Række | Danish Grammar

Række is a mixed verb: it does not change its vowel the way a true strong verb does, but it does not take the ordinary -ede ending either. Instead it forms its past and participle with a -te / -t ending on a shortened stem — række → rakte → rakt. This puts it in the same class as verbs like følge → fulgte or sælge → solgte, where a dental ending replaces, rather than supplements, regular conjugation. The verb spans three senses that English keeps apart with three different words — pass/hand, reach/extend, and be enough — so the main challenge is learning which sense is active in a given sentence.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Present	Past	Past participle	Imperative
(at) række	rækker	rakte	rakt	ræk

The perfect uses har: jeg har rakt (I have passed / reached / sufficed). All three senses take har.

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Mixed verbs are the trap between weak and strong. Because række looks like a regular verb, learners write rækkede — but its past is rakte and its participle rakt. The stem loses its long vowel and adds a dental -t-, like the past of tælle → talte or vælge → valgte.

The imperative drops the final -e: ræk (pass / hand), as in Ræk mig saltet.

Sense 1: pass, hand

This is the most frequent everyday use. Række nogen noget = hand someone something. It takes two objects — the person and the thing — with no preposition, just like English pass me the salt.

Ræk mig saltet, tak.

Pass me the salt, please.

Hun rakte mig en kop kaffe uden et ord.

She handed me a cup of coffee without a word.

Kan du række mig fjernbetjeningen?

Can you pass me the remote?

Sense 2: reach, extend

Række also means to reach in the sense of extending your arm or body toward something — and, by extension, of physically reaching a height or distance. Closely tied to this is række hånden op, to raise one's hand.

Jeg kan ikke række op til den øverste hylde.

I can't reach up to the top shelf.

Hvis du vil sige noget, så ræk hånden op.

If you want to say something, raise your hand.

A common phrasal extension is række ud efter — to reach out for, both literally and figuratively. The figurative use — reaching out for help — has become as natural in Danish as in English, partly through translation, and is now thoroughly idiomatic.

Hun rakte ud efter telefonen, men den var allerede holdt op med at ringe.

She reached out for the phone, but it had already stopped ringing.

Mange unge tør ikke række ud efter hjælp.

Many young people don't dare to reach out for help.

There is also the related strække sig for stretch oneself / extend over a distance, but for handing things and raising your hand, række is the verb you want.

Sense 3: suffice, be enough

This is the sense that surprises English speakers most. Række can mean to last, to suffice, to be enough — said of a resource that has to stretch to cover a need. The subject is the resource (money, food, time), not a person. The underlying image is the same as the "reach" sense: a supply reaches far enough to cover the demand, or it falls short. Notice how naturally række til (reach as far as / be enough for) ties the two ideas together — the resource has to "reach" the goal.

Pengene rækker ikke til resten af måneden.

The money isn't enough to last the rest of the month.

Maden rakte lige akkurat til alle gæsterne.

The food was just barely enough for all the guests.

Min tålmodighed rækker ikke længere.

My patience doesn't stretch any further.

To pizzaer rækker ikke til ti mennesker.

Two pizzas aren't enough for ten people.

Række vs nå — two kinds of reaching

English reach hides two different ideas that Danish splits between række and nå:

Række = to extend yourself toward something, to stretch out an arm. The focus is the reaching motion. It also covers handing and sufficing.
Nå = to arrive at a point, to manage to do something in time, to attain a goal. The focus is the destination or completion.

Jeg kan ikke nå bussen, hvis jeg ikke løber nu.

I won't make the bus if I don't run now. (nå — manage in time)

Jeg kan ikke række op til loftet.

I can't reach up to the ceiling. (række — extend the body)

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Quick test: if you could swap in stretch out toward, use række. If you mean get there in time or manage to, use nå. "Reach the top of the mountain" (arrive) is nå toppen; "reach the top shelf" (stretch to it) is række op til hylden.

Common Mistakes

❌ Hun rækkede mig bogen.

Incorrect — række is a mixed verb; the past is rakte, not rækkede.

✅ Hun rakte mig bogen.

She handed me the book.

The regular -ede past does not apply. The stem shortens and takes -te: rakte, participle rakt.

❌ Jeg kan ikke nå op til den øverste hylde.

Off — for stretching the body upward, Danish prefers række.

✅ Jeg kan ikke række op til den øverste hylde.

I can't reach up to the top shelf.

When the idea is extending your arm, use række. Nå would suggest reaching it as a destination or managing it in time, which isn't the meaning here.

❌ Pengene når ikke til resten af måneden.

Incorrect — for a resource that has to last, use række, not nå.

✅ Pengene rækker ikke til resten af måneden.

The money won't last the rest of the month.

The suffice sense is carried only by række. Nå cannot mean be enough.

❌ Ræk hånden, hvis du har et spørgsmål.

Incomplete — the idiom needs the particle op.

✅ Ræk hånden op, hvis du har et spørgsmål.

Raise your hand if you have a question.

Raise one's hand is række hånden op, with the directional particle op. Without it, the phrase sounds unfinished.

Key Takeaways

Principal parts: række – rakte – rakt (mixed), perfect with har.
It is not regular — never rækkede. The stem shortens and takes a dental -te/-t.
Three senses: pass/hand, reach/extend (incl. række hånden op, række ud efter), and suffice/be enough.
Reach splits into række (stretch toward) vs nå (arrive at / manage in time).

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