Tilbyde ("to offer") is a strong verb built on the byde family — tilbyde → tilbød → tilbudt — the same y–ø ablaut as byde / bød / budt and skyde / skød / skudt. It is a prefixed verb: the particle til- ("to/towards") fused onto the old verb byde ("to bid, offer, command"), and because that core is strong, the whole compound is strong too. Whenever a Danish verb ends in a strong base like -byde, -give or -tage, expect it to inflect like that base.
Principal parts
| Form | Danish | English |
|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | (at) tilbyde | to offer |
| Present | tilbyder | offer(s) |
| Past | tilbød | offered |
| Past participle | tilbudt | offered |
| Imperative | tilbyd! | offer! |
Present: tilbyder
| Subject | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| jeg | tilbyder | jeg tilbyder dig en kop kaffe |
| du | tilbyder | du tilbyder altid din hjælp |
| han / hun | tilbyder | firmaet tilbyder gratis fragt |
| vi | tilbyder | vi tilbyder en bedre løsning |
| de | tilbyder | de tilbyder kurser hele året |
Må jeg tilbyde dig noget at drikke?
May I offer you something to drink?
Butikken tilbyder gratis fragt på alle ordrer i denne uge.
The shop is offering free shipping on all orders this week.
Past: tilbød
De tilbød mig jobbet allerede dagen efter samtalen.
They offered me the job the very day after the interview.
Hun tilbød at køre os hele vejen til lufthavnen.
She offered to drive us all the way to the airport.
Present perfect: har tilbudt
The perfect is har tilbudt — tilbyde is transitive and agentive, so it takes har, never være.
De har tilbudt os en god pris, hvis vi køber to.
They've offered us a good price if we buy two.
Jeg har allerede tilbudt min hjælp flere gange.
I've already offered my help several times.
Imperative: tilbyd!
Tilbyd dem en rabat, så siger de ja.
Offer them a discount and they'll say yes.
Sentence patterns and collocations
Tilbyde takes a double object very naturally — a recipient and a thing — and also combines with an infinitive:
- tilbyde nogen noget — to offer someone something (tilbyde gæsterne kaffe)
- tilbyde at
- infinitive — to offer to do something (tilbyde at hjælpe)
- tilbyde sig — to offer one's services, volunteer (slightly formal)
Værten tilbød gæsterne kaffe og hjemmebagt kage.
The host offered the guests coffee and homemade cake.
Han tilbød at tage opvasken, så jeg kunne hvile mig.
He offered to do the dishes so I could rest.
The noun: et tilbud
The related noun et tilbud is everywhere in commercial Danish, and it has two senses English splits:
- et tilbud — an offer / a proposal (et godt tilbud, afgive et tilbud = submit a tender/bid).
- på tilbud — on sale, on special offer (in a shop). Kaffen er på tilbud i denne uge.
Jordbærrene er på tilbud — tre bakker for tyve kroner.
The strawberries are on special offer — three punnets for twenty kroner.
Vi fik et rigtig godt tilbud på den brugte bil.
We got a really good offer on the used car.
tilbyde vs byde vs foreslå
Three verbs sit near "offer / suggest," and B2 learners need the lines drawn:
- tilbyde = to offer something concrete to someone — help, a price, a job, a drink.
- byde (strong: byder / bød / budt) is the broader, older verb: it covers bidding at an auction (byde på huset), inviting or treating (byde nogen indenfor, byde på en øl = treat someone to a beer), and even commanding. Tilbyde is the narrowed, "make a formal offer" descendant of it.
- foreslå (strong: foreslår / foreslog / foreslået) = to suggest, to put forward an idea or proposal. You tilbyde a thing or an action you will perform; you foreslå a course of action for others to consider. See Foreslå.
Jeg foreslår, at vi mødes klokken to — og jeg tilbyder at lægge lokale til.
I suggest we meet at two — and I'm offering to provide the room.
Han bød os indenfor og bød på kaffe.
He invited us in and treated us to coffee.
Common mistakes
❌ De tilbydede mig jobbet.
Incorrect — tilbyde is strong; the past is tilbød, not the regular -ede form.
✅ De tilbød mig jobbet.
They offered me the job.
❌ Vi har tilbydt en god pris.
Wrong participle — the stem vowel shifts to u: har tilbudt, like budt.
✅ Vi har tilbudt en god pris.
We've offered a good price.
❌ Jeg tilbyder, at vi mødes klokken to.
Wrong verb — to put forward an idea you suggest it: Jeg foreslår, at vi mødes. You tilbyde a thing or an action you'll do, not a proposal.
✅ Jeg foreslår, at vi mødes klokken to.
I suggest we meet at two o'clock.
❌ Er firmaet tilbudt en rabat?
Wrong auxiliary for the active perfect — use har: Har firmaet tilbudt en rabat?
✅ Har firmaet tilbudt en rabat?
Has the company offered a discount?
❌ Kaffen er i tilbud denne uge.
Wrong preposition — the set phrase is på tilbud: Kaffen er på tilbud.
✅ Kaffen er på tilbud denne uge.
The coffee is on special offer this week.
Key takeaways
- Tilbyde / tilbød / tilbudt — strong, inflects like its base byde; participle has u (tilbudt).
- Perfect is always har tilbudt.
- Patterns: tilbyde nogen noget, tilbyde at
- infinitive.
- Tilbyde = offer a thing/action; foreslå = suggest an idea. Don't swap them.
- The noun et tilbud also means a shop's "special offer" — på tilbud.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Strong Verbs: Ablaut PatternsA2 — Danish strong verbs form their past by changing the stem vowel — learn the major ablaut series as families to turn memorisation into pattern recognition.
- ForeslåB2 — How to conjugate and use foreslå (to suggest, to propose), a strong verb following the stå pattern.
- GiveA1 — Full reference for give ('to give') — principal parts, all core tenses in natural sentences, the two-object word order (giver ham bogen), and the everyday idiom det giver mening.
- The Present PerfectA2 — How Danish builds the present perfect with have (or være) plus the past participle — and the one rule English speakers need: definite past time takes the simple past, not the perfect.