Have (to Have) in Danish

In Brief

Danish have means “to have.” Its most important forms are har in the present, havde in the past, and haft after an auxiliary: Jeg har en hund (“I have a dog”), Jeg havde en hund (“I had a dog”), and Jeg har haft en hund (“I have had a dog”). The form does not change with the subject: jeg har, hun har, vi har.

Overview

Have is one of the essential Danish verbs. You meet it at A1 when talking about possessions, family, time, health, and everyday circumstances: Vi har tid (“We have time”), Hun har hovedpine (“She has a headache”), and De har travlt (“They are busy”). It also appears in useful expressions whose most natural English translation may use a different verb.

A verb form is finite when it carries the tense and can serve as the verb of a clause. The finite forms har and havde are particularly simple because Danish, unlike English, uses the same form for every person and number. There is no separate equivalent of English has: both “I have” and “she has” use har.

Later, have takes on a second job as an auxiliary (a helping verb). Together with a past participle—the verb form used in a perfect tense—it forms sentences such as Jeg har spist (“I have eaten”). This article gives you the beginner rule first, then shows how that familiar verb supports more advanced structures.

How It Works

The main forms

Form	Danish	Basic meaning	Example
Infinitive (dictionary form)	have	to have	Jeg vil gerne have kaffe. — I would like coffee.
Present	har	have / has	Hun har en cykel. — She has a bicycle.
Past	havde	had	Vi havde god tid. — We had plenty of time.
Past participle	haft	had	De har haft ferie. — They have been on holiday.
Imperative (command form)	hav	have	Hav en god dag! — Have a good day!

The infinitive often follows at (“to”), as in Det er rart at have tid (“It is nice to have time”). After a modal verb such as vil (“want/will”), kan (“can”), or skal (“will/must”), Danish normally leaves out at: Jeg vil have vand (“I want water”).

One present form for every subject

Danish	English	Note
Jeg har tid.	I have time.	First-person singular
Du har tid.	You have time.	Second-person singular
Han/hun har tid.	He/she has time.	No special form corresponding to has
Vi har tid.	We have time.	First-person plural
I har tid.	You have time.	Plural I is written with a capital letter
De har tid.	They have time.	Third-person plural

The same is true in the past: jeg havde, du havde, hun havde, vi havde, I havde, de havde. Once you know the tense form, you can use it with any subject.

Possession and relationships

For possession, the basic pattern is:

subject + har/havde + thing or person

The subject is who or what the sentence is about; the following noun phrase names what that subject has.

• Jeg har en bil. — I have a car.
• Maja har to søstre. — Maja has two sisters.
• Vi havde et lille hus. — We had a small house.

Danish articles still matter: en hund is “a dog,” while hunden is “the dog.” The verb har does not determine whether the following noun is definite or indefinite; choose the noun form that matches your meaning.

States and everyday expressions

Many common Danish phrases use have even where a word-for-word English translation sounds unnatural.

Danish expression	Natural English meaning	Pattern
have tid	have time	No article before tid in this meaning
have travlt	be busy	Literally uses “have”
have det godt	be well / feel good	Keep det in the expression
have det sjovt	have fun	Keep det
have hovedpine	have a headache	Usually no indefinite article
have ondt i ryggen	have a pain in one’s back / have back pain	ondt i + body part
have lyst til	feel like / want to	Followed by a noun or an infinitive
have brug for	need	Followed by what is needed
have ret	be right	Opposite: have uret (“be wrong”)
have råd til	be able to afford	Followed by a noun or infinitive
have fødselsdag	have a birthday / it is one’s birthday	Common fixed expression

Some of these expressions contain det, a small pronoun meaning “it.” In Vi havde det sjovt, det is part of the construction; do not simply drop it because English says “we had fun.”

Negation

In a straightforward main clause, put ikke (“not”) after the finite verb:

• Jeg har ikke tid. — I do not have time.
• Hun havde ikke bilen i går. — She did not have the car yesterday.
• Vi har ikke haft problemer. — We have not had problems.

