Tale med means "to talk to / with someone" — and the little word that trips up every English speaker is the preposition. In English you talk to a person; in Danish you talk med them — med meaning "with". You converse with someone, which is, if you think about it, the more logical picture: talking is a two-way activity. There is a tale til, but it means something narrower and more one-directional ("to address, to speak to a crowd"), so reaching for it by reflex from English "talk to" usually misfires. The verb tale itself is a regular weak verb; the lesson here is the preposition and the family of close cousins.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) tale med | to talk to / with |
| Present | taler med | talk(s) to |
| Past | talte med | talked to |
| Past participle | talt med | talked to |
| Imperative | tal med! | talk to! |
Present: taler med
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | taler med | jeg taler med min chef |
| du | taler med | du taler med hende |
| han / hun | taler med | hun taler med lægen |
| vi | taler med | vi taler med naboerne |
| de | taler med | de taler med hinanden |
Jeg taler med min chef om det i morgen.
I'll talk to my boss about it tomorrow.
Hun taler med alle til festen — hun kender ingen, men det gør ikke noget.
She talks to everyone at the party — she knows no one, but it doesn't matter.
The big point: med, not til
To talk to a person, Danish uses tale med — "talk with". The English instinct is to translate "talk to" word for word as tale til, but that lands you in a different, narrower verb.
| Danish | Meaning | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| tale med (nogen) | talk to / converse with someone | two-way — a conversation |
| tale til (nogen) | address / speak to someone, a crowd | one-way — you speak, they listen |
Kan jeg lige tale med dig et øjeblik?
Can I just talk to you for a moment?
Borgmesteren talte til de mange fremmødte.
The mayor addressed the large crowd. (one-directional — tale til)
tale med … om … — talk to someone about something
The full frame strings two prepositions together: tale med the person om the topic. Om is the standard "about".
Du bør tale med din læge om de smerter.
You ought to talk to your doctor about that pain.
Vi talte med hinanden om alt muligt.
We talked with each other about all sorts of things.
tale med vs snakke med vs sige vs fortælle
Four common verbs cluster around "talking", and English speakers blur them. Keep them apart:
| Verb | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|
| tale med | converse with someone | neutral, slightly fuller |
| snakke med | chat with someone | more casual, everyday |
| sige | say (a thing, words) | neutral |
| fortælle | tell (someone a story/fact) | neutral |
Tale med and snakke med are near-synonyms; snakke is just more relaxed, the word you would use over coffee. Sige takes the words as its object ("say that"), and fortælle takes the listener and the content ("tell someone something"). You cannot "say someone" or "tale a story".
Jeg skal lige snakke med Mette, så ringer jeg.
I just need to have a chat with Mette, then I'll call.
Han sagde ikke noget, men han fortalte mig det senere.
He didn't say anything, but he told me later.
See snakke, sige and fortælle for each in depth.
tale a language — tale godt dansk
Without med, plain tale is the verb for speaking a language, and it is the natural one for "speak Danish/English well".
Hun taler godt dansk efter kun et år her.
She speaks good Danish after only a year here.
Taler du engelsk? — Ja, lidt.
Do you speak English? — Yes, a little.
Past: talte med
The past is talte med — tale is a -te verb, so the past has a t, not -ede.
Jeg talte med hende i telefonen i går aftes.
I talked to her on the phone last night.
Vi talte med læreren efter mødet.
We talked to the teacher after the meeting.
Present perfect: har talt med
The perfect uses the default auxiliary har plus the participle talt.
Har du talt med dem om ferien?
Have you talked to them about the holiday?
Jeg har ikke talt med min bror i flere uger.
I haven't talked to my brother in several weeks.
Imperative: tal med!
The imperative drops the -e: at tale → tal!
Tal med din vejleder, før du beslutter dig.
Talk to your supervisor before you decide.
Common collocations and fixed expressions
- tale med (nogen) — talk to / with (someone)
- tale med nogen om noget — talk to someone about something
- tale godt / flydende dansk — speak good / fluent Danish
- tale højt / lavt — speak loudly / quietly
- tale sammen — talk together, have a talk
- tale udenom — talk around the subject, dodge the question
Kan vi ikke lige tale sammen, inden du går?
Can't we just have a talk before you leave?
A natural exchange
— Har du talt med Lars om weekenden? — Nej, jeg har kun snakket med Maria. Jeg taler med ham i morgen. — Godt. Sig, at vi mødes klokken ti.
— Have you talked to Lars about the weekend? — No, I've only chatted with Maria. I'll talk to him tomorrow. — Good. Tell him we're meeting at ten.
All four verbs appear here: talt med (talked to), snakket med (chatted with), taler med (will talk to), and sig (tell/say) — a tidy map of the family.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg vil gerne tale til dig om noget.
Wrong preposition for a conversation — a two-way talk is tale med, not tale til.
✅ Jeg vil gerne tale med dig om noget.
I'd like to talk to you about something.
❌ Kan jeg snakke til dig et øjeblik?
Same error with snakke — chatting with someone is snakke med, not snakke til.
✅ Kan jeg snakke med dig et øjeblik?
Can I have a quick word with you?
❌ Jeg talede med ham i går.
Wrong past form — tale is a -te verb, so the past is talte, not talede.
✅ Jeg talte med ham i går.
I talked to him yesterday.
❌ Han talte mig en historie.
Wrong verb — you don't tale a story; you fortælle it: 'tell'.
✅ Han fortalte mig en historie.
He told me a story.
❌ Jeg har tale med hende.
Missing the participle ending — the perfect needs talt, not the bare stem.
✅ Jeg har talt med hende.
I've talked to her.
Now practice Danish
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- TaleA2 — Full reference for tale ('to speak / talk') — the model verb for the weak -te class — with principal parts, all core tenses, the key collocations tale med / tale om / tale dansk, and the everyday contrast with the more casual snakke.
- SnakkeA2 — Full reference for snakke — the everyday, colloquial Danish verb for talking and chatting, and how it differs from the more neutral tale.
- SigeA1 — Full reference for sige ('to say') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, its job as a reporting verb (han siger, at...), the idiom det vil sige, and how it differs from fortælle, tale and snakke.
- FortælleB1 — Full reference for fortælle ('to tell, to narrate') — principal parts with the mixed past fortalte, all core tenses in natural sentences, the listener-as-object pattern fortælle nogen noget, fortælle om, the noun en fortælling, and how fortælle differs from sige (say) and tale/snakke (speak/talk).
- Til and Fra: To and FromA1 — How til marks direction, possession, and many fixed phrases, how fra marks origin, and the motion-versus-position rule that separates til from i and på.
- Danish Verbs: An OverviewA1 — A big-picture map of the Danish verb system — no person agreement, one present and one past form per verb, compound perfects, the passive, and modals.