Tage fat ('to take hold, to get to grips, to get started') pairs the highly irregular strong verb tage with the particle fat. Like holde fast, it lives in two worlds: a physical sense (grab and hold something) and a figurative sense (roll up your sleeves and begin a task). The preposition tells the two apart, and a missing or wrong preposition is the classic learner slip.
Principal parts
Tage is one of Danish's most irregular verbs — its past tog and participle taget are not predictable from the stem. The particle fat stays attached through every tense.
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) tage fat | to take hold / get started |
| Present | tager fat | take(s) hold |
| Past | tog fat | took hold |
| Past participle | taget fat | taken hold |
| Present perfect | har taget fat | have taken hold |
| Imperative | tag fat | get started! / grab hold! |
The perfect auxiliary is har: tage fat is an activity you perform, not a change of location or state, so it never takes er. You say jeg har taget fat på opgaven ('I've started on the task'), never jeg er taget fat. The form jeg er taget does exist — but that belongs to plain tage in its motion sense (jeg er taget til København, 'I've gone to Copenhagen'), and it has nothing to do with tage fat.
Tage fat i — grab hold of
With i, tage fat means to seize something physically and hold it. The thing seized is the object of i.
Han tog fat i hammeren og begyndte at slå.
He grabbed the hammer and started hammering.
Tag fat i den anden ende af bordet — vi løfter på tre.
Grab the other end of the table — we lift on three.
Hun tog fat i mit ærme for at få min opmærksomhed.
She grabbed my sleeve to get my attention.
Tage fat på — get started on
With på, the verb turns figurative: you begin working on a task, a project, or a problem. This is the everyday way Danes talk about getting down to work. The task is the object of på.
Vi må tage fat på arbejdet, hvis vi skal blive færdige inden jul.
We have to get started on the work if we're going to finish before Christmas.
Hun tog fat på rapporten med det samme.
She got started on the report right away.
Det er på tide, at politikerne tager fat på problemet.
It's about time the politicians got to grips with the problem.
Tage fat om — grip around
With om, tage fat means to grip around something — wrapping your hand or arms around it. It is more specific than i and emphasises encircling the object.
Tag ordentligt fat om skaftet, ellers glider øksen.
Get a proper grip around the handle, or the axe will slip.
Han tog fat om hendes hænder og trøstede hende.
He took hold of her hands and comforted her.
Tage fat vs. gå i gang med
Both tage fat på and gå i gang med translate as 'get started on'. They overlap heavily, but there is a shade of difference. Tage fat på foregrounds the physical, energetic act of grabbing the task — rolling up your sleeves — and often carries a sense of effort or determination. Gå i gang med is more neutral: it simply states that the activity has begun, without the muscular connotation. Both are everyday and interchangeable in most contexts; tage fat just sounds a touch more hands-on.
Lad os tage fat på det — vi har spildt nok tid.
Let's get stuck into it — we've wasted enough time.
Hun gik bare stille i gang med opgaven.
She just quietly got started on the task.
A note on word order with the particle
Fat is a verb particle, and in the present and past it sits directly after the verb — tager fat, tog fat. But Danish word order can pull other elements in between or around it. Short unstressed adverbs like jo, da, bare, and ordentligt typically land between the verb and the particle: Tag nu fat! ('Come on, get going!'), Tag ordentligt fat ('Get a proper grip'). In a subordinate clause the verb and particle still travel together after the subject: …fordi vi tog fat på det med det samme ('…because we got started on it right away'). English has the same flexibility with phrasal verbs ("pick the box up" vs "pick up the box"), so the instinct transfers — but the set of words that can intervene is smaller in Danish, mostly the light sentence adverbs.
Common mistakes
❌ Vi må tage fat i arbejdet.
Incorrect — starting a task takes 'på', not 'i'.
✅ Vi må tage fat på arbejdet.
We have to get started on the work.
❌ Tag fat på rebet og træk!
Incorrect — physically grabbing an object takes 'i' (or 'om'), not 'på'.
✅ Tag fat i rebet og træk!
Grab the rope and pull!
❌ Han tagede fat på opgaven.
Incorrect — 'tage' is strong; the past is 'tog', not 'tagede'.
✅ Han tog fat på opgaven.
He got started on the task.
❌ Jeg er taget fat på projektet.
Incorrect — 'tage fat' takes 'har', not 'er'.
✅ Jeg har taget fat på projektet.
I've started on the project.
❌ Vi går i gang arbejdet i morgen.
Incorrect — 'gå i gang' needs the preposition 'med' before the task.
✅ Vi går i gang med arbejdet i morgen.
We'll get started on the work tomorrow.
Key takeaways
- Principal parts: tage fat – tager fat – tog fat – har taget fat; tage is strongly irregular, so the past is tog, never tagede.
- Auxiliary is har (an activity, not a change of state); er taget belongs to plain tage in motion, not to tage fat.
- i = grab an object; om = grip around it; på = get started on a task.
- Tage fat på ≈ gå i gang med, but more hands-on; gå i gang needs med before its object.
Related Topics
- TageA2 — Full reference for the strong verb tage ('to take'), the silent -g, and its central role in talking about transport.
- Gå i gangB2 — Full reference for the fixed phrasal gå i gang (med) ('to get started, begin') — principal parts of gå, why the perfect takes være, the transitive twin sætte i gang, and how it differs from begynde and starte.
- Phrasal Verbs and ParticlesB1 — Danish verb + particle combinations, the stress rule that distinguishes a separable phrasal verb from a verb + preposition, and the most common particles and their meanings.