Lægge sig | Danish Grammar

Lægge sig is the reflexive verb for lying down — the action of going from upright or seated to horizontal. It is how Danes actually say "lie down" in everyday speech, far more often than any form of ligge. It belongs to the same family as Rejse sig (stand up) and sætte sig (sit down): you perform the action on yourself, so the verb takes a reflexive pronoun that agrees with the subject. The two traps are the silent-d past lagde and — the big one — never confusing the action (lægge sig, "lie down") with the state (ligge, "be lying").

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) lægge sig	to lie down
Present	lægger sig	lie(s) down
Past	lagde sig	lay down
Past participle	lagt sig	lain down
Imperative	læg dig!	lie down!

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The verb is fixed; the reflexive pronoun agrees. The present is lægger and the past lagde for every subject — Danish verbs never inflect for person or number. What changes is the reflexive pronoun: jeg lægger *mig, du lægger dig, han/hun lægger sig, vi lægger os, I lægger jer, de lægger sig*.

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The past lagde is pronounced as if it were "la-e" — the -d- is completely silent. It is one of Danish's classic spelling traps: write the d, but do not say it. The participle lagt, by contrast, has a clearly audible -gt.

Here is the pronoun agreement laid out, since that is the only thing that moves:

Subject	Reflexive	Present
jeg	mig	jeg lægger mig
du	dig	du lægger dig
han / hun	sig	hun lægger sig
vi	os	vi lægger os
I	jer	I lægger jer
de	sig	de lægger sig

Present: lægger sig

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.

Hunden lægger sig altid foran brændeovnen.

The dog always lies down in front of the wood stove.

Past: lagde sig

Remember: silent d. The form is lagde sig, said roughly "la-e sig."

Hun lagde sig tidligt, fordi hun skulle tidligt op.

She went to bed early because she had to get up early.

Børnene lagde sig uden at brokke sig — et lille mirakel.

The kids lay down without complaining — a small miracle.

Present perfect: har lagt sig

The perfect uses har plus the participle lagt, with the reflexive pronoun still agreeing with the subject. Even though lying down is a change of your own position, lægge sig takes har — the reflexive object makes it pattern like a transitive verb, and er is reserved for objectless intransitive motion verbs.

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

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

Jeg har lagt mig en time, men jeg kunne ikke sove.

I lay down for an hour, but I couldn't sleep.

The imperative: læg dig!

The imperative keeps the reflexive and matches the person addressed — dig for one, jer for several. The particle ned ("down") is often added for emphasis.

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

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

The action vs the state: lægge sig vs ligge

This is the heart of the page, and the error English speakers make most. Danish draws a hard line:

lægge sig — the action of lying down. You move into a horizontal position. Reflexive, takes sig. Forms: lægger sig, lagde sig, lagt sig.
ligge — the state of being lying down (or of something being located). No movement, no reflexive. Forms: ligger, lå, ligget.

English "lie" blurs the two — "I'm going to lie down" (action) and "the book is lying there" (state) share one verb. Danish never does. If you are changing position, you need lægge sig; if you are already horizontal and staying put, you need ligge.

Jeg lægger mig på sofaen, og så ligger jeg der hele eftermiddagen.

I lie down on the couch, and then I lie there all afternoon.

That sentence is the whole distinction in miniature: lægger mig is the move onto the couch (action), ligger is staying there (state).

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A reliable test: can you add "down" in English — "lie down," a movement? Then it is the action, lægge sig. If nothing moves — the thing simply rests somewhere — it is the state, ligge. Jeg lægger mig = "I lie down (now)"; jeg ligger = "I'm lying (already)." The intransitive state verb has its own page at Ligge.

Watch out, too, for the third relative: transitive lægge (no sig) means "to lay an object down" — jeg lægger bogen på bordet ("I put the book on the table"). Same verb, but the object is something else, not yourself. With sig the object is you, and the meaning is "lie down."

The posture-change trio

Lægge sig completes the set of three reflexive posture-change verbs. They pattern identically and are worth learning together:

From / to	Verb	Past	Resulting state (no sig)
→ seated	sætte sig	satte sig	sidde (be seated)
→ upright	rejse sig	rejste sig	stå (be standing)
→ lying	lægge sig	lagde sig	ligge (be lying)

Hun rejste sig fra stolen, gik ind i soveværelset og lagde sig.

She got up from the chair, went into the bedroom, and lay down.

The reflexive sig is the common thread: in all three, you do the action to yourself. The pattern behind the whole set is covered at Reflexive verbs, and the pronoun itself at reflexive sig.

Common collocations

lægge sig (ned) — to lie down
lægge sig til at sove — to lie down to sleep / go to bed
lægge sig på sofaen / i sengen — to lie down on the couch / in bed
lægge sig syg — to take to one's bed (with illness)
det lægger sig (figurative) — it settles down / dies down (wind, dust, excitement)

Vinden lagde sig, og havet blev helt stille.

The wind died down, and the sea grew completely calm.

That last one is a lovely idiomatic extension: lægge sig applied to wind, noise, or commotion means it settles / subsides — the world "lies down."

A natural exchange

— Hvor er far? — Han lagde sig lige; han havde hovedpine. — Nå. Så lægger jeg mig også lidt, hvis han alligevel ligger ned.

— Where's Dad? — He just lay down; he had a headache. — Oh. Then I'll lie down a bit too, since he's lying down anyway.

The exchange holds all three forms: lagde sig (action, past), lægger mig (action, present), and ligger ned (state — he is already lying down). Mix the action and the state and the meaning quietly breaks.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg ligger mig på sofaen.

Incorrect — for the action 'lie down' you need lægge sig; ligge is the state, with no sig.

✅ Jeg lægger mig på sofaen.

I'm lying down on the couch.

❌ Jeg lægger på sofaen.

Missing reflexive — without sig this means 'I'm laying [something] on the couch.' Add mig.

✅ Jeg lægger mig på sofaen.

I'm lying down on the couch.

❌ Hun lægger mig tidligt om aftenen.

Wrong pronoun — the subject is hun, so the reflexive is sig: hun lægger sig.

✅ Hun lægger sig tidligt om aftenen.

She goes to bed early in the evening.

❌ Børnene har lagde sig.

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

✅ Børnene har lagt sig.

The kids have gone to bed.

❌ Vi lægger sig nu.

Wrong pronoun — vi takes os, not sig: vi lægger os.

✅ Vi lægger os nu.

We're lying down now.

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