Burde ('ought to / should') is the modal of advice and moral expectation. It tells you what would be the right or sensible thing to do, without the force of a command. Like every Danish modal it is a preterite-present verb — its present, bør, is irregular and short — and it takes a bare infinitive. The most important distinction to master is burde (advisable, the right thing) versus skulle (required, supposed to): Danish keeps "should" and "must" much further apart than English does.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (at) burde | bør | burde | burdet | — (none) |
As with turde, two things surprise English speakers:
- The present is bør — vowel-changed and short. There is no form burder.
- The past is burde, spelled exactly like the infinitive; context distinguishes them.
Present: bør
Use bør for present-time advice — what is advisable or right to do now.
Du bør hvile dig lidt, du ser træt ud.
You ought to rest a bit, you look tired.
Man bør altid læse kontrakten, før man skriver under.
One should always read the contract before signing.
Vi bør nok ringe og sige, at vi kommer for sent.
We probably ought to call and say we'll be late.
The softener nok in the third example ("probably / I suppose") is extremely common with bør and makes the advice gentler and more natural.
Past / hypothetical: burde
The past burde is where Danish does something English splits into two words. Burde have + participle = "ought to have / should have (done)" — a retrospective judgement that something didn't happen but should have.
Du burde have ringet, da du blev forsinket.
You ought to have called when you were delayed.
Jeg burde aldrig have sagt ja til det.
I should never have said yes to that.
Even without have, burde carries a softened, more tentative force than bør — closer to "really ought to," often about an ongoing situation:
Vi burde se hinanden noget oftere.
We really ought to see each other more often.
Present perfect: har burdet
The perfect uses har with the participle burdet. It is comparatively rare in everyday speech — burde have + participle covers most retrospective uses — but it exists and is correct.
Det er noget, jeg altid har burdet gøre.
It's something I've always been meant to do.
Burde vs skulle: the core distinction
This is the heart of the page for English speakers, because English "should" blurs the line that Danish keeps sharp.
| Modal | Force | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| bør / burde | moral, advisable, recommended | "ought to" — the right or wise thing |
| skal / skulle | obligation, plan, expectation | "must / is to / is supposed to" |
Du bør spise mere grønt.
You ought to eat more vegetables. (good advice)
Du skal tage din medicin klokken otte.
You must take your medicine at eight. (a firm requirement)
Swapping them changes the meaning, not just the tone: bør is a recommendation you are free to ignore; skal is something imposed (a rule, a plan, an instruction). When you want to nudge rather than command, reach for bør.
For the full picture of the modal system see the modal verbs overview; the contrast verb is treated in detail under skulle; and the sibling preterite-present modal of nerve, turde, is covered in turde.
Word order: where ikke and other adverbs go
Like every Danish modal, bør takes the sentence adverbs (ikke, nok, altid, egentlig) right after it in a main clause, with the bare infinitive at the end of the clause:
Du bør egentlig ikke spise så sent om aftenen.
You really oughtn't to eat so late in the evening.
In a subordinate clause the adverb moves in front of the modal — ...at man ikke bør spise så sent — the same main-clause/subordinate asymmetry that governs all Danish verbs. Keeping the bare infinitive parked at the end is what makes a long piece of advice sound natural rather than translated.
Hun mener, at man ikke bør blande sig i andres sager.
She thinks one shouldn't meddle in other people's affairs.
Burde in questions and softened advice
Danish often phrases tentative advice as a question with bør or, more tentatively still, as a burde-conditional. Both are gentler than a flat statement and very common in real speech:
Bør jeg sige det til hende, eller skal jeg lade være?
Ought I to tell her, or should I leave it?
Burde vi ikke køre nu, hvis vi vil nå toget?
Shouldn't we get going now if we want to catch the train?
The negative question Burde vi ikke...? ("Shouldn't we...?") is a particularly idiomatic way to propose a course of action while inviting agreement — a politeness move worth adding to your active repertoire.
A dialogue in context
— Jeg har sovet dårligt hele ugen. — Så bør du tage en fridag. Du burde faktisk være blevet hjemme i går.
— I've slept badly all week. — Then you ought to take a day off. You really should have stayed home yesterday, in fact.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg burder hvile mig.
Incorrect — 'burder' is not a Danish form; the present is the irregular bør.
✅ Jeg bør hvile mig.
Correct — present tense is bør.
❌ Du bør at læse kontrakten.
Incorrect — modals take a bare infinitive; no at after bør.
✅ Du bør læse kontrakten.
Correct — bare infinitive after the modal.
❌ Du bør tage din medicin klokken otte.
Off in meaning — for a fixed medical requirement Danish uses skal, not bør.
✅ Du skal tage din medicin klokken otte.
Correct — skal for obligation; reserve bør for advice.
❌ Du skulle have ringet, det var det rigtige at gøre.
Off in nuance — for the moral 'ought to have', Danish prefers burde have.
✅ Du burde have ringet, det var det rigtige at gøre.
Correct — burde have + participle = 'ought to have'.
Key takeaways
- Preterite-present modal: present bør (never burder), past burde, participle burdet, perfect with har.
- Always a bare infinitive — no at; no person agreement.
- bør = present advice; burde (have) = "ought to (have)" / tentative recommendation.
- Keep bør/burde (advisable, moral) apart from skal/skulle (obligation, plan) — Danish does not let English "should" collapse the two.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Modal Verbs: An OverviewA2 — The six core Danish modals — kunne, ville, skulle, måtte, burde, turde — their present and past forms, and the iron rule that they take a bare infinitive with no at.
- Skulle: Obligation, Plans and HearsayA2 — The modal skulle (skal/skulle/skullet) — obligation, arranged plans and future, rules, the reportative 'is said to', and hypothetical 'were to'.
- TurdeB1 — Full reference for the Danish modal turde ('to dare') — an irregular preterite-present verb whose present is tør (not 'turder'), with a bare infinitive and no at.