Skrive | Danish Grammar

Skrive ("to write") is one of the first verbs you will need — to write a name, a text message, an email, a shopping list. It is also the anchor verb for an entire class of strong verbs: the i–e–e group, where the present has an i, the past has an e (here written skrev), and the participle has an e (skrevet). Learn skrive well and you get a handful of other common verbs almost for free, because they bend in exactly the same way.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) skrive	to write
Present	skriver	write(s)
Past	skrev	wrote
Past participle	skrevet	written
Imperative	skriv!	write!

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Skrive is a strong verb: the past is not formed by adding an ending but by changing the vowel — skriv-er (present i) becomes skrev (past e). Compare English "write / wrote / written," which works the same way. The cardinal beginner error is to regularise it to *skrivede; there is no such form.

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No agreement, as always in Danish: skriver is the whole present for every subject — jeg skriver, du skriver, han skriver, vi skriver, de skriver — and skrev is the whole past. You never add a person ending the way English adds -s in "she writes."

Present: skriver

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	skriver	jeg skriver en sms
du	skriver	du skriver pænt
han / hun	skriver	hun skriver en bog
vi	skriver	vi skriver til hinanden
de	skriver	de skriver under nu

Jeg skriver lige en besked til min mor.

I'm just writing a message to my mum.

Hvordan skriver man dit navn?

How do you spell your name? (literally: how does one write your name?)

Note the last example: Danish often uses skrive where English would say "spell." To write a word and to spell it are the same act — Hvordan skriver man det? means "How is that spelled?"

Past: skrev

The past skrev has the single bare e vowel and no ending at all — not *skrevede, not *skrivde. Just skrev.

Jeg skrev til hende i går, men hun har ikke svaret.

I wrote to her yesterday, but she hasn't replied.

H.C. Andersen skrev mange eventyr.

Hans Christian Andersen wrote many fairy tales.

Present perfect: har skrevet

The perfect uses the default auxiliary har plus the participle skrevet (see the perfect overview).

Jeg har skrevet tre ansøgninger i denne uge.

I've written three applications this week.

Har du skrevet under på kontrakten endnu?

Have you signed the contract yet?

Past perfect: havde skrevet

Hun havde allerede skrevet adressen ned, før jeg nåede at sige den.

She had already written the address down before I even managed to say it.

The i–e–e class: skrive and its series-mates

This is the real payoff of learning skrive. A whole group of strong verbs shares the exact same vowel pattern: i in the present, e in the past, e in the participle. Once skrev / skrevet feels automatic, these all fall into place.

Infinitive	Present	Past	Participle	Meaning
skrive	skriver	skrev	skrevet	to write
blive	bliver	blev	blevet	to become / stay
bide	bider	bed	bidt	to bite
ride	rider	red	redet	to ride (a horse)
gribe	griber	greb	grebet	to grab / catch
stige	stiger	steg	steget	to rise / climb
drive	driver	drev	drevet	to drive / run (a business)

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The past vowel is identical across the whole class — skrev, blev, bed, red, greb, steg, drev — but the participle ending is not. Skrive, blive, drive take -et (skrevet, blevet, drevet), while bide, gribe, stige split into -t or -et (bidt, grebet, steget). Learn the participle alongside the verb rather than predicting it.

The most important of these to recognise early is blive ("to become / stay"), one of the most frequent verbs in the language. Seeing that blev is built like skrev makes it far less mysterious. For the bigger picture, see the strong-past overview.

Particle verbs with skrive

Skrive combines with small particles to make very common everyday verbs. The particle carries the stress.

Kan du skrive nummeret ned for mig?

Can you write the number down for me?

Du skal skrive under nederst på siden.

You have to sign at the bottom of the page.

Note that skrive under ("to sign") literally means "write under" — under the line, under the text. And skrive sig op is the standard way to say "to sign up / put your name on a list":

Jeg har skrevet mig op til kurset.

I've signed up for the course.

Common collocations and fixed expressions

skrive ned — to write down, note down
skrive under — to sign (a document)
skrive sig op — to sign up, put one's name down
skrive ud — to print out
skrive sammen / skrive med en — to be in (written) contact, message back and forth

Vi skriver sammen næsten hver dag på beskeder.

We message each other almost every day.

A natural exchange

— Har du skrevet under på lejekontrakten? — Ikke endnu, jeg skriver lige nogle spørgsmål ned først. — Husk at skrive dig op til ventelisten i samme omgang.

— Have you signed the rental contract? — Not yet, I'm just writing down a few questions first. — Remember to put your name on the waiting list while you're at it.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg skrivede et brev i går.

Incorrect — skrive is strong; the past is skrev, never a regular -ede form.

✅ Jeg skrev et brev i går.

I wrote a letter yesterday.

❌ Hun har skrev en bog.

Wrong — the perfect needs the participle skrevet, not the past skrev.

✅ Hun har skrevet en bog.

She has written a book.

❌ Skrive dit navn her.

Wrong form for a command — the imperative drops the -e: skriv.

✅ Skriv dit navn her.

Write your name here.

❌ Hun skrivers hurtigt.

Incorrect — there is no person ending; the present is just skriver for every subject.

✅ Hun skriver hurtigt.

She writes fast.

❌ Jeg har skrevede under.

Double error — never an -ede form, and the participle is skrevet.

✅ Jeg har skrevet under.

I've signed.

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