Ringe | Danish Grammar

Ringe covers two related ideas: "to phone" someone (ringe til nogen) and "to ring" in the sense of a bell or a phone sounding (telefonen ringer). For English speakers the trap is the word "call" — in English you "call someone," and the instinct is to reach for the look-alike kalde. But kalde never means "phone." To telephone a person, Danish needs ringe til with the preposition til. Get that one collocation right and the rest of this verb is plain sailing, because ringe is a perfectly regular weak verb.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) ringe	to phone / to ring
Present	ringer	phone(s) / ring(s)
Past	ringede	phoned / rang
Past participle	ringet	phoned / rung
Imperative	ring!	phone! / call!

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Ringe is a regular weak verb of the -ede / -et type: past ringede, participle ringet. No vowel change, no auxiliary surprises. See the weak past with -ede for the wider class.

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No agreement: ringer is the whole present for every subject — jeg ringer, du ringer, hun ringer, vi ringer, de ringer — and ringede is the whole past. No -s for "she phones."

Present: ringer

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	ringer	jeg ringer til dig
du	ringer	du ringer for sent
han / hun	ringer	hun ringer tilbage
vi	ringer	vi ringer i morgen
de	ringer	de ringer på døren

Jeg ringer til dig, så snart jeg er færdig.

I'll call you as soon as I'm done.

Hun ringer aldrig, hun sender kun beskeder.

She never phones, she only sends messages.

The big point: ringe til, not kalde

To phone a person, you ringe til them — the preposition til is obligatory. Ringe without til means the bell/phone is ringing, not that you are calling someone. And kalde is a false friend: it means "to call/summon/name," never "to telephone."

Kan du ringe til lægen og bestille en tid?

Can you call the doctor and book an appointment?

Ring til mig, når du lander.

Call me when you land.

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"Call" splits three ways in Danish: ringe til = phone by telephone; kalde (på) = call out to / summon / name; råbe = shout/call loudly. So you ringer til a friend, you kalder på the waiter across the room, and you råber across the street. Only the first involves a phone. See kalde and ringe til.

Telefonen ringer — the phone rings

Without an object, ringe describes a phone, a doorbell or a school bell sounding. This is the "ring" sense.

Telefonen ringer — kan du tage den?

The phone's ringing — can you get it?

Det ringer ind til time om to minutter.

The bell for class goes in two minutes. (literally: it rings in)

A very common impersonal form is der ringer på ("someone's at the door / the doorbell's ringing"):

Der ringer på — venter du nogen?

There's someone at the door — are you expecting anyone?

Notice the difference between the two senses in practice: when ringe has no person attached to it with til, it almost always means something is sounding. So jeg ringer means "I'm calling (someone)" only because a til-phrase is understood; but det ringer on its own means "it's ringing." This is why beginners who drop the til end up saying the opposite of what they mean — jeg ringer dig sounds, to a Danish ear, less like "I'll phone you" and more like a half-finished sentence missing its preposition.

Vækkeuret ringede klokken seks, men jeg sov videre.

The alarm clock rang at six, but I went back to sleep.

Past: ringede

Jeg ringede til dig tre gange i går.

I called you three times yesterday.

Telefonen ringede midt om natten.

The phone rang in the middle of the night.

Present perfect: har ringet

The perfect uses the default auxiliary har plus the participle ringet.

Jeg har ringet til banken, men der var lukket.

I've called the bank, but they were closed.

Har du ringet tilbage til hende endnu?

Have you called her back yet?

Past perfect: havde ringet

Hun havde allerede ringet efter en taxa, da jeg kom ned.

She had already called a taxi by the time I came down.

Imperative: ring!

Ring lige op til kontoret og hør, om de har åbent.

Just call the office and ask whether they're open.

Particle verbs with ringe

ringe op — to phone up, give a ring (often slightly more emphatic than plain ringe til)
ringe tilbage — to call back, return a call
ringe efter — to call for (a taxi, an ambulance)

Jeg ringer dig op i aften, så aftaler vi det.

I'll give you a ring tonight and we'll sort it out.

Common collocations and fixed expressions

ringe til (nogen) — to phone (someone)
ringe op — to call up, give a ring
ringe tilbage — to call back
ringe efter — to call for (a taxi, an ambulance)
der ringer på (døren) — there's someone at the door

Skynd dig at ringe efter en ambulance!

Quick, call for an ambulance!

A natural exchange

— Har du ringet til tandlægen? — Nej, jeg ringede, men der var optaget. Jeg ringer tilbage senere. — Okay — der ringer på, det er nok pakken.

— Have you called the dentist? — No, I called, but it was busy. I'll call back later. — Okay — there's someone at the door, it's probably the parcel.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg kalder dig i aften.

False friend — kalde never means 'phone'. To telephone someone, use ringe til.

✅ Jeg ringer til dig i aften.

I'll call you tonight.

❌ Jeg ringer dig i morgen.

Missing the preposition — phoning a person needs til: ringe til dig.

✅ Jeg ringer til dig i morgen.

I'll call you tomorrow.

❌ Telefonen ringte hele natten.

Incorrect — ringe is a -ede verb; the past is ringede, not ringte.

✅ Telefonen ringede hele natten.

The phone rang all night.

❌ Har du ring til hende?

Wrong form — the perfect needs the participle ringet, not the imperative ring.

✅ Har du ringet til hende?

Have you called her?

❌ Ringe til mig senere.

Wrong command form — the imperative drops the -e: ring.

✅ Ring til mig senere.

Call me later.

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