Afgøre means to decide, to determine, or to settle a matter — but in a very specific sense: it is the verb you reach for when an outcome gets resolved, not when a person makes up their mind. It is built on gøre (to do/make), so it inherits that verb's distinctive mixed conjugation, where a stem vowel shift in the past tense sits alongside a weak-looking ending. This page covers the forms, the auxiliary, and the all-important difference between afgøre and beslutte.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| at afgøre | afgør | afgjorde | afgjort | afgør! |
The perfect is formed with har: har afgjort (has decided/settled). Because afgøre describes resolving a matter — an action done to something — it always takes har, never være.
The mixed pattern: afgøre, afgjorde, afgjort
Afgøre is a mixed verb: the past tense changes the stem vowel (the ø of afgør- becomes j-o in afgjorde), yet still carries a weak dental ending (-de). This is exactly the pattern of its parent verb gøre → gjorde → gjort. The silent d that appears in afgjorde and afgjort is part of the spelling, not a separate syllable; both are pronounced with a soft afgjor- stem.
Dommeren afgør, om målet tæller.
The referee decides whether the goal counts.
Det var en straffespark, der afgjorde kampen.
It was a penalty kick that settled the match.
Retten har endnu ikke afgjort sagen.
The court has not yet decided the case.
What afgøre actually means
The core idea is resolution of an open question. A match, a case, an election, a competition, an argument — anything that hangs in the balance until something tips it — is afgjort. You do not afgøre what to have for dinner; you afgøre who wins.
Den sidste runde afgør, hvem der vinder turneringen.
The final round determines who wins the tournament.
Pris alene afgør ikke, hvilken computer jeg køber.
Price alone doesn't determine which computer I buy.
A useful fixed phrase is det afgør sagen — that settles it / that's the deciding factor.
Hun tilbød fri kaffe resten af året — det afgjorde sagen.
She offered free coffee for the rest of the year — that settled it.
Notice how the subject of afgøre is rarely a person making a choice. It is usually an event, a fact, a number, or a rule — the thing that tips the balance. In en straffespark afgjorde kampen, the penalty kick is the deciding factor; nobody sat down and chose an outcome. This is why afgøre feels at home in sports reporting, legal writing, and any context where results emerge from circumstances rather than from someone's deliberate intent. When a person is the grammatical subject of afgøre, it is normally an authority resolving a matter — dommeren afgør, retten afgør, bestyrelsen afgør — exercising the power to settle, not expressing a private preference.
A further nuance: afgøre can also mean to decide between options on the basis of evidence, the way English uses determine. Here too the focus is on what the evidence forces, not on free choice.
Det er svært at afgøre, hvem af dem der har ret.
It's hard to determine which of them is right.
Related words
Two derivatives are everywhere in formal and journalistic Danish:
- en afgørelse — a ruling, a decision (the noun for the outcome itself, common in legal and administrative contexts).
- afgørende — decisive, crucial (a present participle used as an adjective).
Vi venter stadig på myndighedernes afgørelse.
We're still waiting for the authorities' ruling.
Det blev et afgørende øjeblik i hendes karriere.
It became a decisive moment in her career.
Afgøre vs. beslutte — the distinction English blurs
English uses decide for both halves of a choice: the internal act of making up your mind, and the external fact of an outcome getting settled. Danish splits these.
- beslutte = to decide as a personal, deliberate choice. The subject is the chooser. Jeg har besluttet at sige op — I've decided to quit.
- afgøre = to settle, determine, resolve an outcome or a matter. The subject is whatever tips the balance, and the object is the matter being resolved. Det afgør sagen — that settles the matter.
You beslutter what you will do; an event, a rule, or a person in authority afgør how something turns out.
Bestyrelsen besluttede at lukke fabrikken.
The board decided to close the factory (a chosen action).
En enkelt stemme afgjorde afstemningen.
A single vote decided the vote (the outcome was settled).
There is one more practical clue. Beslutte is naturally followed by an infinitive of what the subject will do — beslutte at gøre noget (decide to do something) — because a personal decision is about a future action. Afgøre, by contrast, is followed by a noun (afgøre sagen, afgøre kampen) or by an embedded question with om, hvem, hvad, hvordan (afgøre, om målet tæller — determine whether the goal counts). If your English sentence is "decide to do X," reach for beslutte; if it is "decide whether/who/what," or "decide a thing," reach for afgøre. This single test resolves the great majority of cases for English speakers.
Jeg har besluttet at lære dansk.
I've decided to learn Danish (decide TO → beslutte).
Eksamen afgør, om jeg består kurset.
The exam determines whether I pass the course (decide WHETHER → afgøre).
For the parent verb, see the page on gøre; for the personal-choice verb, see beslutte.
Common mistakes
❌ Dommeren afgørede kampen.
Incorrect — afgøre is mixed; the regular weak past -ede is wrong.
✅ Dommeren afgjorde kampen.
The referee decided the match.
The single most frequent error is treating afgøre as a fully regular weak verb. The vowel must shift: the past is afgjorde, never afgørede, and the participle is afgjort, never afgøret.
❌ Jeg har afgøret at flytte til Aarhus.
Incorrect — wrong verb and wrong participle.
✅ Jeg har besluttet at flytte til Aarhus.
I've decided to move to Aarhus (a personal choice → beslutte).
Here the mistake is both lexical and morphological: a personal decision needs beslutte, and the participle of afgøre would in any case be afgjort, not afgøret.
❌ Bestyrelsen afgjorde at ansætte ham.
Incorrect — a deliberate choice by people, so this needs beslutte.
✅ Bestyrelsen besluttede at ansætte ham.
The board decided to hire him.
❌ Resultatet er afgøret.
Incorrect — the participle is afgjort.
✅ Resultatet er afgjort.
The result has been settled.
Key takeaways
- Principal parts: afgøre — afgør — afgjorde — afgjort, perfect with har.
- It is a mixed verb: stem vowel shifts (ø → jo) but the ending stays weak.
- No subject agreement — one present form for all persons.
- afgøre settles a matter or outcome; beslutte is a personal choice. When in doubt, test whether English settle/determine fits.
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
- GøreA1 — Full reference for gøre ('to do / to make') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, its job as the pro-verb in short answers (det gør jeg), and how it differs from lave.
- BeslutteB2 — Full reference for beslutte ('to decide') — the regular forms beslutter / besluttede / besluttet, the reflexive beslutte sig for, the noun beslutning, and how it differs from bestemme.
- Strong Verbs: Ablaut PatternsA2 — Danish strong verbs form their past by changing the stem vowel — learn the major ablaut series as families to turn memorisation into pattern recognition.