Hjælpe | Danish Grammar

Hjælpe means to help, and it is one of the verbs you will use every single day in Danish. It also happens to be a strong verb — one of the irregular core verbs whose past tense is formed by changing the stem vowel (ablaut) rather than by adding an ending. Its forms cannot be predicted from the infinitive, so they have to be learned: hjælpe → hjalp → hjulpet. Get these wrong and you produce one of the most audible learner errors in the language.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) hjælpe	to help
Present	hjælper	help(s)
Past	hjalp	helped
Past participle	hjulpet	helped
Imperative	hjælp!	help!

Two things to notice about the spelling. First, the h is silent — hjælpe is pronounced as if it began with j (a "y" sound), the same silent h you find in hvad, hvem, and hvor. Second, watch the vowels: the infinitive and present have æ (hjælpe, hjælper), the past switches to a (hjalp), and the participle switches again to u (hjulpet). That three-way vowel change — æ → a → u — is the signature of this strong-verb pattern.

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Danish verbs never change for person or number, even the irregular ones. Jeg hjælper, du hjælper, hun hjælper, vi hjælper, de hjælper — one present form, hjælper, for every subject. The irregularity is all in the tense forms, not in agreement.

Present tense

Jeg hjælper dig gerne.

I'll gladly help you.

Hjælper du mig lige med opvasken?

Will you help me with the dishes?

Det hjælper ikke at klage.

It's no use complaining (literally: it doesn't help to complain).

That last sentence shows a very common idiom: det hjælper ikke at ... = "there's no point in / it's no use ...". Danes use hjælpe for the abstract sense of "doing any good," so a medicine that works hjælper, a piece of advice that does the trick hjælper, and an effort that achieves nothing hjælper ikke. This abstract use is just as frequent as the literal "assist someone" sense, so it is worth getting comfortable with both at once.

Pillerne hjalp mod hovedpinen.

The pills helped with the headache.

Det hjælper at trække vejret dybt.

It helps to breathe deeply.

Past tense — hjalp

The strong past is hjalp. There is no ending; the vowel change is the past-tense marker. This is the form learners most often get wrong by inventing a regular hjælpede — which does not exist.

Min nabo hjalp mig med at flytte.

My neighbour helped me move.

Hun hjalp os, da vi havde det svært.

She helped us when we were going through a hard time.

Present perfect — har hjulpet

The participle is hjulpet, with its surprise u. Hjælpe describes an action, so the perfect auxiliary is har, never er.

Du har hjulpet mig så meget.

You've helped me so much.

Har lægen hjulpet dig med smerterne?

Has the doctor helped you with the pain?

For the wider system these vowel changes belong to, see the strong past tense overview and the way some verbs mix strong and weak patterns; for participle forms generally, see participles.

Collocations and prepositions

Phrase	Meaning
hjælpe nogen	to help someone (direct object, no preposition)
hjælpe (nogen) med (noget)	to help (someone) with (something)
hjælpe til	to lend a hand, pitch in
hjælpe nogen op / ind / ud	to help someone up / in / out
det kan ikke hjælpe noget	it's no use / there's nothing to be done

The preposition to lock in is med: you help someone *with something — *hjælpe med lektierne ("help with the homework"). The thing you help with takes med; the person you help is a bare object with no preposition at all. This mirrors English closely ("help me with my homework"), so the structure rarely causes trouble — but it is easy to forget the med under pressure and produce a bare hjælpe mig lektierne, which is ungrammatical.

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When an action follows med, Danish requires the infinitive marker at: hjælpe med *at lave mad ("help cook"), hjælpe med **at bære ("help carry"). Dropping the *at is one of the most common A2 slips.

Kan du hjælpe mig med min computer?

Can you help me with my computer?

Alle hjalp til med at rydde op.

Everyone pitched in to tidy up.

Han hjalp den gamle dame over vejen.

He helped the old lady across the road.

A natural dialogue

— Undskyld, kan du hjælpe mig? Jeg er faret vild. — Selvfølgelig, hvor skal du hen?

— Excuse me, can you help me? I'm lost. — Of course, where are you headed?

Common mistakes

❌ Min nabo hjælpede mig i går.

Wrong — hjælpe is strong; the past is hjalp, not a regular hjælpede.

✅ Min nabo hjalp mig i går.

My neighbour helped me yesterday.

❌ Du har hjælpet mig meget.

Wrong — the participle is hjulpet, not hjælpet.

✅ Du har hjulpet mig meget.

You've helped me a lot.

❌ Kan du hjælpe mig med flytte?

Wrong — when an action follows med, you need the infinitive marker at: med at flytte.

✅ Kan du hjælpe mig med at flytte?

Can you help me move?

❌ Jeg hjælper med dig.

Wrong — the person helped takes no preposition; med introduces the task, not the person.

✅ Jeg hjælper dig med opgaven.

I'll help you with the task.

❌ Jeg er hjulpet af min lærer.

Wrong auxiliary in active perfect — hjælpe takes har; er + participle would be read as a passive.

✅ Jeg har fået hjælp af min lærer.

I've gotten help from my teacher.

Key takeaways

Hjælpe is a strong verb: hjælper / *hjalp / hjulpet*, with the vowel change æ → a → u.
The h is silent (as in hvad, hvem, hvor).
Perfect with har: har hjulpet.
You help a person with no preposition, but help med a task; when a verb follows, it's med at + infinitive.
Never regularise to hjælpede / hjælpet — those forms do not exist.

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