Lægge | Danish Grammar

Lægge ("to lay / to put down") is the transitive twin of ligge — the verb you use when you put something somewhere. It always implies an object: you lay a book, the keys, the baby. Used reflexively, lægge sig means "to lie down" (literally "lay yourself down"), and that reflexive is by far the most common way Danes say "lie down" in everyday speech. The two things to nail here are the spelling of the past — lagde, with a silent -d- — and the discipline of never confusing lægge with intransitive ligge.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) lægge	to lay, to put (down)
Present	lægger	lay(s) / put(s)
Past	lagde	laid / put
Past participle	lagt	laid
Imperative	læg!	lay! / put!

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The past lagde is pronounced as if it were "la-e" — the -d- is completely silent. Do not let the spelling fool you into pronouncing a hard d; it is one of Danish's classic silent-consonant traps. The participle lagt, by contrast, has a clearly audible -gt.

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No agreement, as always: lægger is the whole present — jeg lægger, du lægger, hun lægger, vi lægger — and lagde is the whole past, for every subject. Danish verbs never change for person or number.

Present: lægger

The present lægger always needs an object — the thing you are putting down. Notice the object in every example.

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	lægger	jeg lægger bogen på bordet
du	lægger	du lægger tøjet sammen
han / hun	lægger	hun lægger barnet i seng
vi	lægger	vi lægger en plan
de	lægger	de lægger nøglerne under måtten

Jeg lægger lige bogen på bordet, så jeg kan finde den igen.

I'll just put the book on the table so I can find it again.

Hun lægger barnet til at sove klokken syv hver aften.

She puts the baby down to sleep at seven every evening.

The little word lige in the first example ("just / quickly") is one Danes drop into almost every sentence about a small, immediate action — it softens the request and signals that the action takes no time at all.

Past: lagde

The past is lagde — strong-looking but built on a regular pattern, and famously mis-spelled by learners who try to pronounce the silent d.

Jeg lagde mine nøgler her i morges, men nu er de væk.

I put my keys here this morning, but now they're gone.

Vi lagde en ny strategi efter mødet.

We laid out a new strategy after the meeting.

Present perfect: har lagt

The perfect uses the default auxiliary har plus the participle lagt. Because lægge is an action you perform on an object — not a change of your own position — it always takes har, never er.

Har du lagt vasketøjet sammen, eller skal jeg gøre det?

Have you folded the laundry, or should I do it?

Jeg har lagt en seddel på køkkenbordet til dig.

I've left a note on the kitchen table for you.

The reflexive: lægge sig ('lie down')

Here is the everyday use English speakers most often miss. To say "lie down," Danes very rarely use the bare imperative of ligge. Instead they use lægge reflexively — lægge sig, literally "lay oneself down." The reflexive pronoun changes with the subject: jeg lægger mig, du lægger dig, han lægger sig, vi lægger os.

Jeg er så træt — jeg lægger mig lidt på sofaen.

I'm so tired — I'm going to lie down on the couch for a bit.

Læg dig ned og slap af; du har arbejdet hele dagen.

Lie down and relax; you've been working all day.

Børnene har lagt sig, så vi kan tale frit nu.

The kids have gone to bed, so we can talk freely now.

Notice how the reflexive object behaves like any other object — that is exactly why this is lægge and not ligge. There is a full page on the reflexive at Lægge sig.

The strict split: lægge vs ligge

This is the heart of the page. Danish keeps "lay" and "lie" as two separate verbs and never blurs them — unlike casual English, where people freely say "I'm gonna lay down." In Danish that mistake is immediately audible.

lægge — transitive: to put something down. Takes an object (even if that object is reflexive sig).
ligge — intransitive: to be lying, to be located. No object. Something lies there on its own.

Their forms are entirely different — do not let the near-identical spelling tempt you:

	Infinitive	Present	Past	Participle
lay (takes object)	at lægge	lægger	lagde	lagt
lie (no object)	at ligge	ligger	lå	ligget

Jeg lægger bogen på bordet, og så ligger den der.

I lay the book on the table, and then it lies there.

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A reliable test: can you replace the English with "put"? If yes, you need lægge (I put the keys down → jeg lægger nøglerne). If nothing is being acted on — the thing just rests there by itself — you need ligge (the keys are on the table → nøglerne ligger på bordet). The full decision guide is at Ligge or Lægge; the intransitive twin is at Ligge.

Common collocations and fixed expressions

lægge sig (ned) — to lie down
lægge mærke til — to notice (literally "lay attention to")
lægge en plan — to make a plan
lægge på — to add on / put on top; to put on weight
lægge sammen — to fold (clothes); to add up (numbers)

Lagde du mærke til, at han slet ikke sagde farvel?

Did you notice that he didn't even say goodbye?

A natural exchange

— Hvor har du lagt mine briller? — Jeg lagde dem på bordet, men nu ligger de der ikke. — Nå, så lægger jeg mig bare og venter på, at de dukker op.

— Where did you put my glasses? — I put them on the table, but now they're not lying there. — Oh well, then I'll just lie down and wait for them to turn up.

Look at the three verbs in that exchange: lagde (transitive past — you actively put them down), ligger (intransitive present — where they now rest on their own), and lægger mig (reflexive — laying oneself down). All three meanings of this lesson, in one short conversation.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg lægger i sengen klokken elleve.

Incorrect — with no object you need intransitive ligge: jeg ligger i sengen.

✅ Jeg ligger i sengen klokken elleve.

I'm in bed at eleven o'clock.

❌ Hun ligger bogen på bordet.

Incorrect — there's an object (bogen), so you need transitive lægge.

✅ Hun lægger bogen på bordet.

She puts the book on the table.

❌ Jeg lå nøglerne på bordet.

Wrong past — lå is the past of intransitive ligge; for 'put' you need lagde.

✅ Jeg lagde nøglerne på bordet.

I put the keys on the table.

❌ Jeg vil ligge mig lidt.

Incorrect — 'lie down' is reflexive lægge sig, which takes an object (mig).

✅ Jeg vil lægge mig lidt.

I want to lie down for a bit.

❌ Har du lagde vasketøjet sammen?

Wrong form — the perfect uses the participle lagt, not the past lagde.

✅ Har du lagt vasketøjet sammen?

Have you folded the laundry?

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