Reservere | Danish Grammar

Reservere means to reserve or to book — to have a table, a room, or a seat set aside and held for you. It is a loanword (you can hear the Latin-Romance root that English "reserve" shares), and it behaves as a tidy regular weak verb. The main thing to learn is the fine line between reservere and its close partner bestille, which often overlap but pull in slightly different directions.

Principal parts

Infinitive	Present	Past	Past participle	Imperative
(at) reservere	reserverer	reserverede	reserveret	reservér!

Reservere is a regular weak verb of the -ede / -et type. Watch the spelling: the stem already ends in -r, so the present tense piles a second -r on top — reserverer (with that double-r cluster), and the past is reserverede. Learners routinely write too few r's here, so slow down on this one.

Because reservere entered Danish as an international loanword, it carries a faintly more formal, transactional flavour than a homegrown verb would — it belongs to booking systems, hotel desks, and theatre box offices. That is worth feeling, because it explains why a Dane chatting casually about meeting friends for dinner is just as likely to reach for bestille bord as for reservere bord: the loanword sounds a touch more official, while bestille is the plain, everyday choice. Neither is wrong; the difference is one of texture, not grammar.

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As always in Danish, there is no subject agreement: jeg reserverer, vi reserverer, de reserverer are identical. Verb forms never change for person or number.

The core meaning: setting something aside

The essence of reservere is holding something back so it is available for you specifically — and not given to anyone else. That is what distinguishes it from simply ordering: a reservation is a promise that the table, room, or seat will be waiting.

English speakers have a built-in advantage with this verb, since "reserve" carries exactly the same idea — but be careful with the English noun "reservation." In English you "make a reservation"; in Danish you do not lave or gøre a reservation as the default phrasing. You simply reservere (the verb does the work), or you har en reservation (you have a reservation). The verb is the natural way in; the noun is secondary.

Jeg vil gerne reservere et bord til to personer.

I'd like to reserve a table for two people.

Vi reserverede et værelse med havudsigt.

We reserved a room with a sea view.

The present perfect: har reserveret

The perfect uses har plus the participle reserveret.

Jeg har reserveret pladserne online.

I've reserved the seats online.

Har I reserveret bord til i aften?

Have you reserved a table for tonight?

Reservere vs. bestille: the key distinction

This is the pairing that confuses learners, because for a restaurant table the two verbs are genuinely interchangeable: reservere bord and bestille bord both mean book a table, and a Dane would not blink at either.

The underlying difference is one of emphasis:

Reservere = to hold / set aside. The focus is that the thing is kept for you and not handed to someone else. It fits seats, rooms, and tables — anything that can be occupied.
Bestille = to order / request that it be supplied. The focus is on placing the request. It stretches further than reservere — to food, goods, and taxis, which you can't "set aside."

Jeg har reserveret bordet, men vi har ikke bestilt maden endnu.

I've reserved the table, but we haven't ordered the food yet.

That sentence shows the split perfectly: you reservere the table (hold it), then bestille the food (order it). You would never reservere a pizza, because a pizza isn't set aside — it's made and supplied to order.

It is also worth noticing what reservere does not mean. Unlike English "reserved," which can describe a shy, restrained personality ("she's quite reserved"), the Danish verb reservere stays firmly in the booking sense. To describe a withdrawn or reticent person, Danish reaches for entirely different words such as tilbageholdende or reserveret used purely as an adjective in that fixed sense — but you would not conjugate the verb to express it. So when you hear reservere as a verb, it is always about setting a physical thing aside, never about temperament.

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Rule of thumb: if you can occupy it (a table, a seat, a room), you can reservere it. If it has to be made, supplied, or delivered (food, a taxi, goods), you bestille it. For a restaurant table, both verbs work.

Useful collocations

Danish	English
reservere et bord	to reserve a table
reservere et værelse	to reserve a room
reservere en plads	to reserve a seat
en reservation	a reservation (the noun)
reserveret	reserved (as a sign on a table)

The noun is en reservation (a reservation), and the participle reserveret doubles as the little sign you see on a held table.

A short dialogue

— Goddag, jeg har reserveret et bord i navnet Sørensen.

— Hello, I've reserved a table under the name Sørensen.

— Et øjeblik … ja, her er det. Bordet ved vinduet er reserveret til jer.

— One moment … yes, here it is. The table by the window is reserved for you.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg reserverer maden på forhånd.

Misleading — you don't reserve food; food is ordered. Use bestille.

✅ Jeg bestiller maden på forhånd.

I'll order the food in advance.

❌ Vi reserverde et værelse.

Incorrect — the past is reserverede; don't drop the syllable.

✅ Vi reserverede et værelse.

We reserved a room.

❌ Jeg har reserveret en taxa.

Misleading — a taxi is summoned/ordered, not set aside. Use bestille.

✅ Jeg har bestilt en taxa.

I've ordered a taxi.

❌ Jeg reserver et bord til i aften.

Incorrect — the present tense needs the -r ending: reserverer.

✅ Jeg reserverer et bord til i aften.

I'm reserving a table for tonight.

Key takeaways

Reservere is a regular weak verb: reservere / reserverer / reserverede / reserveret — mind the double r.
It means to set aside / hold a table, room, or seat for you.
For a restaurant table, reservere bord = bestille bord (interchangeable).
Anything that must be made or delivered (food, taxi, goods) takes bestille, not reservere.

For ordering food once you're seated, see bestille and the shopping expressions page.

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