Forlade ('to leave') is the prefix for- + the strong verb lade ('to let'), and it conjugates exactly like its base. It is the verb for leaving a place or a person — forlade huset, forlade sin kone — and it is always transitive: it must have a direct object. You cannot simply forlade with nothing after it. That single fact prevents the most common English-speaker error with this verb.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (at) forlade | forlader | forlod | forladt | forlad |
The perfect is built with have: jeg har forladt ('I have left'). Even though leaving is a kind of motion, forlade is transitive — you leave something — and transitive verbs take have, not være. This is the clean dividing line: intransitive motion verbs like rejse and gå can take være, but forlade, with its obligatory object, stays with have. The presence of a direct object is the decisive signal. Være attaches to verbs that have no object and describe the subject's own change of position (jeg er rejst, "I have departed"); the moment a verb governs an object, the focus shifts to what the subject does to that object, and Danish marks that with have.
The prefix for- here is the inseparable, unstressed for- that you also see in forstå ('understand'), forsvinde ('disappear'), and fortælle ('tell'). It generally intensifies or reorients the base verb rather than carrying a tidy meaning of its own, so do not try to translate it piece by piece: for- + lade ('let') does not obviously add up to "leave," and that is normal for this prefix. Treat forlade as a single lexical item whose conjugation you borrow wholesale from lade.
Strong past: forlod, not forladede
The base lade has the strong past lod, and forlade inherits it: forlod. The participle is forladt with a -dt ending. Since lade never has a weak past, forlade does not either.
Hun forlod mødet uden at sige et ord.
She left the meeting without saying a word.
De forlod landet, før krigen brød ud.
They left the country before the war broke out.
Han har forladt sin familie.
He has left his family.
Always transitive — the core rule
In English, "leave" works happily with no object: "I'm leaving now." Danish forlade cannot do this. If there is no place or person to leave, you must switch to an intransitive verb — most naturally gå ('go') or tage af sted ('set off').
Jeg forlader nu kontoret.
I'm leaving the office now.
Jeg går nu.
I'm leaving now. (literally: I'm going now)
Vi tager af sted klokken otte.
We're leaving at eight o'clock.
So Jeg forlader on its own is ungrammatical the way English "I abandon" with no object would be — the verb is left dangling. Always give forlade its object, or choose gå / tage af sted.
forlade vs efterlade — leaving versus leaving behind
These two look alike but split a job English does with one verb:
- Forlade = to leave a place or person — you depart from them. Forlade huset (leave the house).
- Efterlade = to leave something behind — you depart and it stays. Efterlade nøglerne (leave the keys behind).
Han forlod huset og efterlod døren ulåst.
He left the house and left the door unlocked.
Hun efterlod en besked på bordet.
She left a note on the table.
The mental test: if you can add "behind" in English ("leave it behind"), Danish wants efterlade. If you mean "depart from," it wants forlade. The prefixes themselves encode the difference: for- points at the place or person you move away from, while efter- ('after') points at what is left lying after you have gone. Reading the prefix literally — "after-leave" for the thing that stays behind — makes the split easy to keep straight.
Soldaterne forlod lejren og efterlod alt deres udstyr.
The soldiers left the camp and left all their equipment behind.
Reflexive: forlade sig på (rely on)
With the reflexive pronoun and the preposition på, forlade takes on the unrelated meaning 'to rely on, depend on'.
Du kan trygt forlade dig på hende.
You can safely rely on her.
Vi forlod os på, at toget kørte til tiden.
We relied on the train running on time.
Contrast with rejse / tage af sted
Forlade names the thing you depart from; rejse and tage af sted describe departing as an intransitive motion, with no object required.
De rejste i morges.
They departed this morning.
For the intransitive travel verb, see [verb-reference/rejse]; for staying behind rather than leaving, see [verb-reference/blive-tilbage].
A note on the archaic forlade = forgive
In older religious Danish, forlade meant 'to forgive', and it survives frozen in the Lord's Prayer (Fadervor): forlad os vor skyld ('forgive us our trespasses'). (archaic) Modern Danish uses tilgive for 'forgive'; you will only meet forlade in this sense in liturgical or historical texts. Do not use it for 'forgive' in everyday speech.
Tilgiv mig, jeg mente det ikke.
Forgive me, I didn't mean it. (modern usage)
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg forlader nu.
Incorrect — forlade must have an object; this is intransitive.
✅ Jeg går nu. / Jeg tager af sted nu.
I'm leaving now.
❌ Hun forladede mødet tidligt.
Incorrect — forlade is strong; the past is forlod.
✅ Hun forlod mødet tidligt.
She left the meeting early.
❌ Han forlod sin paraply i toget.
Incorrect — leaving an object behind is efterlade, not forlade.
✅ Han efterlod sin paraply i toget.
He left his umbrella behind on the train.
❌ Vi er forladt landet.
Incorrect — forlade is transitive and takes have, not være.
✅ Vi har forladt landet.
We have left the country.
Key takeaways
- Principal parts: forlade – forlader – forlod – forladt, imperative forlad. Strong (the lade class), vowel a → o → a.
- Always transitive — needs an object. For "I'm leaving" with no object, use gå or tage af sted.
- Perfect with have: har forladt. No subject agreement.
- Forlade = leave a place/person; efterlade = leave something behind; forlade sig på = rely on. Archaic sense 'forgive' survives only in the Fadervor.
For how strong verbs form their past, see [verbs/past-strong-overview].
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
- RejseA1 — Full reference for rejse — 'to travel' (perfect with være: jeg er rejst) and, reflexively, 'to stand up / rise' (rejse sig). Principal parts, all core tenses, the auxiliary split, and everyday collocations like rejse væk and rejse sig op.
- Blive tilbageB1 — Full reference for the phrasal verb blive tilbage ('to stay behind / remain') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, and how it differs from plain blive, from være tilbage, and from efterlade and forlade.
- 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.