The Imperative | Danish Grammar

The imperative is the form you use to tell someone to do something — to give a command, make a request, or offer an instruction. Danish has one of the simplest imperatives of any European language: you take the verb's bare stem and that's it. No endings, no agreement, the same form whether you're talking to one person or a crowd. This page covers how to build it, how to soften it so you don't sound like a drill sergeant, how to make it negative, and how to say "let's."

Building the imperative: drop the -e

The imperative is the bare stem of the verb — the infinitive with its final -e removed. If the infinitive has no final -e (the short vowel verbs), the imperative is identical to the infinitive.

Infinitive	Imperative	Meaning
(at) tale	tal!	speak!
(at) spise	spis!	eat!
(at) komme	kom!	come!
(at) lytte	lyt!	listen!
(at) gå	gå!	go! / walk!

Notice that dropping the -e can leave a doubled consonant looking single (komme → kom), but the spelling rule keeps it as the language dictates — kom, not komm. The bare-stem form is the same one you find in dictionaries listed as the "stem," and it's also the base for building other tenses, so it's worth getting comfortable with.

Tal lidt langsommere, tak.

Speak a bit more slowly, please.

Kom her, der er noget, du skal se.

Come here, there's something you have to see.

Spis din mad, før den bliver kold.

Eat your food before it gets cold.

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The imperative has one form for everyone. Whether you're telling one child or a whole class, it's kom! — there is no separate plural command form in modern Danish. This is far simpler than languages like Spanish or German.

Softening the command

A bare imperative can sound blunt. Danish has a set of small words that take the edge off and make a command sound like a friendly request.

lige — an almost untranslatable softener meaning roughly "just" / "for a sec." It makes a command sound casual and minor.

Kom lige her et øjeblik.

Come here for a sec.

Ræk mig lige saltet.

Pass me the salt, would you.

venligst (formal/written) — "kindly," used on signs and in formal requests.

Luk venligst døren.

Kindly close the door. (formal)

Adding du after the verb also softens and personalises, especially with reflexive verbs:

Sæt dig ned og slap af.

Sit down and relax.

Here dig is the reflexive object of sætte sig ("to sit oneself down") — many everyday commands are reflexive, so the object pronoun is part of the instruction, not optional.

You can stack softeners for an even gentler request. Vil du ikke lige... ("won't you just...") wraps a command in a question and is one of the most polite, everyday ways Danes ask for something:

Vil du ikke lige lukke vinduet?

Could you just close the window? (very polite, everyday)

Note that this last form isn't a true imperative at all — it's a question built around an infinitive — but it does the same job and is worth having ready, because a bare Luk vinduet! can sound abrupt to Danish ears in many social situations.

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Danish leans on softeners far more than English imperative grammar suggests. A plain Giv mig saltet ("Give me the salt") is grammatically fine but socially blunt; Ræk mig lige saltet, tak ("Pass me the salt, please") is what you actually hear at a dinner table. Build the habit of adding lige and tak to small requests.

Saying "don't": the negative imperative

There are two ways to make an imperative negative, and the more natural one is rarely taught well.

The everyday way — lad være med at + infinitive. Literally "let be with to...," this is the idiomatic Danish "don't." It's what a native speaker actually says.

Lad være med at råbe.

Don't shout.

Lad være med at røre ved det.

Don't touch it.

The shorter way — verb + ikke. You can also just put ikke ("not") right after the imperative verb. This is grammatical and common, especially for sharp, immediate warnings.

Gå ikke derhen!

Don't go there!

Glem ikke din nøgle.

Don't forget your key.

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If you only learn one negative imperative, learn lad være med at... It is the natural, conversational "don't," and using it instantly marks you as someone who's listened to real Danish rather than just memorised a table. The placement of ikke in commands follows the general rules covered on the ikke page.

Saying "let's": lad os

For first-person-plural exhortations — English "let's go," "let's eat" — Danish uses lad os ("let us") followed by a bare infinitive.

Lad os gå en tur.

Let's go for a walk.

Lad os spise nu, jeg er sulten.

Let's eat now, I'm hungry.

How this compares to English

English commands and Danish commands line up almost perfectly: both use a bare verb form ("Eat!" / Spis!) with no subject. The differences are small but real. First, English forms its negative with do-support — "Don't touch" — and Danish has no such auxiliary; instead it either tucks ikke after the verb (Rør ikke!) or, more idiomatically, wraps the whole thing in lad være med at. Second, many Danish commands are reflexive where English isn't: you "sit yourself down" (sæt dig) and "hurry yourself" (skynd dig). Watch for that reflexive pronoun — leaving it out is a classic beginner slip.

Common Mistakes

❌ Tale langsommere!

Incorrect — that's the infinitive; the imperative drops the final -e: tal!

✅ Tal langsommere!

Speak more slowly!

❌ Komme her!

Incorrect — drop the -e for the imperative: kom!

✅ Kom her!

Come here!

❌ Gør ikke det! (as natural 'don't do that')

Stilted — natural Danish prefers lad være med at...

✅ Lad være med at gøre det.

Don't do that.

❌ Sæt ned.

Incorrect — sætte sig is reflexive, so the pronoun is required: sæt dig ned.

✅ Sæt dig ned.

Sit down.

❌ Lad os at gå.

Incorrect — after lad os the infinitive is bare, with no at.

✅ Lad os gå.

Let's go.

Key Takeaways

The imperative is the bare stem — infinitive minus -e (tale → tal); short-vowel verbs are unchanged (gå → gå).
One form for singular and plural.
Soften with lige, venligst (formal), or by adding du/dig.
The natural negative is lad være med at
- infinitive; the brisk one is verb + ikke.
"Let's" = lad os
- bare infinitive.
Watch for reflexive commands like sæt dig, skynd dig — the pronoun isn't optional.

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