The Infinitive and the Marker At | Danish Grammar

The infinitive is the basic, uninflected form of a verb — the form you find in a dictionary, the form that means simply "to do something" without any tense or subject attached. In Danish it is usually a short word ending in a vowel: tale (to speak), spise (to eat), gå (to walk). Very often it travels with a little partner word, at, the infinitive marker — Danish for "to" in to speak. This page teaches the infinitive, when at is required, when it must be dropped, and the single most common writing mistake in all of Danish: confusing at with the look-alike word og.

What the infinitive looks like

The infinitive almost always ends in an unstressed -e: tale, spise, læse, komme, arbejde. When the verb stem already ends in a stressed vowel, there's nothing to add, so the infinitive is just that vowel: gå (go/walk), se (see), bo (live/reside), få (get).

Infinitive	Meaning
(at) tale	to speak
(at) spise	to eat
(at) læse	to read
(at) gå	to walk / to go
(at) bo	to live (reside)

The marker at = "to"

To express English "to do something," Danish puts at in front of the infinitive: at tale = "to speak," at spise = "to eat." The whole phrase functions as a noun-like unit — the name of an activity.

At tale dansk er ikke så svært.

To speak Danish isn't so hard.

Jeg elsker at læse om aftenen.

I love to read in the evening.

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The infinitive marker at is pronounced like a soft "å" — not "at." This matters because two completely different words collapse onto that same sound, as you'll see below. In writing, though, the marker is always spelled at.

When at is required

You use at in most situations where English uses "to" before a verb:

After most ordinary verbs that take a second verb:

Jeg prøver at sove, men jeg kan ikke.

I'm trying to sleep, but I can't.

Hun glemte at låse døren.

She forgot to lock the door.

After prepositions, where English often uses an -ing form:

Han gik uden at sige farvel.

He left without saying goodbye.

Vi er gode til at lave mad.

We're good at cooking.

After a modal verb — kan (can), vil (will/want), skal (shall/must), må (may/must), bør (ought), tør (dare) — the infinitive appears bare, with no at. This mirrors English, where you say "I can speak," not "I can to speak."

Jeg kan tale tre sprog.

I can speak three languages.

Vi skal rejse i morgen.

We have to travel tomorrow.

Du må gerne sidde her.

You may sit here.

Compare the modal (no at) with an ordinary verb (with at) in the same slot:

Jeg kan svømme.

I can swim. (modal — no at)

Jeg lærer at svømme.

I'm learning to swim. (ordinary verb — at required)

The big trap: at vs og

Here is where Danish writing goes wrong more than anywhere else. Three things sound nearly identical in speech:

the infinitive marker at (pronounced "å"),
the conjunction at meaning "that" (also "å" in casual speech), and
the word og meaning "and" (very often reduced to "å" as well).

Because at (infinitive marker) and og (and) collapse onto the same sound, Danes constantly write one for the other. The rule that saves you: if you can replace the word with an infinitive verb following it — "[to] do something" — it's at. If it's joining two equal things together — "X and Y" — it's og.

Jeg kan godt lide at synge og at danse.

I quite like to sing and to dance.

In that sentence, both at words mark infinitives ("to sing," "to dance"), while og joins the two activities. Test each: "to sing" and "to dance" pass the infinitive test → at; the middle word links two activities → og.

The conjunction at meaning "that" is a different word again — it introduces a whole clause, not a bare verb:

Hun sagde, at hun var træt.

She said that she was tired.

You can tell this at apart easily: it is followed by a subject and a finite verb (hun var), not by a bare infinitive. For more on those clauses, see at-clauses.

How this differs from English

English uses "to" as the infinitive marker and a separate word "and" as the conjunction — and they sound nothing alike, so English speakers never confuse them in writing. The Danish problem is purely phonetic: at and og have merged in pronunciation, so the spelling has to be reasoned out rather than heard. The flip side is good news — the grammar of when to use the marker is almost identical to English ("I want to go," "I can go" with no "to"). The one transfer error to unlearn is "want to": English "want to go" tempts you to write vil at gå, but Danish modals (vil here) take a bare infinitive — vil gå.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jeg vil at gå nu.

Incorrect — vil is a modal, so the infinitive is bare: no at.

✅ Jeg vil gå nu.

I want to go now.

❌ Jeg kan at svømme.

Incorrect — modals (kan) never take at before the infinitive.

✅ Jeg kan svømme.

I can swim.

❌ Jeg prøver og sove.

Incorrect — this is an infinitive ('to sleep'), so it's at, not og.

✅ Jeg prøver at sove.

I'm trying to sleep.

❌ Jeg kan lide at synge at danse.

Incorrect — two activities are joined by 'and' (og), not a second at.

✅ Jeg kan lide at synge og danse.

I like to sing and dance.

❌ Han lærer svømme.

Incorrect — lære is an ordinary verb, so the infinitive needs at.

✅ Han lærer at svømme.

He's learning to swim.

Key Takeaways

The infinitive is the dictionary form, usually ending in -e (or a bare stressed vowel: gå, se).
at = "to"; use it before infinitives after most verbs and all prepositions.
Drop at after modals (kan, vil, skal, må, bør, tør) — the infinitive is bare.
at (marker, "å") and og ("and") sound alike: if a verb follows → at; if it joins two things → og.
The conjunction at ("that") is followed by a clause, not a bare verb.

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