Foreslå | Danish Grammar

Foreslå means to suggest or to propose. It is a strong verb built on stå (to stand), so it inherits exactly the same vowel shifts in the past and the same irregular short forms. Once you know how stå behaves, foreslå comes for free — the only difference is the prefix fore-.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Present	Past	Past participle	Imperative
foreslå	foreslår	foreslog	foreslået	foreslå

The perfect uses have: jeg har foreslået, vi havde foreslået. There is no choice of auxiliary here — foreslå is transitive and describes an act of communication, so it never takes være.

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Danish verbs do not agree with their subject. Jeg foreslår, du foreslår, vi foreslår, de foreslår — one present form covers every person and number. The work that English does with -s in he suggests simply does not exist in Danish.

The ablaut pattern and its English cognate

Foreslå is a strong verb, meaning its past tense is formed by an internal vowel change (ablaut), not by adding -ede or -te. The stem vowel å becomes o in the past: foreslår → foreslog. The participle then settles back on å: foreslået.

The English cousin of stå is stand, and the pattern is genuinely related: just as English shifts stand → stood, Danish shifts stå → stod and foreslå → foreslog. Seeing foreslog as the Danish answer to stood makes the irregular past far easier to remember than memorising it cold.

Jeg foreslår, at vi mødes klokken otte.

I suggest we meet at eight o'clock.

Hun foreslog en helt anden løsning.

She proposed an entirely different solution.

Vi har foreslået det samme før, men ingen lyttede.

We have suggested the same thing before, but nobody listened.

Sentence patterns

Foreslå combines with a following clause or infinitive. The two everyday patterns are foreslå at + clause and foreslå at + infinitive.

With a finite at-clause, Danish places a comma before at and keeps normal word order inside the clause:

Lægen foreslog, at jeg holdt en pause fra arbejdet.

The doctor suggested that I take a break from work.

With an infinitive, at is the infinitive marker (to), and there is no comma:

Må jeg foreslå at vente til i morgen?

May I suggest waiting until tomorrow?

You can also suggest something to someone using the double-object pattern foreslå nogen noget (suggest someone something):

Kan du foreslå mig en god bog om emnet?

Can you suggest a good book on the subject for me?

The related noun is et forslag (a proposal, a suggestion), plural forslag (unchanged). It pairs naturally with komme med: komme med et forslag (to make a suggestion).

Hendes forslag blev vedtaget på mødet.

Her proposal was adopted at the meeting.

Word order with foreslå

Because foreslå so often introduces a clause, it is a good place to watch Danish word order in action. In a main clause, the verb sits in second position (the V2 rule), so when you front something — a time expression, an object — the subject moves after foreslår:

På mødet foreslog direktøren en helt ny strategi.

At the meeting, the director proposed an entirely new strategy.

Inside the at-clause that follows, word order is subordinate: any adverb like ikke or altid comes before the verb, not after it.

Jeg foreslår, at vi ikke beslutter noget i dag.

I suggest that we don't decide anything today.

This contrast — main-clause V2 outside, adverb-before-verb inside — is one of the trickiest things for English speakers, because English keeps not after the auxiliary in both. Treat the comma after foreslår as a signal that the rules change on the other side of it.

Foreslå vs. tilbyde vs. anbefale

English suggest, offer, and recommend map onto three distinct Danish verbs, and learners routinely blur them.

Foreslå = suggest, propose — you put an idea on the table for consideration.
Tilbyde = offer — you put a thing or service at someone's disposal, something they can accept and receive.
Anbefale = recommend — you endorse an option as the good one, based on your judgement.

The line between foreslå and tilbyde is the sharpest. If a friend can say yes, please and then physically receive what you mentioned, you tilbyder. If they can only say good idea, you foreslår.

Jeg foreslår, at vi tager toget — men hvis du foretrækker bilen, kan jeg tilbyde at køre.

I suggest we take the train — but if you prefer the car, I can offer to drive.

Han foreslog en restaurant, men anbefalede ikke nogen bestemt ret.

He suggested a restaurant but didn't recommend any particular dish.

Common mistakes

❌ Hun foreslåede et nyt navn.

Incorrect — foreslå is strong; the weak -ede past does not apply.

✅ Hun foreslog et nyt navn.

She suggested a new name.

The single most common error is treating foreslå as a regular -ede verb. The å that ends the infinitive tempts learners into foreslåede, but the past is the strong foreslog, exactly mirroring stå → stod.

❌ Jeg vil foreslå dig en kaffe.

Incorrect — you cannot hand over a suggestion; this should be an offer.

✅ Jeg vil tilbyde dig en kaffe.

I'd like to offer you a coffee.

If the other person can accept and receive the thing, use tilbyde, not foreslå.

❌ Vi har foreslog det flere gange.

Incorrect — the perfect needs the participle, not the past tense.

✅ Vi har foreslået det flere gange.

We have suggested it several times.

After har/havde you always need the participle foreslået, never the past foreslog.

❌ Lægen foreslog mig at jeg holder en pause.

Incorrect — mixing the double-object and clause patterns, and the wrong tense in the clause.

✅ Lægen foreslog mig at holde en pause.

The doctor suggested I take a break.

Key takeaways

foreslå · foreslår · foreslog · foreslået — same vowels as stå · står · stod · stået, the cognate of English stand → stood.
Perfect with have: har foreslået. Never være.
No subject agreement — one present form for all persons.
Use foreslå to float an idea, tilbyde to put something on offer, anbefale to endorse a choice.

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