Elske ("to love") is the strongest word for affection in Danish, and that strength is exactly where English speakers get into trouble. In English we say "I love this café" or "I'd love to" without batting an eye. In Danish, elske is reserved for deep feeling — people you love, passions you live for — and using it for mere liking sounds gushing or odd. The verb itself is mechanically easy: it is a perfectly regular -ede verb with no surprises. The real lesson on this page is when to reach for it, and what the gentler alternatives are.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) elske | to love |
| Present | elsker | love(s) |
| Past | elskede | loved |
| Past participle | elsket | loved |
| Imperative | elsk! | love! |
Present: elsker
The present elsker is identical for every subject.
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | elsker | jeg elsker dig |
| du | elsker | du elsker at rejse |
| han / hun | elsker | hun elsker sin familie |
| vi | elsker | vi elsker hinanden |
| de | elsker | de elsker deres børn |
Jeg elsker dig.
I love you.
Hun elsker at stå tidligt op og løbe en tur.
She loves getting up early and going for a run.
Past: elskede
The past is the regular elskede — stem plus -ede.
De elskede hinanden højt i fyrre år.
They loved each other deeply for forty years.
Som barn elskede jeg at bygge huler i skoven.
As a child I loved building dens in the woods.
Present perfect: har elsket
The perfect takes har plus the participle elsket.
Jeg har elsket den sang, lige siden jeg var lille.
I've loved that song ever since I was little.
Han har altid elsket havet.
He has always loved the sea.
Past perfect: havde elsket
Hun indså, at hun havde elsket ham hele tiden.
She realised she had loved him the whole time.
The big point: the Danish affection scale
This is the heart of the page. Danish lines up its "liking" verbs on a clear ladder of strength, and elske sits at the very top. From strongest to mildest:
| Verb | Strength | Best English gloss |
|---|---|---|
| elske | strongest — deep love, passion | to love |
| holde af | warm, genuine fondness | to be fond of, care for |
| kunne lide | everyday liking, preference | to like |
The trap for English speakers is that English "love" is wildly overused — "I love your shoes," "I'd love a coffee," "don't you just love Mondays." If you translate every one of those with elske, you sound theatrical. For an everyday "I like X," Danish wants kunne lide; for warm but non-romantic affection, holde af.
Jeg kan godt lide den her café — men jeg elsker den ved havnen.
I quite like this café — but I love the one by the harbour.
Jeg holder meget af min mormor.
I'm very fond of my grandma.
There is one important exception where elske is perfectly normal even for hobbies and pastimes: elske at + infinitive ("to love doing something"). This construction is genuinely common and not over the top.
Vi elsker at tage på camping om sommeren.
We love going camping in the summer.
Min søn elsker at spille fodbold.
My son loves playing football.
Elske højt and other intensifiers
To deepen the feeling further, Danish adds højt ("highly, deeply") — literally "love highly." This is the standard way to say you love someone profoundly.
Hun elsker sine børn meget højt.
She loves her children very deeply.
Common collocations and fixed expressions
- elske at + infinitive — to love doing something
- elske højt — to love deeply
- jeg elsker dig — I love you (the fixed phrase)
- elske over alt på jorden — to love above all else on earth
- elske og ære — to love and honour (wedding vows)
Jeg lovede at elske og ære ham.
I promised to love and honour him.
A natural exchange
— Kan du lide den nye restaurant? — Kan lide den? Jeg elsker den! — Haha, så meget? — Ja, jeg elsker virkelig deres pasta.
— Do you like the new restaurant? — Like it? I love it! — Haha, that much? — Yes, I really love their pasta.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg elsker din nye trøje!
Overblown for a casual compliment — Danish uses kan lide here, not elske.
✅ Jeg kan godt lide din nye trøje!
I really like your new jumper!
❌ Jeg vil elske en kop kaffe.
Calque of 'I'd love a coffee' — Danish doesn't use elske this way.
✅ Jeg vil meget gerne have en kop kaffe.
I'd love a coffee. (literally: I'd very much like to have a coffee)
❌ Hun elskte ham.
Wrong past form — elske is a regular -ede verb.
✅ Hun elskede ham.
She loved him.
❌ Jeg elsker dig at rejse.
Garbled — 'love to travel' is elske at + infinitive, with no object.
✅ Jeg elsker at rejse.
I love to travel.
❌ Jeg har elske den film i årevis.
Missing the participle ending — the perfect needs elsket, not the bare stem.
✅ Jeg har elsket den film i årevis.
I've loved that film for years.
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
- Kunne lideA2 — Full reference for the fixed idiom 'kunne lide' (to like) — the everyday Danish way to say you like something.
- Holde afB2 — Full reference for the phrasal verb holde af ('to be fond of / to care for') — the strong forms holder af / holdt af / holdt af, where it sits on the Danish affection scale, and how it differs from kunne lide and elske.
- Saying What You Like and WantA1 — Building Danish sentences with kunne lide, vil gerne have, elske and foretrække — and why 'like' and 'want' don't translate word for word.
- Weak Past: The -ede ClassA1 — The largest, productive class of Danish regular verbs — past in -ede, participle in -et — and the safe default for any verb you don't recognise.
- The Present PerfectA2 — How Danish builds the present perfect with have (or være) plus the past participle — and the one rule English speakers need: definite past time takes the simple past, not the perfect.
- Danish Verbs: An OverviewA1 — A big-picture map of the Danish verb system — no person agreement, one present and one past form per verb, compound perfects, the passive, and modals.