Gide | Danish Grammar

Gide is one of the most useful verbs in spoken Danish and one that textbooks routinely underplay. It means roughly "to be bothered to," "to feel like," or "to have the inclination to" — and in real life it lives overwhelmingly in the negative: jeg gider ikke ("I can't be bothered," "I don't feel like it"). If you want to sound like an actual Dane rather than a phrasebook, this verb is essential. It is also formally odd: it belongs to the small group of preterite-present verbs (the same class as the modals kunne, skulle, ville), so its forms do not follow the regular pattern, and the past tense gad catches almost everyone out.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) gide	to be bothered to, to feel like
Present	gider	am/are/is bothered to
Past	gad	was/were bothered to
Past participle	gidet	bothered to
Imperative	—	(not used)

💡

No agreement, ever. Gider is the entire present for every subject — jeg gider, du gider, hun gider, vi gider, de gider. The past is the irregular, vowel-changing gad (not gidede), and the perfect is har gidet. This is the same machinery as the modal verbs: think kan / kunne, vil / ville — and now gider / gad.

💡

The perfect always uses har, never er: har gidet. Like the modals, gide takes a bare infinitive complement (gide lave — note: no at), though everyday speech also tolerates at: gide (at) lave. There is no real imperative — you cannot command someone to feel like something.

Present: gider

The present gider is identical for every subject.

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	gider	jeg gider ikke
du	gider	gider du lige hjælpe?
han / hun	gider	hun gider ikke vente
vi	gider	vi gider ikke mere
de	gider	de gider ikke rydde op

Jeg gider ikke lave mad i dag — skal vi bestille pizza?

I can't be bothered to cook today — shall we order pizza?

Gider du lige række mig saltet?

Could you just pass me the salt?

Notice the second example: in a question, gider du (lige)...? softens a request into a casual "could you...?" The little particle lige ("just") is almost glued to this construction in spoken Danish.

The complement: bare infinitive, or (at) + infinitive

Like the modal verbs, gide most naturally takes a bare infinitive. But unlike the true modals, it also commonly appears with at — both are heard and accepted in speech.

Jeg gider ikke lave mad.

I don't feel like cooking. (bare infinitive)

Jeg gider ikke at lave mad.

I don't feel like cooking. (with at — also fine in speech)

You can also follow gide directly with a noun phrase, meaning "to feel up to" or "to be in the mood for" something:

Jeg gider ikke den der lange film i aften.

I'm not in the mood for that long film tonight.

Past: gad

The past is the vowel-changing gad — not the regular-looking gidede, which is the single most common error learners make with this verb.

Han gad ikke gå med i biografen, så vi blev hjemme.

He couldn't be bothered to come to the cinema, so we stayed home.

Som teenager gad jeg aldrig rydde mit værelse op.

As a teenager I never felt like tidying my room.

Present perfect: har gidet

The perfect takes har plus the participle gidet.

Jeg har aldrig rigtig gidet sport.

I've never really been into sport.

Hun har ikke gidet svare på mine beskeder.

She hasn't bothered to reply to my messages.

The idiom: gad vide ("I wonder")

This is the one place the past form gad survives in a fixed, present-meaning idiom. Gad vide literally means "would feel like knowing" and is the standard everyday way to say "I wonder."

Jeg gad vide, hvad hun egentlig mener om det.

I wonder what she really thinks about that.

Gad vide, om det bliver regnvejr i morgen.

I wonder whether it'll rain tomorrow.

💡

Gad vide is frozen: it stays gad (past form) with a present meaning, and you almost always drop the subject — Gad vide, om... rather than Jeg gad vide, om..., though both occur. Treat it as a set phrase, not as a live conjugation of gide.

Register: this is colloquial

Gide is firmly (informal). It is everywhere in conversation, texting, and casual writing, but you would not use it in a formal letter, an official document, or a job application. In those registers, reach for neutral phrasings instead: Jeg har ikke tid/lyst/overskud til... or Jeg ønsker ikke at... (formal).

Jeg gider ikke gå til mødet. (informal, among colleagues)

I can't be bothered to go to the meeting.

Jeg ser mig desværre ikke i stand til at deltage i mødet. (formal, in writing)

Unfortunately I'm not able to attend the meeting.

Gide vs orke vs have lyst til

Three Danish expressions hover near English "feel like / be up for," and keeping them apart sharpens your speech considerably.

Expression	Core sense	Best English gloss
gide	inclination / can be bothered	to feel like, to be bothered to
orke	energy / stamina to face it	to have the energy for, to face
have lyst til	desire / appeal of the thing	to fancy, to feel like

The difference between gide and orke is real: gide is about willingness, orke is about energy or stamina. You can gide something perfectly well and still not orke it because you are exhausted.

Jeg har faktisk lyst til at tage med, men jeg orker det bare ikke efter sådan en dag.

I actually fancy coming along, but I just don't have the energy after a day like this.

Hun gad godt hjælpe, men hun orkede ikke at stå op af sofaen.

She was happy to help, but she couldn't summon the energy to get off the sofa.

Common mistakes

❌ Han gidede ikke gå med.

Wrong past — gide is preterite-present, so the past is gad, not gidede.

✅ Han gad ikke gå med.

He couldn't be bothered to come along.

❌ Vi gider ikke at går i byen.

The complement of gide is an infinitive, not a present-tense verb.

✅ Vi gider ikke (at) gå i byen.

We don't feel like going out.

❌ Jeg har gidet ikke svare.

Ikke is misplaced — it belongs before the infinitive, after the auxiliary cluster.

✅ Jeg har ikke gidet svare.

I haven't bothered to reply.

❌ Jeg gad vide hvad hun mente, men jeg gad ikke spørge — i en formel ansøgning.

✅ Jeg ønskede ikke at spørge.

I did not wish to ask. (formal alternative)

❌ Jeg gider vide, om det regner.

The fixed idiom uses the past form — it's gad vide, not gider vide.

✅ Jeg gad vide, om det regner.

I wonder whether it's raining.

Key takeaways

gider / gad / gidet — irregular, preterite-present; the past gad is the big trap.
It takes a bare infinitive (or (at)
- infinitive) and lives mostly in the negative: gider ikke.
Perfect is always har gidet.
The frozen idiom gad vide = "I wonder" — keep it in the past form with the subject often dropped.
Strictly (informal); swap for have tid/lyst/overskud or ønske in formal contexts.

Now practice Danish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Danish→