Give | Danish Grammar

Give ("to give") is the prototypical ditransitive verb — the kind that takes two objects, a receiver and a thing: giver ham bogen ("gives him the book"). It is everywhere in everyday Danish: in give op ("give up"), in the now-standard idiom det giver mening ("it makes sense"), and in the bartender's hvad må jeg give? ("what can I get you?"). For English speakers the verb itself is easy; what needs attention is the word order when both objects are present, and a couple of idioms where Danish "gives" what English "makes."

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) give	to give
Present	giver	give(s)
Past	gav	gave
Past participle	givet	given
Imperative	giv!	give!

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Give is a strong verb: the past gav drops the -ive of the present giver down to a single bare syllable (compare English "give / gave"). No agreement, as always — giver is the whole present and gav is the whole past, for every subject.

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Mind the imperative spelling: it is giv! (no -e), while the infinitive keeps the -e: at give. The participle givet is regular, and the perfect uses the default auxiliary har: har givet.

Present: giver

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	giver	jeg giver en kop kaffe
du	giver	du giver gode råd
han / hun	giver	hun giver ham et kram
vi	giver	vi giver en gave
de	giver	de giver aldrig op

Jeg giver dig pengene tilbage på fredag.

I'll give you the money back on Friday.

Solen giver god energi om foråret.

The sun gives good energy in spring.

Past: gav

Hun gav mig en bog til min fødselsdag.

She gave me a book for my birthday.

Læreren gav os for meget for.

The teacher gave us too much homework.

Present perfect: har givet

Jeg har givet ham alle mine gamle plader.

I've given him all my old records.

Har du givet katten mad?

Have you fed the cat? (literally: given the cat food)

Past perfect: havde givet

De havde allerede givet bordet væk, da jeg ringede.

They had already given the table away by the time I called.

The big point: word order with two objects

This is the teaching focus. Give usually has two objects — the indirect object (the receiver, who gets something) and the direct object (the thing given). When both are plain nouns or pronouns side by side, Danish puts the indirect object first, with no preposition: giver ham bogen — literally "gives him the book."

Hun giver sin søster bilen.

She gives her sister the car. (indirect: sin søster, direct: bilen)

Kan du give mig saltet?

Can you give me the salt? / Pass me the salt.

English allows two patterns — "give him the book" and "give the book to him." Danish strongly prefers the first, double-object pattern. The til-version (giver bogen til ham) exists, but it is used to emphasise or contrast the receiver, not as the default. For the full ordering rules — including what happens when one object is a pronoun and the other a noun — see Order of Objects and Light Elements.

Giv mig den, jeg ordner det.

Give me that, I'll deal with it.

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Pronoun objects are "light" and stay close to the verb: jeg gav ham den ("I gave him it"). You almost never hear *jeg gav den til ham in neutral speech — Danish keeps both short pronouns tucked in right after the verb, indirect before direct.

Det giver mening: where Danish 'gives' and English 'makes'

A handful of idioms use give where English uses "make" or "get." The most important by far is det giver mening ("it makes sense") — historically a calque from English, now completely standard and unremarkable in Danish. Note that you cannot say *det laver mening or *det gør mening; the fixed verb is give.

Hans forklaring giver god mening nu.

His explanation makes good sense now.

Det giver ikke mening at vente længere.

It doesn't make sense to wait any longer.

In casual speech give also means "treat / get (a round)": jeg giver means "it's on me / my treat."

Kom, jeg giver en øl!

Come on, I'll buy you a beer! (my treat)

Give op and other particle verbs

Give combines with particles to make common phrasal verbs. The particle carries stress and usually follows the object pronoun: gav op ("gave up"), giver efter ("gives in / yields").

Du må ikke give op nu, du er så tæt på.

You mustn't give up now, you're so close.

Imperative: giv!

Giv mig lige to minutter.

Just give me two minutes.

Common collocations and fixed expressions

give op — to give up
det giver mening — it makes sense
give en hånd / et kram — to give a hand / a hug
give besked — to let someone know
give efter — to give in, yield

Giv mig besked, hvis planen ændrer sig.

Let me know if the plan changes.

A natural exchange

— Kan du give mig fjernbetjeningen? — Værsgo. — Tak. Giver det mening at se de sidste ti minutter? — Nej, giv op, vi har misset for meget.

— Can you pass me the remote? — Here you go. — Thanks. Does it make sense to watch the last ten minutes? — No, give up, we've missed too much.

Common mistakes

❌ Hun giver bogen ham.

Wrong order — with two plain objects the receiver (indirect) comes first: giver ham bogen.

✅ Hun giver ham bogen.

She gives him the book.

❌ Det gør mening.

Wrong verb — the fixed Danish idiom is det giver mening, not gør.

✅ Det giver mening.

It makes sense.

❌ Hun givede mig en gave.

Incorrect — give is strong; the past is gav, not a regular -ede form.

✅ Hun gav mig en gave.

She gave me a present.

❌ Give mig saltet.

Wrong form for a command — the imperative drops the -e: giv.

✅ Giv mig saltet.

Pass me the salt.

❌ Jeg gav den til ham.

Stiff for a neutral 'I gave him it' — Danish keeps both pronouns close: gav ham den.

✅ Jeg gav ham den.

I gave him it.

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