Køre is the Danish verb for movement by wheels. It means to drive a vehicle, but — and this is the part English speakers must absorb — it also means to go somewhere by vehicle whether or not you are the one at the wheel, and to run or function (of an engine, a train, a machine). It plugs a gap that English fills with several different verbs, and it is the natural partner to gå ("to walk / go on foot"): in Danish you don't "go" to work by car, you køre.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) køre | to drive, to go (by vehicle) |
| Present | kører | drive(s), go(es) |
| Past | kørte | drove, went |
| Past participle | kørt | driven, gone |
| Imperative | kør! | drive! / go! |
Køre is a regular weak verb of the -te class: past kørte, participle kørt. The stem-final r is the kind of consonant that pulls a verb into the lighter -te / -t pattern.
Present tense
The present kører spans "drive," "go by vehicle," and "be running."
Jeg kører til arbejde hver dag.
I drive to work every day.
Toget kører om fem minutter.
The train leaves in five minutes.
Motoren kører stadig.
The engine is still running.
That second sense — toget kører — is the one to internalise. Køre is the standard verb for a vehicle being in motion or departing, the way English uses "run," "leave," or "go."
Past tense
Vi kørte hele natten for at nå frem.
We drove all night to get there.
Bussen kørte uden mig.
The bus left without me.
Present perfect — the har vs. er split
This is where køre demands real attention. Danish chooses the perfect auxiliary according to what the sentence is saying:
- Use har kørt when the focus is on the activity of driving — how, how long, how much.
- Use er kørt when the focus is on a change of location — having departed, having arrived, being gone.
Both are correct Danish; they simply describe different things.
Jeg har kørt i otte timer i dag.
I've driven for eight hours today.
Han er allerede kørt.
He has already left (he's gone).
Vi er kørt forbi huset mange gange.
We've driven past the house many times.
In har kørt, the eight hours of activity matter. In er kørt, the point is that he is now gone — a completed change of position. This har (activity) versus er (movement to a new place/state) logic governs many Danish motion verbs; see have vs. være in the perfect and the wider motion verbs page.
Common collocations and particles
| Phrase | Meaning |
|---|---|
| køre bil | to drive (a car) |
| køre med bus / tog | to go by bus / train |
| køre nogen hjem | to drive someone home, give a lift |
| køre en tur | to go for a drive |
| det kører (for nogen) | things are going well (for someone) |
Note køre med for travelling as a passenger by public transport — køre med bus is "go by bus." (For taking public transport you will also hear tage — tage bussen; see tage.)
Skal jeg køre dig hjem?
Shall I drive you home?
Jeg kører med tog til Aarhus.
I'm going to Aarhus by train.
Det kører bare for hende lige nu.
Things are just going great for her right now.
A natural dialogue
— Hvordan kommer du til festen? — Jeg kører, vil du have et lift? — Ja tak, hvis det passer dig.
— How are you getting to the party? — I'm driving, want a lift? — Yes please, if it suits you.
Køre vs. gå vs. tage
English "go" is deceptively broad. In Danish, how you travel often decides the verb:
- gå = to walk, to go on foot (never by vehicle).
- køre = to go by road vehicle (car, bus, train, bike), or to drive.
- tage = to take (a means of transport) — tage bussen / toget / et fly.
So "I go to work by car" is Jeg *kører på arbejde — using *gå here would literally claim you walk there. This is the classic transfer error.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg går til arbejde med bil.
Wrong — gå means walk; you cannot 'walk by car'.
✅ Jeg kører på arbejde.
I drive to work.
❌ Toget går om fem minutter.
Acceptable in casual speech, but for a train in motion Danes more naturally say kører.
✅ Toget kører om fem minutter.
The train leaves in five minutes.
❌ Han har kørt — vi kan ikke nå ham.
Wrong here — the point is he has departed (change of place), so use er.
✅ Han er kørt — vi kan ikke nå ham.
He's left — we can't reach him.
❌ Vi har kørte langt i dag.
Wrong — after har use the participle kørt, not the past tense kørte.
✅ Vi har kørt langt i dag.
We've driven a long way today.
❌ Jeg kører med fods.
Wrong — on foot is til fods, and it doesn't take køre at all.
✅ Jeg går til fods.
I'm going on foot.
Key takeaways
- Køre is a regular -te verb: kører / kørte / kørt.
- It means drive, go by vehicle, and run/function — far broader than English "drive."
- Perfect auxiliary depends on meaning: har kørt (activity) vs. er kørt (departed/gone).
- Use køre — not gå — for any travel by vehicle; gå is for walking, tage for "taking" public transport.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- GåA1 — Full reference for gå ('to walk / to go') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, the core idioms hvordan går det? and det går, and why 'go on foot' takes være in the perfect while 'go by vehicle' is køre or tage.
- TageA2 — Full reference for the strong verb tage ('to take'), the silent -g, and its central role in talking about transport.
- Verbs of Motion and DirectionB1 — Danish lexicalises the means of motion — gå, køre, tage, rejse, flytte, løbe, flyve, komme — each with være-perfect for completed displacement and directional particles like ind, ud, op, ned, hjem.
- Have vs Være in the PerfectB2 — Danish builds the perfect with two auxiliaries — default har, but er for motion-to-a-goal and change-of-state when you mean the resulting new location or state.
- Choosing Have or Være in the PerfectB1 — Why most Danish verbs build the perfect with have, but verbs of motion and change of state use være — and how the same verb can take either.