Stjæle means to steal, and it is one of the most transparent cognates a Danish strong verb can offer an English speaker: stjæle – stjal – stjålet maps almost one-to-one onto English steal – stole – stolen. The vowel journey is identical in shape — a front vowel in the infinitive, a low vowel in the past, and a rounded vowel in the participle — so if you can recite steal, stole, stolen, you already know the rhythm of the Danish forms. The only real work is the spelling of that rounded participle vowel: Danish writes it with å.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (at) stjæle | stjæler | stjal | stjålet | stjæl |
The perfect uses har: jeg har stjålet (I have stolen). Stealing is an action the subject performs, so there is never any question of være here.
Watch the three vowels: æ in the infinitive and present (stjæle, stjæler), plain a in the past (stjal), and å in the participle (stjålet). The cluster stj- stays put throughout; only the vowel after it moves.
Basic usage
Stjæle is transitive: it takes a direct object (the thing stolen). The present tense stjæler covers both the habitual steals and the progressive is stealing — Danish has no separate continuous form, so context alone tells you which English rendering fits.
Nogen har stjålet min cykel fra gården.
Someone has stolen my bike from the courtyard.
Han stjal en chokoladebar, da han var barn, og har skammet sig lige siden.
He stole a chocolate bar when he was a child and has been ashamed ever since.
Jeg ville aldrig stjæle fra en ven.
I would never steal from a friend.
Stjæle fra nogen — steal from someone
To say whom you steal from, Danish uses the preposition fra, exactly as English uses from. The thing stolen is the direct object; the victim follows fra.
De stjal en formue fra deres egne kunder.
They stole a fortune from their own customers.
Det er lavt at stjæle fra gamle mennesker.
It's despicable to steal from old people.
Stjæle sig til — sneak, steal a moment
The reflexive stjæle sig til means to sneak something or to steal a moment of something — to obtain it quietly, without permission or attention. English uses steal the same way (steal a glance, steal a kiss), so the metaphor will feel familiar. Note that the reflexive pronoun sig changes with the subject: jeg stjæler mig til, du stjæler dig til, han stjæler sig til.
Hun stjal sig til et øjebliks hvile, mens børnene sov.
She stole a moment's rest while the children were asleep.
Han stjal sig til et blik på sit ur under mødet.
He stole a glance at his watch during the meeting.
Vi stjal os til et par timer alene, mens svigerforældrene passede børnene.
We stole a couple of hours alone while the in-laws looked after the kids.
The participle as an adjective
Like its English counterpart stolen, the participle stjålet doubles as an adjective. As an attributive adjective before a noun it takes the form stjålne (definite/plural), exactly as adjectives normally inflect: de stjålne varer (the stolen goods), en stjålet bil (a stolen car). This matters when you describe the proceeds of a theft rather than the act.
Politiet fandt de stjålne varer i en garage uden for byen.
The police found the stolen goods in a garage outside town.
Han blev stoppet i en stjålet bil.
He was stopped in a stolen car.
The thief: en tyv
The agent noun is en tyv (a thief), plural tyve. It is unrelated in form to the verb — Danish does not say en stjæler for a thief — so it must be learned as a separate vocabulary item.
Politiet fangede tyven på fersk gerning.
The police caught the thief red-handed.
To tyve brød ind i butikken i nat.
Two thieves broke into the shop last night.
The fixed phrase på fersk gerning (in the act, red-handed) pairs naturally with this verb and is worth banking alongside it. Related vocabulary clusters around the same scene: et tyveri (a theft), at begå tyveri (to commit theft), and the heavier legal term at begå indbrud (to commit burglary). The thief's haul is tyvekosterne or simply byttet (the loot).
Han indrømmede tyveriet, men nægtede at have begået indbrud.
He admitted the theft but denied having committed burglary.
Common Mistakes
❌ Han stjælede pengene.
Incorrect — stjæle is strong; the past is stjal, never stjælede.
✅ Han stjal pengene.
He stole the money.
The single most common error: applying the regular -ede past to a strong verb. There is no stjælede. The past is stjal.
❌ Nogen har stjalet min telefon.
Incorrect — the participle is stjålet (å), not stjalet (a).
✅ Nogen har stjålet min telefon.
Someone has stolen my phone.
The past form is stjal with a, but the participle is stjålet with å. Learners who hear the past first often carry the a over into the participle by mistake. Keep them distinct: stjal (past), stjålet (participle).
❌ De stjal penge af deres kunder.
Incorrect preposition — steal from is stjæle fra, not stjæle af.
✅ De stjal penge fra deres kunder.
They stole money from their customers.
The victim is marked with fra. Using af here is a transfer error and sounds wrong to a native speaker.
❌ Politiet fangede stjæleren.
Incorrect — a thief is en tyv, not en stjæler.
✅ Politiet fangede tyven.
The police caught the thief.
There is no agent noun derived from the verb. The word for thief is the independent noun tyv.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: stjæle – stjal – stjålet, perfect with har. Vowels: æ, a, å.
- Near-perfect cognate of English steal – stole – stolen; use it as a memory hook.
- The å in stjålet is the spelling trap — the past stjal has a plain a.
- Steal from = stjæle fra; a thief = en tyv; sneak/steal a moment = stjæle sig til.
Now practice Danish
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