Impersonal Verbs and Det-subjects | Danish Grammar

Some Danish sentences describe events with no real "doer": rain falls, it gets cold, something happens to you. English handles these with a placeholder it ("it's raining," "it's hard to say"), and Danish does almost exactly the same thing with the dummy subject det. The catch — and the source of most learner errors — is that Danish, like English but unlike Italian, Spanish, or Polish, requires an overt subject in every finite clause. You cannot drop det the way you drop the subject in a pro-drop language. This page covers the impersonal det constructions and pins down the high-frequency contrast between det er ("it is") and der er ("there is").

Danish demands a subject

The grammatical heart of this whole topic is one rule: a Danish main clause must have something in the subject slot. When there is no logical subject — weather, time, vague situations — Danish inserts the empty placeholder det. There is nothing meaningful about this det; it is pure grammatical scaffolding, exactly like the it in English "it's raining."

Det regner, så tag en paraply med.

It's raining, so bring an umbrella.

Det blæser meget i dag.

It's very windy today.

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If you are tempted to start a Danish weather or time sentence with the bare verb, stop — you almost always need det first. Danish has no subjectless finite clause, so det fills the gap whenever no real subject exists.

Weather verbs

The most common impersonals are the weather verbs, and they take det obligatorily:

Danish	English
Det regner.	It's raining.
Det sner.	It's snowing.
Det blæser.	It's windy. (lit. "it blows")
Det fryser (i nat).	It's freezing (tonight).
Det tordner og lyner.	It's thundering and lightning.

Det sner allerede, og det er kun oktober.

It's snowing already, and it's only October.

Det as a placeholder for states and evaluations

Beyond weather, det is the subject of countless "it is + adjective" comments about a situation, and — very usefully — it anticipates a delayed infinitive or at-clause. This is the anticipatory det: the real content comes later, and det just holds the subject slot open in the meantime.

Det er koldt herinde — kan vi tænde for varmen?

It's cold in here — can we turn the heat on?

Det er svært at lære dansk udtale.

It's hard to learn Danish pronunciation. (det anticipates the at-infinitive)

Det går godt med det nye job.

Things are going well with the new job. (lit. 'it goes well')

Experiencer verbs: things happen to you

A distinctive set of Danish verbs describes a feeling or outcome that befalls a person, where the person is the object (in mig, dig, ham…) and det is the grammatical subject. English usually flips these into a personal subject ("I'm glad…," "I managed…"), so they feel inside-out to an English speaker.

Danish	Literal	Natural English
Det glæder mig.	"It gladdens me."	I'm glad / pleased.
Det undrer mig.	"It puzzles me."	I'm surprised / it puzzles me.
Det lykkes mig at…	"It succeeds for me to…"	I manage to…
Det generer mig.	"It bothers me."	It bothers me.

Det glæder mig, at du kunne komme.

I'm glad you could come.

Det lykkedes mig endelig at finde lejligheden.

I finally managed to find the apartment.

Note that lykkes is a deponent verb (it looks passive with its -s ending but is active in meaning) and is one of the trickiest experiencer verbs — it has its own reference page.

Det er vs der er: the existential split

Here is the contrast that trips up nearly every learner. Both det er and der er translate into English with little dummy words, but they do different jobs:

det er = "it is / that is" — it identifies, points at, or evaluates something already in view or known.
der er = "there is / there are" — it announces the existence of something new, usually with an indefinite noun.

Der er en mand ved døren.

There's a man at the door. (presenting something new — existential)

Det er manden fra i går.

It's the man from yesterday. (identifying a known referent)

The difference is not cosmetic — it can change what you are claiming:

Der er et problem.

There's a problem. (one exists — announcing it)

Det er et problem.

That's a problem. (commenting on/judging something already mentioned)

A reliable test: if English would naturally say "there is/are," use der er; if English uses "it is" or "that is," use det er. The two languages line up well — the trap is simply that learners default to det for everything, or reach for the existential der when they only want to identify something.

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Remember the direction of each word. Der (like "there") points to a place where something exists. Det (like "that/it") points back to a thing you're identifying or judging.

Why this is hard for speakers of pro-drop languages

If your first language is English, the det-requirement feels natural — English keeps its dummy it too. But learners coming through Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, or Arabic carry a powerful habit of dropping the subject, because those languages mark the subject on the verb itself (llueve, piove = "rains"). Transferred into Danish, that produces the ungrammatical *regner for "it's raining." Danish verbs do not agree with the subject at all, so the verb form alone tells the listener nothing about who or what — the subject slot must be filled overtly, every time.

Common Mistakes

❌ Regner i dag.

Incorrect — the dummy subject det is missing (pro-drop transfer).

✅ Det regner i dag.

It's raining today.

❌ Er svært at sige.

Incorrect — no subject for the impersonal evaluation.

✅ Det er svært at sige.

It's hard to say.

❌ Det er en fejl i teksten.

Incorrect — announcing existence of something new needs der er, not det er.

✅ Der er en fejl i teksten.

There's a mistake in the text.

❌ Jeg glæder, at du kom.

Incorrect — glæde here is an experiencer verb; the person is the object, det the subject.

✅ Det glæder mig, at du kom.

I'm glad you came.

❌ Lykkedes mig at finde det.

Incorrect — missing the obligatory det subject.

✅ Det lykkedes mig at finde det.

I managed to find it.

Key Takeaways

Every finite Danish clause needs a subject; when there is no real one, insert det.
Weather (det regner), evaluations (det er svært at…), and experiencer verbs (det glæder mig) all rely on this dummy det.
det er identifies or judges; der er announces existence. "It is/that is" → det er; "there is/are" → der er.
Pro-drop habits from Romance and other languages cause the classic *regner error — Danish never allows a subjectless finite clause.

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