers: the word at is a homophone shared by two completely different grammatical jobs, and the word order inside the clause is not the same as in a main clause. This page untangles both.

What an at-clause does

An at-clause fills a slot — usually the object slot — of a verb. After verbs like vide (know), tro (believe/think), sige (say), mene (mean/think), håbe (hope), and føle (feel), you can place an entire clause introduced by at:

Jeg ved, at hun bor i Aarhus.

I know that she lives in Aarhus.

Han siger, at toget er forsinket.

He says that the train is delayed.

Vi håber, at det bliver godt vejr i weekenden.

We hope that the weather will be nice this weekend.

Here at is the complementiser — the equivalent of English "that" in "I know that…". It introduces the clause; it has no meaning of its own beyond signalling "a sub-sentence starts here".

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The whole at-clause behaves like a single noun. Jeg ved det ("I know it") and Jeg ved, at hun kommer ("I know that she's coming") have the same shape: det and at hun kommer both fill the object slot of ved.

The comma before at

Danish places a comma before at when it introduces a clause. This is the so-called grammatisk komma (grammatical comma), which sets off subordinate clauses from the main clause:

Hun tror, at vi er færdige.

She thinks that we're finished.

You may have seen Danish without that comma. Dansk Sprognævn (the Danish Language Council) officially allows two systems: the traditional grammatisk komma, which always puts a comma before a subordinate clause, and the newer nyt komma (also called startkomma/slutkomma), where you may drop the comma in front of the clause but must keep one at the end if the clause is embedded mid-sentence. Both are correct; the grammatical comma is more widespread in practice. As a learner, put a comma before at, and you will always be on safe ground.

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English deleted the comma before "that" centuries ago, so it feels wrong to write one. In Danish it is the default — Jeg synes, at…, not Jeg synes at… Get used to the comma; it visually marks where the subordinate clause begins.

Word order inside the at-clause

This is the part that catches every English speaker. Inside an at-clause the word order is subordinate, not main-clause. The crucial consequence: sentence adverbs like ikke (not), altid (always), aldrig (never), også (also), and måske (maybe) come before the finite verb, not after it.

Compare a main clause with its at-clause version:

Han kommer ikke.

He isn't coming. (main clause — ikke after the verb)

Jeg ved, at han ikke kommer.

I know that he isn't coming. (subordinate — ikke before the verb)

In the main clause, ikke follows kommer. The moment the same content becomes an at-clause, ikke jumps in front of kommer. The mnemonic many Danes learn in school is that the subject and these adverbs cling together at the start of a subordinate clause: subject – adverb – verb.

Hun siger, at hun aldrig har været i Norge.

She says that she's never been to Norway.

Jeg tror, at de måske allerede er taget hjem.

I think they've maybe already gone home.

Det irriterer mig, at han altid kommer for sent.

It annoys me that he's always late.

Notice aldrig har, måske allerede er, altid kommer — adverb first, verb second. If you put the verb first (…at hun har aldrig…), it sounds distinctly foreign.

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The fast test: in an at-clause, ask "where does ikke go?" If you would say …at han *ikke kommer, you have subordinate order. If you wrote …at han kommer ikke*, you have wrongly used main-clause order. This single check fixes the most common B1 word-order error.

Dropping at in speech

In casual speech and informal writing, the complementiser at is often omitted after the commonest verbs (tro, sige, synes, håbe), exactly as English drops "that" in "I think (that) he's coming":

Jeg tror, han kommer i morgen.

I think he's coming tomorrow. (at dropped)

Hun sagde, hun var træt.

She said she was tired. (at dropped)

Both Jeg tror, at han kommer and Jeg tror, han kommer are correct. The version with at is slightly more careful/written; the version without is more conversational. Crucially, the word order does not change when you drop at — ikke still comes before the verb: Jeg tror, han *ikke kommer*.

The homophone trap: three little words

Here is the heart of the difficulty. Three Danish words sound nearly identical in connected speech, all reduced to roughly the same weak sound, yet they are spelled differently and do different jobs:

Word	Job	Rough English	Example
at (complementiser)	introduces a that-clause	that	Jeg ved, at han kommer.
at (infinitive marker)	marks an infinitive verb	to	Jeg plejer at løbe.
og (conjunction)	joins two equal elements	and	Jeg løber og svømmer.

Both kinds of at are pronounced /ɑd/ — and in everyday speech og ("and") is also pronounced /ɔ/, very close to at. So all three are hard to keep apart by ear, and Danes themselves frequently misspell them.

The two at*s are easy to separate by meaning once you see them side by side. The complementiser *at introduces a clause that has its own subject and finite verb; the infinitive marker at sits directly in front of a bare verb with no new subject:

Jeg håber, at jeg får jobbet.

I hope that I get the job. (complementiser — new subject jeg + verb får)

Jeg håber at få jobbet.

I hope to get the job. (infinitive marker — bare verb få, no new subject)

Same verb håbe, two different at*s, two different structures. If a real subject and a finite (tensed) verb follow, it is the "that"-*at; if a bare infinitive follows, it is the "to"-at.

The at/og distinction has a reliable written test: try replacing the word with "to" or "and" in English. Jeg lover at hjælpe dig → "I promise to help you" → so it is at. Jeg synger og danser → "I sing and dance" → so it is og. If "to" fits, write at; if "and" fits, write og. Never let the pronunciation decide your spelling.

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Danish schoolchildren are drilled on at vs og precisely because the ear cannot tell them apart. As a learner you have an advantage: you think in English first, so the "to vs and" replacement test will almost always rescue you. Use it every time you are unsure.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jeg ved, at han kommer ikke.

Incorrect — main-clause order inside an at-clause.

✅ Jeg ved, at han ikke kommer.

I know that he isn't coming. (ikke before the verb)

The single most common B1 error: keeping English-style "verb then not" order. In a subordinate clause ikke must precede the finite verb.

❌ Jeg håber og se dig snart.

Incorrect — og ('and') written where at ('to') is needed.

✅ Jeg håber at se dig snart.

I hope to see you soon.

Because at and og sound alike, learners (and natives) write og for the infinitive at. Test: "I hope to see you" — "to" fits, so it must be at.

❌ Jeg synes at det er en god idé.

Incorrect — missing the comma before the at-clause.

✅ Jeg synes, at det er en god idé.

I think that it's a good idea.

Danish marks the clause boundary with a comma before at. Don't import the English commaless habit.

❌ Hun sagde at hun vil gerne komme med.

Incorrect — gerne placed after the verb, main-clause order.

✅ Hun sagde, at hun gerne ville komme med.

She said she'd like to come along.

The adverb gerne must come before the finite verb in the subordinate clause, and the reported verb shifts to past ville in line with sagde.

❌ Jeg tror at, han har ret.

Incorrect — comma after at instead of before it.

✅ Jeg tror, at han har ret.

I think he's right.

The comma marks where the subordinate clause begins, so it goes before at, never after.

Key Takeaways

An at-clause is a "that"-clause filling the object slot of verbs like vide, tro, sige, håbe.
Put a comma before at, and inside the clause use subordinate order: adverbs like ikke come before the finite verb.
At (the complementiser) can be dropped in casual speech, but the word order stays the same.
Keep the three lookalikes apart by meaning, not sound: at = "that" (clause with its own subject + verb), at = "to" (bare infinitive), og = "and". Use the "to vs and" replacement test whenever you write.

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