Notice the contrast with English. English uses do/does/did for ordinary negative sentences, but Danish does not add an equivalent of do: Jeg har ikke, not Jeg gør ikke have.

If another element comes first, Danish still keeps the finite verb in the second position:

• I dag har jeg ikke tid. — Today I do not have time.
• Dengang havde vi ikke en bil. — Back then we did not have a car.

In a subordinate clause—a clause introduced by a word such as “because” and unable to stand as the whole message—ikke normally comes before the finite verb:

• Jeg går nu, fordi jeg ikke har tid. — I am leaving now because I do not have time.

This subordinate-clause pattern is beyond the immediate A1 goal, but it is useful to recognize.

Questions

For a yes/no question, place the finite verb before the subject:

har/havde + subject + ... ?

• Har du en cykel? — Do you have a bicycle?
• Har hun hovedpine? — Does she have a headache?
• Havde de det sjovt? — Did they have fun?

Again, Danish does not use English-style do/does/did. With a question word, put the question word first, then the verb, then the subject:

• Hvad har du i tasken? — What do you have in the bag?
• Hvor mange børn har de? — How many children do they have?
• Hvorfor havde han så travlt? — Why was he so busy?

Har as a helping verb

The present perfect, called førnutid in Danish, usually follows this pattern:

har + past participle

• Jeg har spist. — I have eaten.
• Hun har læst bogen. — She has read the book.
• Vi har boet her længe. — We have lived here for a long time.

Here har does not express possession. It helps locate an earlier event in relation to the present. When have itself is the main verb, the result may contain two forms of the same verb:

• Jeg har haft travlt. — I have been busy.
• Vi har haft en hund. — We have had a dog.

The first har is the auxiliary; haft carries the lexical meaning “have.”

Examples in Context

Danish	English	Note
Jeg har en hund.	I have a dog.	Basic possession
Hun har hovedpine.	She has a headache.	Health expression without en
Vi har tid efter frokost.	We have time after lunch.	have tid
Min nabo har tre børn.	My neighbor has three children.	Relationship/family
Jeg har ikke kontanter.	I do not have cash.	Main-clause negation
Har I et bord til to?	Do you have a table for two?	Useful restaurant question; I is plural “you”
Hvad har du i tasken?	What do you have in your bag?	Question-word order
De havde det sjovt til festen.	They had fun at the party.	Fixed expression with det
Hun havde meget travlt i går.	She was very busy yesterday.	Past havde
Jeg har ondt i ryggen.	My back hurts.	Literally uses have ondt i
Vi har lyst til at gå en tur.	We feel like going for a walk.	lyst til at + infinitive
Han har brug for mere tid.	He needs more time.	have brug for
Jeg vil gerne have en kop te.	I would like a cup of tea.	Polite everyday request
De har haft bilen i fem år.	They have had the car for five years.	Perfect of have
Hav en god weekend!	Have a good weekend!	Imperative in a set wish

Common Mistakes

Using a special form for “he/she has”

• Wrong: Hun has en kat.
• Right: Hun har en kat.
• Why: Danish has no third-person form like English has. Use har with every subject.

Adding English do to a question or negative

• Wrong: Gør du have tid? / Jeg gør ikke have tid.
• Right: Har du tid? / Jeg har ikke tid.
• Why: Make questions by putting har before the subject, and make a main clause negative by putting ikke after har.

Dropping det from a fixed expression

• Wrong: Vi havde sjovt.
• Right: Vi havde det sjovt.
• Why: The standard expression is have det sjovt. Learn the whole phrase rather than translating “have fun” word by word.

Using an article in have hovedpine

• Wrong: Hun har en hovedpine.
• Right: Hun har hovedpine.
• Why: For the ordinary meaning “have a headache,” Danish normally treats hovedpine as an uncountable condition and uses no article. An article can occur when describing a particular kind or episode, but that is not the beginner pattern.

Confusing “to have” with English “have to”

• Wrong: Jeg har at gå nu.
• Right: Jeg skal gå nu. / Jeg er nødt til at gå nu.
• Why: English have to expresses obligation, but Danish have by itself does not. Use skal for “must/am to” or være nødt til for “have to/be forced to.” The label “Have (to have)” refers to the infinitive to have, not the obligation phrase.

