Lykkes | Danish Grammar

Lykkes means "to succeed" or "to manage to" — but it does not behave like any English verb you know. It is a deponent -s verb: it ends in -s in every form, has no active counterpart, and is almost always impersonal. You do not say "I succeeded"; you say Det lykkedes mig — literally "it succeeded for me." Once you see the pattern, lykkes becomes one of the most natural ways to say you pulled something off.

Principal parts

The defining feature is the permanent -s. There is no -r in the present and no -ede alone in the past — the -s is welded to the stem.

Infinitive	Present	Past	Past participle	Imperative
(at) lykkes	lykkes	lykkedes	er lykkedes	— (none)

There is no imperative — you cannot command something to succeed. And as always in Danish, there is no person or number agreement: the present is lykkes whatever the subject.

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A deponent verb has a passive shape (the -s ending) but an active meaning. Lykkes looks passive but means the plain active "succeed." Its perfect takes være: det er lykkedes — result-and-change verbs select være, as covered in the perfect-auxiliary rules.

The impersonal construction: det lykkedes mig at...

This is the heart of the verb. Danish does not put the successful person in the subject slot. Instead, the placeholder det ("it") is the grammatical subject, and the person appears as an object-like experiencer (mig, dig, ham, hende, os, jer, dem — or a noun). The thing you succeeded in doing follows as at + infinitive.

The frame is: Det + lykkes/lykkedes + [person] + at + infinitive.

Det lykkedes mig at finde billetter i sidste øjeblik.

I managed to find tickets at the last minute.

Det lykkedes os endelig at samle hele familien.

We finally managed to gather the whole family.

Det lykkedes ikke politiet at finde ham.

The police didn't manage to find him.

Notice that English makes the person the subject ("I managed," "the police didn't manage"), but Danish makes det the subject and demotes the person to mig, politiet, and so on. This experiencer slot behaves like an old dative — the person is the one for whom it succeeded. The det here is the anticipatory "it" explained in the anticipatory det.

Standing alone: Det lykkedes!

When there is no action to spell out, det lykkes / lykkedes stands by itself and means "it works / it worked."

Det lykkedes! Vi vandt sagen.

It worked! We won the case.

Prøv igen — måske lykkes det denne gang.

Try again — maybe it'll work this time.

A subject other than det

Lykkes can also take a real subject — a plan, an operation, an attempt — meaning that thing "turned out well / succeeded." This is less common than the det ... mig frame but perfectly natural.

Operationen lykkedes, og hun er nu på vej hjem.

The operation was a success, and she's now on her way home.

Kuppet lykkedes ikke.

The coup did not succeed.

Common collocations

det lykkes nogen at
- infinitive — someone manages to do
det lykkedes! — it worked! (informal celebration)
lykkes for nogen — work out for someone (Det lykkedes for hende.)
noget lykkes — something succeeds / turns out well (kagen lykkedes)
det lykkedes over al forventning — it succeeded beyond all expectation (set phrase)

Kagen lykkedes over al forventning.

The cake turned out beyond all expectation.

A family resemblance: the deponent -s verbs

Lykkes is not alone. Danish has a small set of deponent verbs that always end in -s and carry active meaning. Recognizing the group makes lykkes feel less strange.

Verb	Meaning	Note
lykkes	succeed	usually impersonal: det lykkes mig
mødes	meet (one another)	reciprocal
synes	think, find (opinion)	jeg synes...
findes	exist, be found	der findes...
mislykkes	fail	the antonym of lykkes

The shape comes from the Danish -s passive and middle, but the meaning has frozen as active. Its negative twin mislykkes ("fail") works the same impersonal way: Det mislykkedes for ham at overbevise dem.

Jeg synes virkelig, det lykkedes godt for jer.

I really think it worked out well for you all.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg lykkedes at finde et job.

Incorrect — lykkes is impersonal; the person can't be the subject.

✅ Det lykkedes mig at finde et job.

I managed to find a job.

❌ Det lykkede mig at vinde.

Incorrect — the verb keeps its -s in the past too: lykkedes.

✅ Det lykkedes mig at vinde.

I managed to win.

❌ Det har lykkedes mig at overtale hende.

Incorrect — a result/change verb takes være, not har.

✅ Det er lykkedes mig at overtale hende.

I've managed to persuade her.

❌ Det lykkedes mig finde nøglerne.

Incorrect — at is missing before the infinitive.

✅ Det lykkedes mig at finde nøglerne.

I managed to find the keys.

❌ Det lykkedes for jeg at gøre det.

Incorrect — the experiencer must be an object form: mig, not jeg.

✅ Det lykkedes mig at gøre det.

I managed to do it.

A short dialogue

— Fik du ordnet det? — Ja, det lykkedes til sidst.

— Did you get it sorted? — Yes, I managed in the end.

— Hvordan gik flytningen? — Det lykkedes os at få det hele med.

— How did the move go? — We managed to get everything moved.

Key takeaways

Lykkes is a deponent -s verb: lykkes / lykkedes / er lykkedes, perfect with være, no imperative.
It is normally impersonal: det lykkedes [person] at + infinitive — Det lykkedes mig at...
The person is an object form (mig, dig, os, dem or a noun), never the subject.
It belongs with mødes, synes, findes and its antonym mislykkes ("fail").

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