Binde means to tie or to bind. It is a strong verb whose principal parts — binde, bandt, bundet — are the near-twin of English bind, bound, bound, which makes them easy to fix in memory once you see the connection. Binde always takes har in the perfect: tying something is an action you perform on an object, never a change of state in the subject. This page covers the forms, the productive phrasal and idiomatic uses, and the ablaut trap that catches learners.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| at binde | binder | bandt | bundet | bind! |
The perfect is always har bundet (has tied). Because binde is transitive — you bind something — it never patterns with være.
The strong pattern: binde, bandt, bundet
Binde belongs to the i — a — u nasal class: the i of binder becomes a in the past bandt and u in the participle bundet. This is the same series as finde → fandt → fundet (find) and vinde → vandt → vundet (win), and it lines up neatly with English bind → bound. Note the double consonant and final -t in bandt, and the -et participle ending.
Han bandt snørebåndene, før han løb ud ad døren.
He tied his shoelaces before running out the door.
Hun har bundet håret op i en knold.
She has tied her hair up in a bun.
Vi binder buketten sammen med en sløjfe.
We tie the bouquet together with a ribbon.
Phrasal and idiomatic uses
Binde is productive with particles and in set expressions. See phrasal verbs for the general stressed-particle pattern.
- binde sammen — tie together, connect. Used literally and figuratively (binding ideas, a narrative, a community).
- binde an med — to take on, tackle, get to grips with a task or opponent.
- binde for øjnene — to blindfold (literally, tie in front of the eyes).
Broen binder de to bydele sammen.
The bridge connects the two districts.
Han turde ikke binde an med den vanskelige opgave.
He didn't dare take on the difficult task.
De bandt et tørklæde for øjnene på ham.
They blindfolded him with a scarf (tied a scarf over his eyes).
The figurative reach of binde is wide, and most of it transfers directly from English bind. Money can be bundet — tied up and unavailable (kapitalen er bundet i fast ejendom, the capital is tied up in real estate). A contract binder you; an obligation binder you to something. The reflexive binde sig means to commit oneself, to tie oneself down.
Jeg vil helst ikke binde mig til en toårig kontrakt.
I'd rather not tie myself down to a two-year contract.
There is also a small spelling-and-meaning trap worth naming. The phrase det kan du binde på is an idiom meaning you can count on that, you can bank on it — not a literal tying at all. Idioms like this are exactly where a learner who only knows the dictionary gloss tie will lose the thread, so it pays to collect them as fixed units.
Vi kommer til tiden — det kan du binde på.
We'll be there on time — you can count on it.
Related words
The verb anchors a small family that learners meet constantly:
- et bånd — a ribbon, a band, a bond, a tape (the noun behind the verb).
- bindende — binding (an adjective, used of contracts and agreements).
- et bind — a volume (of a book), among other senses.
Aftalen er juridisk bindende for begge parter.
The agreement is legally binding on both parties.
Der er et stærkt bånd mellem de to søstre.
There is a strong bond between the two sisters.
The shared root with English is a genuine memory aid, but watch the vowels rather than trusting the English forms blindly. English has levelled its past and participle to a single bound (bind, bound, bound), whereas Danish keeps three distinct vowels across the paradigm: i in the present, a in the past, u in the participle. So where English speakers might expect one "bound-like" form to cover both past tenses, Danish makes you toggle between bandt and bundet. Treat the English bound as a hint that the vowel changes — not as a model for which vowel.
Common mistakes
❌ Han bindede sine snørebånd.
Incorrect — binde is strong, so there is no weak -ede past.
✅ Han bandt sine snørebånd.
He tied his shoelaces.
The weak past bindede is the leading error, produced by defaulting to the regular pattern. The strong past is bandt — vowel a, no -ede.
❌ Jeg har bandt pakken.
Incorrect — the participle is bundet, not the past-tense form.
✅ Jeg har bundet pakken.
I have tied up the parcel.
A second common slip is reusing the past tense bandt as the participle. The perfect needs bundet (vowel u). Keep the three vowels straight: present i, past a, participle u.
❌ Hun har bundet håret op, og det er bandt stramt.
Incorrect — bandt is the past tense, not a participle/adjective.
✅ Hun har bundet håret op, og det er bundet stramt.
She has tied her hair up, and it is bound tightly.
❌ De binder et tørklæde foran øjnene på ham.
Awkward — the fixed idiom uses 'for', not 'foran'.
✅ De binder et tørklæde for øjnene på ham.
They tie a scarf over his eyes (blindfold him).
A note on the imperative and pronunciation. The imperative is the bare stem bind! (tie it!), formed by dropping the infinitive -e. In speech the final -d of bind is the soft Danish d, and in bundet the d is likewise soft, so the participle sounds roughly like bunn-eth rather than a hard bun-det. Spelling keeps the d in every form even where the ear barely registers it — a reminder that Danish orthography is more conservative than its pronunciation, so trust the written paradigm when you build the forms.
Bind lige det her reb fast om pælen.
Just tie this rope tight around the post.
Key takeaways
- Principal parts: binde — binder — bandt — bundet, perfect with har.
- Strong i → a → u nasal ablaut, the cognate of English bind → bound.
- Keep the three stem vowels distinct: present i, past a (bandt), participle u (bundet).
- No subject agreement; productive in binde sammen, binde an med, binde for øjnene.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- 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.
- Phrasal Verbs and ParticlesB1 — Danish verb + particle combinations, the stress rule that distinguishes a separable phrasal verb from a verb + preposition, and the most common particles and their meanings.
- SynkeB2 — How to conjugate and use the strong verb synke (sink, swallow), including its split auxiliary — være for sinking, har for swallowing — and the sank/sunket ablaut.