Eje | Danish Grammar

Eje ("to own, to possess") is the verb of legal and lasting possession — the one you reach for when the question is whose property something is, not merely who happens to have it in hand. It conjugates as a perfectly regular -ede weak verb, so the forms are easy; the real work for an English speaker is keeping eje ("own") apart from have ("have") and tilhøre ("belong to"), three verbs that English handles with far looser boundaries.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) eje	to own
Present	ejer	own(s)
Past	ejede	owned
Past participle	ejet	owned
Imperative	ej! (rare)	own!

💡

Danish verbs do not change for person or number. Ejer covers jeg ejer, du ejer, han/hun ejer, vi ejer, I ejer, de ejer — one present form for every subject, one past form (ejede) for every subject. There is nothing like the English "owns" vs "own" split to remember.

💡

The perfect always uses har, never er: har ejet. Owning is a state you hold, not a change of location or condition, so it can never take være as its auxiliary. If you are unsure whether a Danish verb takes har or er in the perfect, possession verbs are the easy case — they are always har.

A stative verb: owning is a state, not an action

Eje describes an ongoing relationship of ownership, not a single event. Because it is stative, it sounds odd in the imperative (you cannot order someone to own something on command) and you will rarely meet ej! outside set or jocular phrases. This is also why the present ejer translates a plain English present ("owns"), never a progressive — Danish has no progressive form here, and "is owning" is not idiomatic in English either.

De ejer et lille hus ude på landet.

They own a small house out in the countryside.

Hvem ejer egentlig den her virksomhed?

Who actually owns this company?

Present: ejer

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	ejer	jeg ejer ikke en bil
du	ejer	du ejer lejligheden
han / hun	ejer	hun ejer halvdelen af firmaet
vi	ejer	vi ejer grunden sammen
de	ejer	de ejer flere ejendomme

Jeg ejer ikke andet end det tøj, jeg står i.

I don't own anything except the clothes I'm standing in.

Past: ejede

Hendes familie ejede engang hele gården.

Her family once owned the whole farm.

Vi ejede en sommerhytte, indtil vi solgte den sidste år.

We owned a summer cabin until we sold it last year.

Present perfect: har ejet

Han har ejet den samme gamle Volvo i tyve år.

He has owned the same old Volvo for twenty years.

Jeg har aldrig ejet et hus — jeg har altid lejet.

I've never owned a house — I've always rented.

eje vs. have vs. tilhøre

These three verbs map onto English "have / own / belong" but draw the lines differently. Sorting them out is the heart of this page.

Verb	Core meaning	Direction	Register / scope
eje	to own (legally, lastingly)	owner → thing owned	property, possessions; precise
have	to have (broad: hold, possess, experience)	holder → thing held	everyday, very broad
tilhøre	to belong to	thing → owner	states whose something is, from the thing's side

Have is the broad workhorse: you have a headache, have time, have a brother, have a car keyed to you for the weekend — none of which implies ownership. Eje narrows to genuine ownership. And tilhøre ("belong to") points the other way round: the thing is the subject and the owner is the object.

Jeg har en bil i denne uge, men jeg ejer den ikke — det er en lejebil.

I have a car this week, but I don't own it — it's a rental.

Bogen tilhører mig, så jeg vil gerne have den tilbage.

The book belongs to me, so I'd like it back.

Hvem tilhører den her jakke? — Den er min.

Who does this jacket belong to? — It's mine.

💡

eje and tilhøre describe the same relationship from opposite ends. Jeg ejer huset = Huset tilhører mig. With eje the owner is the subject; with tilhøre the possession is the subject and the owner becomes a personal object (mig, dig, ham, hende). Pick the verb that lets you keep your intended subject first.

Common collocations and derived words

en ejer — an owner (the agent noun)
ejendom — property, real estate (also fast ejendom, "real property")
ejer og besidder — owns and possesses (a legal doublet you meet in contracts)
eje og drive — to own and operate (e.g. a business)
boligejer / husejer / bilejer — homeowner / house owner / car owner

Som boligejer betaler man ejendomsskat.

As a homeowner, you pay property tax.

Hun ejer og driver en lille café i Aarhus.

She owns and runs a small café in Aarhus.

A natural exchange

— Er det din lejlighed? — Nej, jeg ejer den ikke, jeg lejer. Min onkel ejer hele bygningen. — Så lejligheden tilhører ham? — Præcis.

— Is this your flat? — No, I don't own it, I rent. My uncle owns the whole building. — So the flat belongs to him? — Exactly.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg ejer en hovedpine.

Wrong verb — you don't 'own' a headache. Temporary states and experiences take have.

✅ Jeg har en hovedpine.

I have a headache.

❌ Bogen ejer mig.

Direction reversed — eje needs the owner as subject. To say the book is mine from the book's side, use tilhøre.

✅ Bogen tilhører mig. / Jeg ejer bogen.

The book belongs to me. / I own the book.

❌ Han har ejede huset i ti år.

Wrong form after har — the perfect needs the participle ejet, not the past ejede.

✅ Han har ejet huset i ti år.

He has owned the house for ten years.

❌ Jeg er ejet et hus.

Wrong auxiliary — possession is a state, so the perfect is always har ejet, never er.

✅ Jeg har ejet et hus.

I have owned a house.

❌ Den her cykel ejer til min bror.

Mixing the two patterns — eje takes a direct object (ejer cyklen), while 'belong to' is tilhøre + person.

✅ Den her cykel tilhører min bror.

This bike belongs to my brother.

For the broad, everyday possessive verb, see have; for the regular past class eje belongs to, see the -ede past tense; and for why possession always takes har and never er, see the perfect with have and være.

Now practice Danish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Danish→