The -ede class is the biggest group of regular verbs in Danish and the only one that is still growing. Every new verb Danish invents and every verb it borrows from another language joins this class. If you learn nothing else about the Danish past, learn this pattern — it is your safe default whenever you meet a verb you don't recognise.
The pattern
Take the infinitive, drop the at, and you have the stem (usually ending in -e). The past adds -ede; the past participle — the form used after har "have" — adds -et.
| Infinitive | Present | Past (datid) | Past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| at lave (to make) | laver | lavede | (har) lavet |
| at vente (to wait) | venter | ventede | (har) ventet |
| at huske (to remember) | husker | huskede | (har) husket |
| at arbejde (to work) | arbejder | arbejdede | (har) arbejdet |
| at spille (to play) | spiller | spillede | (har) spillet |
| at bo (to live/reside) | bor | boede | (har) boet |
| at hente (to fetch) | henter | hentede | (har) hentet |
| at danse (to dance) | danser | dansede | (har) danset |
Notice the rhythm: past -ede has two syllables of ending (la-ve-de), participle -et has one (la-vet). That two-vs-one syllable contrast is the easiest way to hear which form you are dealing with.
Jeg ventede en hel time på bussen i morges.
I waited a whole hour for the bus this morning.
Vi boede i Aarhus, før vi flyttede til København.
We lived in Aarhus before we moved to Copenhagen.
Hun spillede klaver, og bagefter dansede vi i køkkenet.
She played the piano, and afterwards we danced in the kitchen.
The participle is a different form with a different job
The past (lavede) and the past participle (lavet) are not interchangeable. The past is a standalone verb that tells you when something happened. The participle is the form you slot in after the auxiliary har ("have") or havde ("had") to build the perfect tenses.
I går lavede jeg lasagne.
Yesterday I made lasagne. (simple past — the -ede form)
Jeg har lavet lasagne mange gange.
I have made lasagne many times. (perfect — har + the -et participle)
Spelling: vowel stems and consonant doubling
Two spelling adjustments are worth knowing, both of which fall out of how Danish writes its vowels and consonants.
Stems ending in a vowel simply add the endings with no fuss — but watch the result, because it can look unusual. Bo ("to live") has the stem bo-, giving boede and boet. Sy ("to sew") gives syede, syet. The vowel just sits next to the ending.
Min farmor syede alle mine kostumer, da jeg var barn.
My grandmother sewed all my costumes when I was a child.
Consonant doubling happens when a short, stressed vowel is followed by a single consonant in the infinitive. Danish doubles that consonant before the ending to keep the vowel short. So stoppe ("to stop") already has the doubled p, and the pattern is preserved: stoppede, stoppet. The clearer cases are verbs whose stem ends in one consonant after a short vowel:
| Infinitive | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| at stoppe (to stop) | stoppede | (har) stoppet |
| at snakke (to chat) | snakkede | (har) snakket |
| at hoppe (to jump/hop) | hoppede | (har) hoppet |
| at tikke (to tick) | tikkede | (har) tikket |
Vi snakkede sammen hele aftenen, og tiden stoppede ligesom.
We chatted together all evening, and time sort of stopped.
Fully productive: where new verbs go
This is the single most useful fact about the -ede class, and it has no equivalent decision to make in English (where every borrowed verb just takes -ed). In Danish, when a brand-new verb appears — a piece of technology, a slang coinage, a word lifted straight from English — it automatically joins the -ede class. No Dane ever wonders how to put a new verb into the past; the answer is always -ede.
| Borrowed/new verb | Past | Participle |
|---|---|---|
| at google | googlede | (har) googlet |
| at booke (to book) | bookede | (har) booket |
| at streame (to stream) | streamede | (har) streamet |
| at chatte | chattede | (har) chattet |
Jeg googlede opskriften, mens vi streamede en film.
I googled the recipe while we streamed a film.
Why "default" still needs qualifying
The -ede class is the safe guess, not the certain one. A large set of very common native verbs belongs instead to the -te class (køber → købte, rejser → rejste, spiser → spiste), and a small but high-frequency set is strong (synger → sang). Those have to be learned individually. But the division of labour is clean: anything new, foreign, or unfamiliar takes -ede; the exceptions are a finite list of native words you meet early and often. See the past tense overview for how the three classes fit together, and the -te class page for the most important overrides.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg har lavede mad.
Incorrect — the -ede past was used where the -et participle is needed.
✅ Jeg har lavet mad.
I have made food.
After har, you need the participle (lavet), never the past (lavede). Mixing the two is the most frequent error with this class, because both forms come from the same verb.
❌ I går venter jeg på dig i en time.
Incorrect — the present form was left in a past-time sentence.
✅ I går ventede jeg på dig i en time.
Yesterday I waited for you for an hour.
The time word i går ("yesterday") signals the past, so the verb must take its -ede form. English speakers sometimes leave the present -r form because Danish present and infinitive look so similar.
❌ Vi snakede sammen hele aftenen.
Incorrect — missing the doubled consonant.
✅ Vi snakkede sammen hele aftenen.
We chatted together all evening.
When the stem has a short stressed vowel before a single consonant, the consonant doubles before the ending. Snakke keeps its double k: snakkede, not snakede.
❌ Han googlte navnet på restauranten.
Incorrect — a borrowed verb was forced into the -te pattern.
✅ Han googlede navnet på restauranten.
He googled the name of the restaurant.
Borrowed and new verbs always take -ede, never -te or a vowel change. The productive class is the only one open to newcomers.
Key Takeaways
- The -ede class is the largest and the only productive one: past in -ede, participle in -et.
- Keep the two endings apart — -ede stands alone for the simple past; -et follows har/havde in the perfect.
- Stems with a short stressed vowel + single consonant double the consonant (stoppede, snakkede).
- It is the safe default for any unfamiliar verb and the obligatory class for everything new or borrowed (googlede, bookede).
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- The Past Tense: An OverviewA1 — How the Danish simple past (datid) splits into weak -ede, weak -te, and strong (vowel-change) verbs — and why you must learn each verb's class.
- Weak Past: The -te ClassA2 — The second weak class of Danish verbs — past in -te, participle in -t — and how to tell it apart from the larger -ede class.
- The Present PerfectA2 — How Danish builds the present perfect with have (or være) plus the past participle — and the one rule English speakers need: definite past time takes the simple past, not the perfect.
- Present and Past ParticiplesB1 — Danish's two participles — the -ende present participle and the -et/-t/strong past participle — their forms, and the active/ongoing versus passive/completed split that governs them.
- The Present TenseA1 — How to form the Danish present (add -r) and why one present form covers English's simple present, present continuous, and 'going to' future.