Bringe means 'to bring, to deliver, to convey'. It is a cognate of English bring, and like its English relative it is irregular — Danish calls this pattern mixed: a vowel change in the stem plus a dental -te ending, exactly like tænke, tænkte and English think, thought. The catch for learners is register: bringe is markedly formal. In everyday speech Danes say tage med or have med for 'bring', and reserve bringe for written, official, or elevated contexts.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (at) bringe | bringer | bragte | bragt | bring! |
Bringe is mixed: the past bragte changes the stem vowel from -i- to -a- (the ablaut you also see in English bring, brought) and then adds the weak dental -te. The participle bragt drops the -e. The present is a perfectly regular bringer.
Present: bringer
The present sense is delivering or conveying something to a place or a person, often in news, service, or logistics contexts.
Avisen bringer historien på forsiden i morgen.
The paper is running the story on the front page tomorrow.
Vores bud bringer pakken ud samme dag.
Our courier delivers the parcel the same day.
Det bringer mig til mit næste punkt.
That brings me to my next point.
That last one — det bringer mig til... — is a stock phrase in presentations and writing, the direct equivalent of English "which brings me to...".
Past: bragte
Tjeneren bragte os menukortet med det samme.
The waiter brought us the menu right away.
Beslutningen bragte ham i en svær situation.
The decision put him in a difficult position.
Present perfect: har bragt
Bringe takes the auxiliary have — har bragt. It describes the conveying of a thing, not a change of the subject's own state, so have is correct (not være).
De har bragt os tættere på en løsning.
They have brought us closer to a solution.
Posten har endnu ikke bragt brevet ud.
The post hasn't delivered the letter yet.
Passive: bringes / blev bragt
In formal and journalistic Danish bringe is often passive — the -s passive in the present, blive bragt in the past.
Nyheden blev bragt i alle medier.
The news was carried by every outlet.
Den sårede blev bragt til hospitalet.
The injured person was taken to hospital.
Common collocations
These fixed combinations are where you will actually meet bringe — learn them as units.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| bringe nogen noget | to bring someone something |
| bringe noget i orden | to put something in order, sort it out |
| bringe noget på bane | to bring something up, raise a topic |
| bringe i fare | to endanger, put at risk |
Det var hende, der bragte spørgsmålet på bane til mødet.
It was she who brought the matter up at the meeting.
Vi må have bragt det her i orden inden fredag.
We need to get this sorted out before Friday.
The figurative bringe i + noun family
A whole set of fixed idioms uses bringe + i + an abstract noun to mean 'put (someone) into a state'. These are firmly idiomatic and belong to careful or written Danish.
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| bringe i forlegenhed | to embarrass, put in an awkward spot |
| bringe i sikkerhed | to bring to safety |
| bringe i erindring | to call to mind, remind of |
| bringe til tavshed | to silence |
Hans spørgsmål bragte hende i forlegenhed.
His question put her in an awkward spot.
Redningsmandskabet fik alle bragt i sikkerhed.
The rescue crew got everyone to safety.
bringe vs tage med vs hente vs medbringe
This is the heart of the page for an English speaker, because English collapses several Danish verbs into "bring".
- bringe — formal 'bring / deliver / convey'. Written register, news, service, set phrases. Sounds stiff in casual speech.
- tage med / have med — the everyday 'bring (along)'. Tag en flaske vin med = 'bring a bottle of wine'. See tage.
- hente — 'fetch, go and get' — you go to the thing and return with it. English "bring" and "fetch" both map here when motion toward the object is involved. See hente.
- medbringe — a formal one-word 'bring along', common on signs and in instructions (medbring billet og legitimation, 'bring ticket and ID').
Tag noget at drikke med til festen.
Bring something to drink to the party.
Kan du hente børnene i børnehaven?
Can you pick the kids up from daycare?
The reliable rule of thumb: if you would say it to a friend over coffee, you almost certainly want tage med, not bringe. Reserve bringe for the page, the podium, and the parcel-delivery slip.
Common mistakes
The most common form error is regularising the past to a weak -ede.
❌ Tjeneren bringede maden.
Wrong — 'bringe' is mixed; the past is 'bragte'.
✅ Tjeneren bragte maden.
The waiter brought the food.
The most common usage error is reaching for bringe in casual speech where a Dane would say tage med.
❌ Husk at bringe en gave til festen.
Wrong register — sounds stiff; use 'tage med' here.
✅ Husk at tage en gave med til festen.
Remember to bring a present to the party.
Don't confuse bringe (deliver to here) with hente (go and fetch).
❌ Jeg bringer lige mælk i supermarkedet.
Wrong — you're going to get it, so use 'hente'.
✅ Jeg henter lige mælk i supermarkedet.
I'll just go and get milk at the supermarket.
Use have, not være, in the perfect — bringe conveys an object; it is not a verb of the subject's own change of state.
❌ Buddet er bragt pakken ud.
Wrong auxiliary.
✅ Buddet har bragt pakken ud.
The courier has delivered the parcel.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- TageA2 — Full reference for the strong verb tage ('to take'), the silent -g, and its central role in talking about transport.
- HenteB1 — Full reference for the Danish verb hente ('to fetch, pick up, collect, download') — its principal parts, key collocations, and how it differs from bringe, tage med, and afhente.
- KommeA2 — Full reference for the strong verb komme ('to come'), its være-perfect, and the high-value idiom komme til at.
- 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.