Turde ('to dare') belongs to the small, closed set of Danish modal verbs — and like the others, it is a preterite-present verb: its present tense looks and behaves like an old past tense, which is why it does not follow the regular pattern at all. The form you will say most often, tør ("dare(s)"), is wildly different from the infinitive turde, and getting it right is what separates confident speech from the tell-tale learner error turder.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Past participle | Imperative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (at) turde | tør | turde | turdet | — (none in normal use) |
Notice two things that catch English speakers off guard:
- The present is tør — short, vowel-changed, with no -r-on-a-stem feel. There is no form turder.
- The past is turde, which is spelled identically to the infinitive. Context (and the surrounding tense) tells them apart.
Present: tør
Use tør for daring (or, in the negative, not daring) right now or in general.
Jeg tør ikke spørge ham om det.
I don't dare ask him about it.
Tør du hoppe ud fra den klippe?
Do you dare jump off that cliff?
Hun tør godt sige sin mening, selv når det er ubehageligt.
She's not afraid to speak her mind, even when it's awkward.
That third example shows the very Danish particle godt, which here softens "dare" into "is willing / has the nerve to." Tør godt (positive nerve) pairs with tør ikke (lack of nerve) as a natural opposition.
Past: turde
Som barn turde jeg ikke sove i mørke.
As a child I didn't dare sleep in the dark.
Ingen turde sige noget, da chefen blev vred.
Nobody dared say anything when the boss got angry.
Because the past turde is identical in spelling to the infinitive, lean on the clause: a finite past-tense clause (Som barn turde jeg...) reads it as past, while a modal-plus-infinitive frame (Jeg vil gerne turde...) reads it as the infinitive.
Present perfect: har turdet
The perfect uses har (auxiliary have) with the participle turdet.
Jeg har aldrig turdet flyve, men nu prøver jeg.
I've never dared to fly, but now I'm giving it a go.
Hun har endelig turdet sige op.
She's finally dared to hand in her notice.
Note that even in the perfect, the verb governed by turde stays a bare infinitive (turdet flyve, turdet sige op) — no at sneaks in.
The exclamation Hvor tør du!
A high-frequency idiomatic use is the indignant Hvor tør du! — literally "How dare you!" It is a set phrase and a good one to recognise.
Hvor tør du tale sådan til din mor!
How dare you talk to your mother like that!
Word order with tør and ikke
Because turde is so often used in the negative, it pays to know where ikke lands. In a main clause the negation follows the modal: Jeg tør ikke spørge ("I don't dare ask"). In a subordinate clause Danish flips the order — ikke comes before the modal: ...fordi jeg ikke tør spørge ("...because I don't dare ask"). This is the regular main-clause/subordinate-clause asymmetry of Danish, and turde obeys it like any other verb.
Hun blev hjemme, fordi hun ikke turde tage afsted alene.
She stayed home because she didn't dare go off on her own.
Turde vs vove
A near-synonym you will meet is vove ('to dare / to venture'), a regular weak verb (vover / vovede / vovet). The difference is one of register and nuance: turde is the everyday modal of having the nerve, while vove is a touch more deliberate and emphatic — to take a risk or stake something. Vove is also a full lexical verb, so it can take at and an object (vove et forsøg, "venture an attempt").
Han turde ikke sige det højt, men han vovede at skrive det i en mail.
He didn't dare say it out loud, but he ventured to write it in an email.
There is also the fixed, slightly literary saying Den, der intet vover, intet vinder ("Nothing ventured, nothing gained") (literary/proverbial), where vove — not turde — is the idiomatic choice.
Turde vs English "dare"
English "dare" is unusual in its own grammar — it can act as a modal (I daren't ask) or as a normal verb (I don't dare to ask). Danish turde is cleanly modal: it always takes a bare infinitive and never appears with at or with a "do"-support. There is also no Danish equivalent of the transitive "dare someone to do something"; for that, Danish reaches for a different construction (e.g. udfordre nogen til at...), so don't try to make turde carry it.
For how turde sits among the other modals, see the modal verbs overview; its sibling burde ('ought to') is covered in burde; and the bare-infinitive rule connects to the broader uses of the infinitive.
A dialogue in context
— Tør du gå op i pariserhjulet? — Nej, jeg tør faktisk ikke. Jeg har aldrig turdet komme højt op.
— Do you dare go up in the Ferris wheel? — No, honestly I don't dare. I've never dared to go up high.
Common mistakes
❌ Jeg turder ikke spørge.
Incorrect — 'turder' is not a Danish form; the present is the irregular tør.
✅ Jeg tør ikke spørge.
Correct — present tense is tør.
❌ Tør du at hoppe?
Incorrect — modals take a bare infinitive; no at after tør.
✅ Tør du hoppe?
Correct — bare infinitive after the modal.
❌ Jeg har turde flyve før.
Incorrect — the participle is turdet, not the bare past turde.
✅ Jeg har turdet flyve før.
Correct — perfect is har turdet + bare infinitive.
❌ Hun tørrer ikke sige noget.
Incorrect — that's 'tørre' (to dry/wipe), a completely different verb.
✅ Hun tør ikke sige noget.
Correct — tør is the present of turde, 'dare'.
Key takeaways
- Preterite-present modal: present tør (never turder), past turde, participle turdet, perfect with har.
- Always a bare infinitive after it — no at.
- No person agreement: everyone says tør.
- Drill the pairs tør godt (have the nerve) / tør ikke (don't dare), and recognise Hvor tør du!.
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Modal Verbs: An OverviewA2 — The six core Danish modals — kunne, ville, skulle, måtte, burde, turde — their present and past forms, and the iron rule that they take a bare infinitive with no at.
- BurdeB1 — Full reference for the Danish modal burde ('ought to / should') — a preterite-present verb with present bør, taking a bare infinitive, and how it differs from skulle.
- Uses of the InfinitiveB1 — Where the bare infinitive and the at-infinitive appear in Danish — after modals, after other verbs and prepositions, as subject or object, in for at / uden at / ved at, and as instructions on signs.