Finde ("to find") is a strong verb that follows the i–a–u ablaut pattern — finde → fandt → fundet — the same vowel ladder you see in drikke / drak / drukket and synge / sang / sunget. On its own it means "find," but most of its everyday power comes from three phrasal verbs that English speakers must learn as units: finde ud af ("find out / figure out"), finde på ("come up with / make up"), and finde sted ("take place"). Finde ud af in particular is one of the most useful phrases in the whole language.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) finde | to find |
| Present | finder | find(s) |
| Past | fandt | found |
| Past participle | fundet | found |
| Imperative | find! | find! |
Present: finder
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | finder | jeg finder aldrig mine nøgler |
| du | finder | du finder den i skuffen |
| han / hun | finder | hun finder altid en løsning |
| vi | finder | vi finder ud af det |
| de | finder | de finder vej selv |
Jeg finder aldrig mine nøgler, når jeg har travlt.
I never find my keys when I'm in a hurry.
Vi finder helt sikkert en løsning sammen.
We'll definitely find a solution together.
Past: fandt
The past is the strong fandt — note the -dt ending, which is silent on the d but written.
Jeg fandt en tyvekrone på fortovet i morges.
I found a twenty-krone coin on the pavement this morning.
Vi fandt aldrig ud af, hvem der havde ringet.
We never found out who had called.
Present perfect: har fundet
The perfect uses har plus the participle fundet.
Har du fundet din telefon endnu?
Have you found your phone yet?
De har fundet et nyt sted at bo i Aarhus.
They've found a new place to live in Aarhus.
The big phrasal verb: finde ud af
This is the most important thing on the page. Finde ud af means "to find out" or "to figure out" — both discovering a fact and working something out. It is everywhere in spoken Danish, and the three little words ud af travel together. The object comes after the whole cluster: finde ud af det, finde ud af sandheden.
Jeg skal lige finde ud af, hvornår toget går.
I just need to find out when the train leaves.
Vi fandt ud af, at vi faktisk er i familie.
We found out that we're actually related.
Har du fundet ud af, hvordan maskinen virker?
Have you figured out how the machine works?
More phrasal verbs: finde på, finde sted
Finde på means "to come up with" — an idea, an excuse, a story — and can lean toward "make up / invent" something untrue. Finde sted is the standard, slightly formal way to say an event "takes place."
Hvor finder du på alle de skøre idéer?
Where do you come up with all those crazy ideas?
Han fandt bare på en undskyldning på stedet.
He just made up an excuse on the spot.
Konferencen finder sted i København til november.
The conference takes place in Copenhagen this November.
The event sense has its own reference at Finde sted.
Imperative: find!
Find lige dine sko, vi skal af sted!
Go find your shoes, we have to leave!
Common collocations and fixed expressions
- finde ud af — to find out, figure out
- finde på — to come up with, make up
- finde sted — to take place
- finde vej — to find one's way
- finde sig i — to put up with, tolerate
Det finder jeg mig ikke i — det er simpelthen for dyrt.
I won't put up with that — it's simply too expensive.
A natural exchange
— Har du fundet ud af, hvor festen finder sted? — Ikke endnu, men jeg finder på noget. Måske ringer jeg til Anders. — God idé, han finder altid ud af den slags.
— Have you found out where the party is taking place? — Not yet, but I'll think of something. Maybe I'll call Anders. — Good idea, he always figures out that kind of thing.
Three of the verb's phrasal lives appear here: fundet ud af and finder ud af ("find out"), finder sted ("takes place"), and finder på ("think of / come up with"). This little cluster is most of what finde does in conversation.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg findede mine nøgler.
Incorrect — finde is strong; the past is fandt, not a regular -ede form.
✅ Jeg fandt mine nøgler.
I found my keys.
❌ Har du finde ud af det?
Wrong form — the perfect needs the participle: har fundet ud af det.
✅ Har du fundet ud af det?
Have you found out?
❌ Jeg vil finde ude, hvornår toget går.
Wrong phrase — the fixed unit is finde ud af, not finde ude.
✅ Jeg vil finde ud af, hvornår toget går.
I want to find out when the train leaves.
❌ Mødet tager sted på fredag.
Wrong verb — an event 'takes place' with finde sted, not tage sted.
✅ Mødet finder sted på fredag.
The meeting takes place on Friday.
❌ De har fanden et nyt sted at bo.
Misspelled participle — it's fundet, not fanden (which is a swear word!).
✅ De har fundet et nyt sted at bo.
They've found a new place to live.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Finde ud afA2 — How to use the phrasal verb finde ud af ('to find out / figure out') and why the three particles ud af always travel together.
- Finde stedB2 — Full reference for the fixed expression finde sted ('take place / happen'), why sted takes no article, and how it differs from ske and foregå.
- DrikkeA2 — Full reference for drikke ('to drink') — the anchor verb for the strong i–a–u class (drikke / drak / drukket, just like English drink / drank / drunk) — with principal parts, all core tenses, and the everyday phrases drikke ud and drikke sig fuld.
- 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.
- 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.