Fortælle ("to tell, to narrate") is the verb for relating information or a story to a listener — han fortalte mig en historie ("he told me a story"). It is a mixed verb: the past fortalte changes the stem vowel from æ to a and then adds the regular -te. Its defining feature, and the reason English speakers must single it out, is that fortælle naturally takes an indirect object — the listener — where sige ("say") does not. If your sentence has a person being told something, you almost always want fortælle, not sige.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) fortælle | to tell |
| Present | fortæller | tell(s) |
| Past | fortalte | told |
| Past participle | fortalt | told |
| Imperative | fortæl! | tell! |
Present: fortæller
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | fortæller | jeg fortæller dig det hele |
| du | fortæller | du fortæller gode historier |
| han / hun | fortæller | hun fortæller om sin rejse |
| vi | fortæller | vi fortæller børnene et eventyr |
| de | fortæller | de fortæller aldrig sandheden |
Jeg fortæller dig det hele, når vi ses.
I'll tell you everything when we meet.
Hun fortæller altid de samme historier til familiefester.
She always tells the same stories at family parties.
The listener-object pattern: fortælle nogen noget
The signature construction is fortælle + listener + content — "tell someone something." The listener is an indirect object that comes first, then what you tell them. This is exactly where sige fails: you cannot *sige nogen noget. The presence of a person being told pushes you to fortælle.
Han fortalte mig en historie, jeg aldrig glemmer.
He told me a story I'll never forget.
Fortæl mig sandheden — hvad skete der egentlig?
Tell me the truth — what actually happened?
Past: fortalte (mixed)
The past is fortalte — vowel a, regular -te. Drill it against the present fortæller so the æ-to-a shift becomes automatic.
Min mormor fortalte mig om krigen, da jeg var lille.
My grandmother told me about the war when I was little.
Hvorfor fortalte du mig ikke, at du var syg?
Why didn't you tell me you were ill?
Present perfect: har fortalt
The perfect uses the default auxiliary har plus the participle fortalt.
Har du fortalt din chef, at du siger op?
Have you told your boss you're quitting?
Jeg har aldrig fortalt nogen den hemmelighed.
I've never told anyone that secret.
Fortælle om: tell about
Fortælle om means "tell about" — to relate or describe a topic. Here the om introduces the subject matter, and the listener can still appear as an object: fortælle nogen om noget.
Kan du fortælle lidt om dig selv?
Can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Han fortalte os om sin nye lejlighed i timevis.
He told us about his new flat for hours.
The noun: en fortælling
From fortælle comes en fortælling ("a tale, a narrative"), plural fortællinger — a slightly more literary word than the everyday historie ("story").
Bogen er en gribende fortælling om to søstre. (literary)
The book is a gripping tale about two sisters.
Imperative: fortæl!
Fortæl mig om din dag — jeg vil høre det hele.
Tell me about your day — I want to hear it all.
Common collocations and fixed expressions
- fortælle nogen noget — to tell someone something
- fortælle om (noget) — to tell about (something)
- fortælle en historie / et eventyr — to tell a story / a fairy tale
- fortælle en vittighed — to tell a joke
- som sagt, så fortalt — no sooner said than done (idiomatic)
- en fortælling — a tale, a narrative
Bedstefar fortalte en vittighed, og alle børnene grinede.
Grandpa told a joke, and all the children laughed.
A natural exchange
— Hvad fortalte hun? — Hun fortalte mig, at hun flytter til Norge. — Sagde hun hvornår? — Nej, det fortalte hun ikke, men hun har fortalt det til chefen allerede.
— What did she tell you? — She told me she's moving to Norway. — Did she say when? — No, she didn't tell me, but she's already told the boss.
Watch the split in the last two lines: sige asks merely whether words were uttered ("did she say when"), while fortælle — with its listener object — carries the relating of news to a person.
The split with sige, tale and snakke
English "say, tell, speak, talk" maps onto four Danish verbs, and fortælle owns the "tell" slot:
- fortælle — tell: relate information or a story to a listener. Takes the listener as an object.
- sige — say: utter words, report them. Focuses on the words; no listener-object.
- tale — speak: more formal; speak a language, give a talk, tale med someone.
- snakke — talk / chat: informal everyday conversation.
Hun sagde tak og fortalte mig så hele historien.
She said thanks and then told me the whole story.
The full decision guide is in Tale, Snakke, Sige, Fortælle; see also Sige and Tale med.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg sagde ham en historie.
Wrong verb — with a listener-object you need fortælle, not sige.
✅ Jeg fortalte ham en historie.
I told him a story.
❌ Hun fortællede mig om turen.
Incorrect past — fortælle is mixed: fortalte (vowel a), never fortællede.
✅ Hun fortalte mig om turen.
She told me about the trip.
❌ Har du fortalte det til din mor?
Wrong form after har — the perfect needs the participle fortalt, not the past fortalte.
✅ Har du fortalt det til din mor?
Have you told your mum?
❌ Fortæl om dig til os.
Wrong structure — 'tell us about yourself' is fortælle om dig selv (with reflexive), listener as object.
✅ Fortæl os om dig selv.
Tell us about yourself.
❌ Han fortalte, at sandheden.
Over-stuffed — fortælle takes either a noun object (fortalte sandheden) or an at-clause, not both at once.
✅ Han fortalte sandheden.
He told the truth.
Related Topics
- SigeA1 — Full reference for sige ('to say') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, its job as a reporting verb (han siger, at...), the idiom det vil sige, and how it differs from fortælle, tale and snakke.
- Tale medA1 — Full reference for tale med ('to talk to / with someone'). Principal parts, the -te past, why Danish uses med ('with') where English says 'to', the contrast between tale med, snakke med, sige and fortælle, and the collocations tale med nogen om noget and tale godt dansk.
- Tale, Snakke, Sige, Fortælle: Say/Speak/TellB2 — Four Danish verbs cover English say, speak, talk and tell — choose by the complement: a language, a casual chat, an uttered statement, or informing someone.
- Mixed and Irregular VerbsB1 — Danish verbs that change their vowel and add a dental ending — plus the wholly irregular core verbs every learner must memorise.
- 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.