Some of the most everyday verbs in Danish have no clean English equivalent, and gide, orke, and behøve are the prime examples. They behave like modals — they pair with another verb and colour the whole sentence with attitude — but each captures a notion English has to paraphrase. Gide means roughly "be bothered to / feel like"; orke means "have the energy/stomach to"; behøve means "need to." All three live overwhelmingly in negative sentences, and gide in particular is so frequent in spoken Danish that not knowing it instantly marks you as a learner. This page gives you their meanings, their conjugations, and the patterns Danes actually use.
A note on register up front: gide and orke are colloquial and emotional — they belong to speech, texting, and informal writing, not to formal prose. Behøve is neutral and works at all levels.
gide — "be bothered to / feel like"
Gide expresses willingness driven by inclination or energy: whether you can be bothered, whether you feel like it. It is almost always negated — jeg gider ikke ("I can't be bothered / I don't feel like it") is one of the most common phrases in spoken Danish. It takes an infinitive, with the at optional and usually dropped in speech.
Jeg gider ikke lave mad i aften.
I can't be bothered to cook tonight.
Gider du lige række mig saltet?
Could you just pass me the salt?
That second example shows gide as a softened request — gider du lige...? is the everyday Danish way to ask someone to do a small favour, far more common than a literal "could you." The lige softens it further (informal).
Han gad ikke høre på det længere.
He couldn't be bothered to listen to it any longer.
Gide can also take a noun object directly, meaning "want / be in the mood for":
Jeg gider ikke mere kaffe, tak.
I don't fancy any more coffee, thanks.
orke — "have the energy to"
Orke is about physical or mental energy/stamina. Jeg orker ikke means "I haven't got the energy for it / I can't face it." It is stronger and more exhausted-sounding than gide — gide is "can't be bothered," orke is "haven't the strength." Like gide, it is overwhelmingly negative and takes an optional at.
Jeg orker ikke mere i dag.
I can't take any more today.
Hun orkede ikke at gå op ad alle trapperne.
She didn't have the energy to walk up all the stairs.
Jeg orker simpelthen ikke at høre på hans undskyldninger.
I simply can't face listening to his excuses.
orke very often takes a bare noun or det:
Vi orkede ikke festen, så vi tog hjem.
We couldn't face the party, so we went home.
behøve — "need to"
Behøve means "need to / have to," and it too clusters around negation: du behøver ikke = "you don't need to / you don't have to." In the affirmative it is less common (Danes more often say være nødt til for positive necessity). The at before the infinitive is optional — both behøver ikke gå and behøver ikke at gå are correct.
Du behøver ikke at undskylde.
You don't have to apologise.
Vi behøver ikke skynde os; vi har god tid.
We don't need to hurry; we've got plenty of time.
Behøver jeg at tage med?
Do I have to come along?
Conjugation
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Perfect |
|---|---|---|---|
| at gide | gider | gad | har gidet |
| at orke | orker | orkede | har orket |
| at behøve | behøver | behøvede | har behøvet |
Gide is the irregular one: the present is gider and the past is the short strong form gad (not gidede). Orke and behøve are regular -ede verbs.
Jeg gad godt vide, hvad hun mente med det.
I'd quite like to know what she meant by that.
That example — jeg gad godt vide... — is a fixed, idiomatic way to muse aloud, "I wonder...". It uses the past gad with present meaning, much like English "I'd like to know."
The "at" question
All three optionally drop at before the infinitive, and in everyday speech it usually is dropped. This is a feature they share with the core modals (kan, vil, skal), which never take at. So you can think of gide, orke, behøve as honorary modals: like kan gå, you get gider gå, orker gå, behøver gå. In careful writing, behøve often keeps at; gide and orke usually do not.
| Verb | With at (more written) | Without at (more spoken) |
|---|---|---|
| gide | gider ikke at lave mad | gider ikke lave mad |
| orke | orker ikke at gå | orker ikke gå |
| behøve | behøver ikke at gå | behøver ikke gå |
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg vil ikke lave mad i aften.
Not wrong, but sounds like a flat refusal; for 'can't be bothered' Danes say gider ikke.
✅ Jeg gider ikke lave mad i aften.
I can't be bothered to cook tonight.
❌ Du må ikke undskylde.
Incorrect for 'you needn't' — this means 'you're not allowed to apologise'.
✅ Du behøver ikke undskylde.
You don't have to apologise.
❌ Jeg gidede ikke.
Incorrect — the past of gide is the strong form gad.
✅ Jeg gad ikke.
I couldn't be bothered.
❌ Hun orker ikke at går op ad trapperne.
Incorrect — after orke the verb is the infinitive (gå), not the present (går).
✅ Hun orker ikke at gå op ad trapperne.
She hasn't the energy to walk up the stairs.
❌ Gider du venligst at række mig saltet i en formel tone.
Over-formalised — gide is colloquial; pairing it with stiff phrasing clashes.
✅ Gider du lige række mig saltet?
Could you just pass me the salt?
Key Takeaways
- gide = "be bothered to / feel like," orke = "have the energy to," behøve = "need to" — three notions English has to paraphrase.
- All three are negation-heavy: gider ikke, orker ikke, behøver ikke are the everyday forms.
- gide and orke are colloquial (speech and texting); behøve is register-neutral.
- at is optional before the infinitive and usually dropped in speech; they behave like honorary modals.
- gide is irregular: present gider, past gad. Don't confuse behøver ikke ("needn't") with må ikke ("mustn't").
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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.
- Ikke: Placement and ScopeA1 — Where 'not' goes in Danish — after the finite verb in main clauses but before it in subordinate clauses — plus its scope, object shift, and how it negates single constituents.
- GideB2 — Full reference for gide ('to bother to / feel like') — its irregular preterite-present forms gider / gad / gidet, the bare-infinitive complement, the everyday negative gider ikke, and the idiom gad vide ('I wonder').
- Ville: Volition, Future and ConditionalA2 — The modal ville (vil/ville/villet) — wanting (vil have = 'want'), prediction/future, willingness, and the conditional ville gerne ('would like').
- The Infinitive and the Marker AtA1 — The Danish infinitive, the infinitive marker at ('to'), when to use it and when to drop it — and the notorious at/og spelling trap.