Translating age with have

• Wrong: Jeg har tredive år.
• Right: Jeg er tredive år.
• Why: Danish uses være (“to be”) for age, just like English: “I am thirty.”

Usage Notes

Requests: vil gerne have

Jeg vil gerne have ... is one of the most useful ways to request something politely. A literal translation such as “I would gladly have” misses its everyday function; in a café, it naturally means “I would like ...”:

• Jeg vil gerne have en kaffe, tak. — I would like a coffee, please.
• Vi vil gerne have regningen. — We would like the bill.

The shorter Jeg vil have ... means “I want ...” and can sound firm or demanding in a service situation. Adding gerne makes the request more neutral and courteous.

English does not always predict Danish have

A familiar English expression may use a different Danish verb. Danish says spise morgenmad (“eat breakfast”) more readily than a word-for-word version of “have breakfast,” and it uses være for age. Conversely, Danish have travlt is naturally translated with English “be busy.” Treat common combinations as complete phrases.

Subject pronouns and emphasis

Danish normally states the subject pronoun: Jeg har tid, hun har en bil. Unlike a language that routinely drops subjects, Danish does not normally say simply Har tid for “I have time.” In casual speech the pronunciation of pronouns and small verbs may become weak, but the grammatical subject is still present.

Capital I

The Danish pronoun I means plural “you” and is capitalized even in the middle of a sentence: Har I tid? Lowercase i is the preposition “in”: i Danmark. The capital letter can therefore change the structure of what you read.

Beyond the Basics: Advanced Use

You do not need to master this section at A1, but these patterns explain forms you will soon encounter.

Present perfect and past perfect

The present perfect uses har plus a past participle; the past perfect uses havde plus a past participle:

Danish	English	Note
Jeg har set filmen.	I have seen the film.	Present perfect: har + set
Jeg havde set filmen før.	I had seen the film before.	Past perfect: havde + set
Hun har haft feber.	She has had a fever.	Perfect of have itself
Hun havde haft feber i flere dage.	She had had a fever for several days.	Past perfect of have

Most Danish verbs form the perfect with have, but some verbs of movement or change can use være when the result or transition is central: De er gået (“They have left”) and Hun er kommet (“She has arrived”). Learn this contrast as part of the Danish perfect tense rather than assuming har works with every participle.

Duration continuing into the present

Danish often uses the present tense for a situation that began in the past and still continues, especially with a phrase saying how long:

• Jeg har boet her i fem år. — I have lived here for five years.
• Jeg bor her på femte år. — I am now in my fifth year of living here.

The first pattern with har boet is a safe and common match for English present perfect. Be cautious about transferring English tense choices mechanically, however; Danish tense use depends on whether the speaker presents the situation as an earlier event, a current state, or an ongoing duration.

Have with an object and a state

In more advanced Danish, have can describe keeping or experiencing an object in a particular state:

• Vi har døren åben. — We keep the door open / We have the door open.
• Hun havde computeren stående på bordet. — She had the computer sitting on the table.

The extra word or phrase describes the object, not the subject. This construction is useful, but it is separate from the simple A1 possession pattern.

Practice Tips

1. Build a five-form chain. Choose one noun and say at have en cykel, jeg har en cykel, jeg havde en cykel, jeg har haft en cykel, and hav en god tur. Changing only one part at a time makes the forms easier to remember.
2. Turn statements into questions and negatives. Start with Du har tid. Make Har du tid? and Du har ikke tid. Then repeat with havde and with a longer phrase such as have lyst til at gå.
3. Learn expressions as chunks. Put have det sjovt, have travlt, have brug for, have lyst til, and vil gerne have on separate cards. Add one personal sentence for each instead of memorizing an isolated translation of have.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Personal Pronouns — shows who has something and helps you build statements and questions.
• Next step: Expressing Need and Want — develops have brug for and gerne ville for everyday needs and requests.
• Next step: Perfect Tense (Førnutid) — explains har plus the past participle in detail, including when Danish uses være instead.