Tage med | Danish Grammar

Tage med is the everyday Danish verb for bringing something along or coming along yourself. English keeps bring, take and come along as separate words; Danish folds the whole idea into the strong verb tage (take) plus the particle med (with / along). Getting comfortable with tage med — and with its close relative have med — is one of the quickest ways to sound natural at the A2 level.

Principal parts

Tage med is built on the strong verb tage. Only the verb conjugates; med is fixed.

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) tage med	to bring along / come along
Present	tager med	bring(s) / come(s) along
Past	tog med	brought / came along
Past participle	taget med	brought / come along
Imperative	Tag den med!	Bring it along!

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Danish verbs never inflect for person or number. Jeg tager med, du tager med, vi tager med all use the same present form, and the past is tog for every subject.

Two senses: bring a thing, come along yourself

Tage med works in two related ways depending on whether there is an object:

With an object — bring something along: Jeg tager en kage med (I'll bring a cake).
Without an object — come along yourself: Vil du med? / Jeg tager med (Do you want to come? / I'll come along).

When an object is present, it usually slips in between tager and med: tager en kage med, tager bilen med. When there is no object, the verb and particle sit together. The bare question Vil du med? (literally Will you with?) is so common that the verb tage is often dropped entirely — Danish lets the particle carry the meaning.

Jeg tager en flaske vin med til festen.

I'll bring a bottle of wine to the party.

Vil du med i biografen i aften?

Do you want to come along to the cinema tonight?

Tag paraplyen med — det ser ud til at regne.

Bring the umbrella — it looks like rain.

Present tense

Jeg tager altid en madpakke med på arbejde.

I always bring a packed lunch to work.

Hvis I går i parken, tager vi gerne med.

If you go to the park, we'd be happy to come along.

Past tense

The past is tog (strong verb), with med unchanged.

Hun tog børnene med på museet i søndags.

She brought the kids along to the museum on Sunday.

Vi tog ikke nok mad med, så vi blev hurtigt sultne.

We didn't bring enough food, so we got hungry fast.

Present perfect

The perfect uses har plus the participle taget, with med intact.

Har du taget din oplader med?

Have you brought your charger?

De har taget hunden med, så vi kan gå en tur bagefter.

They've brought the dog along, so we can go for a walk afterwards.

Tage med vs. bringe vs. have med

This is where English speakers most often go wrong.

tage med — the everyday bring along. It implies movement: you carry it (or yourself) to where the action is.
bringe — also bring, but markedly more formal and bookish. In daily speech it sounds stiff. It survives mostly in fixed or elevated phrases: bringe nyheder (bring news), avisen bringer en artikel (the paper carries an article). For bring a cake to the party, tage med is the natural choice.
have med — have something with you. This describes possession in the moment, not the act of fetching it: Jeg har min paraply med (I've got my umbrella with me). Compare with tage med, which is about deciding to bring it.

See tage for the base verb across all its senses, and komme for come when the focus is arrival rather than tagging along.

Jeg tog kameraet med, så nu har jeg det med på turen.

I brought the camera, so now I have it with me on the trip.

Jeg har ikke mine nøgler med — jeg glemte at tage dem med.

I don't have my keys with me — I forgot to bring them.

Common collocations

tage … med — bring along: tage en gave med
Vil du med? — Do you want to come?
tage nogen med — bring someone along: tag din kæreste med
have … med — have something with you: har du pengene med?
komme med — come along (focus on joining): må jeg komme med?

Du må gerne tage en ven med til middagen.

You're welcome to bring a friend to dinner.

Mini-dialogue

— Vi tager til stranden nu. Vil du med? — Ja tak! Skal jeg tage noget med? — Tag bare et håndklæde med — vi har allerede mad med.

— We're heading to the beach now. Do you want to come? — Yes please! Should I bring anything? — Just bring a towel — we've already got food with us.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg bringer en kage til festen.

Incorrect (unnatural) — bringe sounds stiff here; everyday Danish uses tage med.

✅ Jeg tager en kage med til festen.

Correct — tage med is the natural everyday 'bring'.

❌ Jeg tager med en kage.

Incorrect — the object should sit between the verb and the particle.

✅ Jeg tager en kage med.

Correct — object before med: tager en kage med.

❌ Har du taget dine nøgler? — meaning 'do you have them on you?'

Incorrect — without med this asks whether you took/picked up the keys, not whether you have them with you.

✅ Har du dine nøgler med?

Correct — have med expresses having something with you.

❌ Vil du komme med os til stranden? — overusing komme.

Incorrect (awkward) — for 'want to come along' the idiomatic phrase is Vil du med?

✅ Vil du med til stranden?

Correct — Vil du med? is the natural invitation.

Key takeaways

tage med = everyday bring along (with object) or come along (without). Conjugate only tage (tager / tog / taget); med is fixed.
Put the object between the verb and the particle: tage en kage med.
Vil du med? is the standard invitation — the verb is often dropped.
Use have med for having something with you, and avoid the stiff bringe in casual speech.

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