Koste means "to cost," and it powers the single most useful sentence a traveller in Denmark can own: Hvad koster det? — "How much is it?" It is a perfectly regular weak verb, so there is no conjugation drama; the real lesson is the word order of that question. English speakers reliably get it wrong, because English buries the verb after the subject ("how much does it cost") and props it up with the dummy "do." Danish has no "do-support" and obeys the verb-second rule: the conjugated verb comes straight after the question word — Hvad *koster det?* This page drills the verb and then models the inversion.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past (datid) | Past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| (at) koste | koster | kostede | (har) kostet |
Koste is a textbook weak verb of the -ede class — the largest and most regular group. The past adds -de to the stem (koste- → kostede) and the participle ends in -et (kostet). There is nothing irregular to memorise; if you know koste, you know how a few thousand other Danish verbs behave.
Koste across the tenses
Present — koster:
En kop kaffe koster fyrre kroner her.
A cup of coffee costs forty kroner here.
Past — kostede:
Min cykel kostede næsten tre tusind kroner.
My bike cost almost three thousand kroner.
Present perfect — har + the participle kostet:
Renoveringen har kostet langt mere, end vi havde regnet med.
The renovation has cost far more than we'd expected.
Koste has no everyday imperative or passive — you don't command something to cost — so the active tenses above are the whole working paradigm.
The core question: Hvad koster det?
Here is the sentence to memorise word for word, and the word order to understand. In a Danish wh-question, the structure is: question word → conjugated verb → subject. The verb sits in second position, right after hvad, with the subject det after it.
Hvad koster det?
How much is it? / What does it cost?
Notice what is missing compared to English: there is no "does." English needs the dummy auxiliary "do" to form questions — "what does it cost" — but Danish never does this. You simply invert the verb and subject. The same pattern scales up to any item:
Hvad koster billetterne til koncerten?
How much are the tickets to the concert?
Hvor meget koster det at sende en pakke til Sverige?
How much does it cost to send a parcel to Sweden?
Answering: prices and figurative cost
To answer, lead with the price or use det koster…:
Det koster halvtreds kroner.
It costs fifty kroner.
Det koster ikke noget — det er gratis.
It doesn't cost anything — it's free.
Koste also works figuratively, exactly like English "cost (someone something)," taking an indirect object:
Den fejl kostede ham jobbet.
That mistake cost him his job.
Common collocations and fixed expressions
| Expression | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Hvad koster det? | How much is it? |
| koste en formue | cost a fortune |
| koste det, det skal koste | cost whatever it takes |
| koste nogen noget | cost someone something (figurative) |
| det må koste, hvad det vil | whatever it costs (I'll do it) |
Sådan en lejlighed midt i byen koster en formue.
A flat like that in the city centre costs a fortune.
A short dialogue
– Undskyld, hvad koster det her? – Den koster hundrede og tyve kroner. – Det er lidt dyrt. Har I noget billigere?
– Excuse me, how much is this? – It's a hundred and twenty kroner. – That's a bit pricey. Do you have anything cheaper?
The shopper opens with the canonical hvad koster det her? — verb second, no "does" — and the reply leads with the price.
Common mistakes
❌ Hvad det koster?
Wrong word order: this puts the subject before the verb. Danish needs the verb in second position.
✅ Hvad koster det?
Correct: question word, then verb, then subject — V2 inversion.
❌ Hvad gør det koste?
Wrong: Danish has no do-support — don't translate 'does it cost' with gør.
✅ Hvad koster det?
Correct: the main verb itself moves into second position; no dummy auxiliary.
❌ Bogen kostete tres kroner.
Wrong: the -ede class adds -ede, not '-ete.'
✅ Bogen kostede tres kroner.
Correct: kostede, the regular past.
❌ Det har kostede en formue.
Wrong: that's the past tense; the perfect needs the participle kostet.
✅ Det har kostet en formue.
Correct: har kostet = 'has cost.'
Key takeaways
- Koste is a fully regular -ede weak verb: koster – kostede – har kostet. No surprises.
- The price question is Hvad koster det? — burn it in, and with it the word order: question word, then verb, then subject.
- No do-support: Danish never uses gøre ("do") to build questions. The main verb itself goes to second position.
- Koste takes prices, and figuratively an indirect object: det kostede ham jobbet.
For more shopping phrases, see shopping expressions; for the question-word inversion in general, see wh-questions and the underlying verb-second rule.
Now practice Danish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Shopping and MoneyA2 — The phrases for shops and checkouts in Danish — hvad koster det?, the polite request frames jeg vil gerne have and må jeg få, har I...?, det er for dyrt, and money words like kvittering, byttepenge, kontant and kort.
- Wh-Questions (Hv-spørgsmål)A1 — Danish question words all start with hv- (silent h): hvem, hvad, hvor, hvornår, hvorfor, hvordan, hvilken, hvis — and how hvor + adjective means 'how big/old/many'.
- Inversion After a Fronted ElementA1 — Whenever a non-subject opens a Danish main clause — an adverb, object, prepositional phrase, or subordinate clause — the verb stays second and the subject moves behind it.
- The V2 Rule: Verb SecondA1 — The core rule of Danish main clauses: the finite verb stands in second position, with exactly one constituent before it — and the subject inverts when anything else is fronted.