Møde | Danish Grammar

Møde means "to meet," and it comes in two grammatical shapes that English collapses into one. There is transitive møde — jeg mødte en gammel ven ("I met an old friend"), where one person meets another — and there is the reciprocal mødes — vi mødes klokken otte ("we're meeting at eight"), where two or more people come together by mutual arrangement. English uses "meet" for both ("I met him" / "we meet at eight"); Danish marks the mutual sense with an -s ending. Choosing møde when you need mødes is the signature learner error, and it changes the meaning, so this page leads you through it.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Present	Past (datid)	Past participle
(at) møde	møder	mødte	(har) mødt

Møde is a regular weak verb of the -te class: the past adds -te to the stem (mød- → mødte) and the participle ends in -t (mødt). Keep the ø in every form — it is møde, never moede.

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No agreement, ever: jeg møder, du møder, han møder, vi møder, de møder. One present form (møder) and one past form (mødte) serve every subject.

Møde across the tenses

Present — møder (transitive: meet someone):

Jeg møder tit min nabo nede i supermarkedet.

I often run into my neighbour down at the supermarket.

Past — mødte:

Vi mødte hinanden på en festival for ti år siden.

We met each other at a festival ten years ago.

Present perfect — har + the participle mødt:

Har du nogensinde mødt en berømt person?

Have you ever met a famous person?

Imperative — mød! (often with a particle, e.g. mød op):

Mød op i god tid, så vi kan nå toget.

Show up in good time so we can catch the train.

The reciprocal: mødes ("meet each other")

When the meeting is mutual — two or more people coming together, usually by plan — Danish adds -s to make mødes. The -s here is reciprocal: it bakes "each other" into the verb, so you do not add hinanden. This is the form you want for arrangements: when and where shall we meet?

Skal vi mødes ved indgangen klokken syv?

Shall we meet at the entrance at seven?

Vi mødes hver onsdag og spiller fodbold.

We meet every Wednesday and play football.

The -s forms follow their own small paradigm: present mødes, past mødtes, participle mødtes (perfect har mødtes).

De mødtes på universitetet og blev gift to år senere.

They met at university and got married two years later.

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Two ways to say the mutual meeting, both correct: vi mødes (the -s reciprocal) or vi møder hinanden (active verb + "each other"). What you cannot do is drop both — bare vi møder with no object is incomplete, because transitive møde demands someone to meet.

This -s is the same ending family as the passive -s, but here it is reciprocal, not passive: vi mødes doesn't mean "we are met," it means "we meet (each other)." A handful of common verbs work this way — vi ses ("see you / we'll see each other"), vi skændes ("we argue"), de slås ("they fight").

Particles: møde op and møde ind

Møde combines with particles to talk about turning up:

Expression	Meaning
møde op	show up, turn up, attend
møde ind	arrive at work, clock in
møde frem	appear, present oneself (more formal)
møde nogen	meet / run into someone
mødes med nogen	meet up with someone (by arrangement)

Jeg møder ind klokken otte hver morgen.

I start work at eight every morning.

Der mødte næsten hundrede mennesker op til demonstrationen.

Almost a hundred people turned up for the demonstration.

A short dialogue

– Hvornår mødes vi i morgen? – Lad os mødes foran biografen klokken halv otte. – Fint, så møder jeg dig der.

– When are we meeting tomorrow? – Let's meet in front of the cinema at half past seven. – Great, then I'll meet you there.

The exchange shows both shapes side by side: mødes vi / lad os mødes (the reciprocal — we come together) and jeg møder dig (transitive — I meet you, a specific person, as the object).

Common mistakes

❌ Vi møder klokken otte.

Wrong: transitive møde needs an object. Without one, use the reciprocal mødes for 'we meet.'

✅ Vi mødes klokken otte.

Correct: vi mødes = 'we meet (each other).'

❌ Vi mødes hinanden i parken.

Wrong: mødes already means 'meet each other,' so adding hinanden is redundant.

✅ Vi mødes i parken. / Vi møder hinanden i parken.

Correct: pick one — the -s form, or the active verb with hinanden.

❌ Jeg har møde ham før.

Wrong participle: the past participle is mødt, not 'møde.'

✅ Jeg har mødt ham før.

Correct: har mødt = 'have met.'

❌ Hvornår møder vi i morgen?

Wrong: for a planned mutual meeting use the reciprocal in the question too.

✅ Hvornår mødes vi i morgen?

Correct: hvornår mødes vi? = 'when are we meeting?'

Key takeaways

Møde (transitive) = meet someone; it needs an object: jeg møder dig.
Mødes (-s reciprocal) = meet each other; use it for arrangements: vi mødes klokken otte. Don't add hinanden to it.
Forms: møder – mødte – har mødt; the reciprocal runs mødes – mødtes – har mødtes.
Particles: møde op (show up), møde ind (start work), mødes med nogen (meet up with someone).

For the broader family of -s verbs, see the passive and -s forms; for other verbs that take sig, see reflexive verbs.

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