Question Formation in Danish

In Brief

Danish normally forms a yes/no question by putting the finite verb before the subject: Du taler dansk becomes Taler du dansk? For a question seeking specific information, put the question word first and usually keep the verb before the subject: Hvor bor du? Unlike English, Danish does not add a helper equivalent to “do” or “does.”

Overview

Question formation is an A1 skill that you will use from your first Danish conversation: to ask someone’s name, order food, check a price, request help, or find a place. The essential choice is between a yes/no question, which asks whether something is true, and an information question, which asks for a person, thing, place, time, reason, or manner.

The key grammatical term is the finite verb: the verb form that carries tense and belongs to the clause, such as er (“is/are”), bor (“live/lives”), kommer (“come/comes”), har (“have/has”), or kan (“can”). The subject is the person or thing that performs the action or is being described, such as du, hun, or toget. In a basic statement, the subject often comes before the finite verb: Du bor her. In a direct yes/no question, their order is reversed: Bor du her?

This is both similar to and different from English. English also says “Are you ready?” and “Can she come?”, but it usually needs do/does/did with an ordinary verb: “Do you speak Danish?” Danish simply moves the ordinary finite verb: Taler du dansk? There is no extra Danish word corresponding to English do in this pattern.

How It Works

Yes/no questions: finite verb first

A basic yes/no question follows this order:

finite verb + subject + the rest of the sentence + ?

Compare the statement and question:

Danish	English	Note
Du taler dansk.	You speak Danish.	Statement: subject before verb
Taler du dansk?	Do you speak Danish?	Question: verb before subject
Hun kommer i morgen.	She is coming tomorrow.	Statement
Kommer hun i morgen?	Is she coming tomorrow?	Question
Det er gratis.	It is free.	Statement
Er det gratis?	Is it free?	Question

Move only the finite verb. If the verb phrase contains an auxiliary verb (a helping verb) or a modal such as kan, skal, or vil, that first finite verb goes before the subject; the other verb remains later in the clause.

Danish	English	Structure
Har du set filmen?	Have you seen the film?	har + subject + past participle set
Kan I hjælpe mig?	Can you help me?	kan + subject + infinitive hjælpe
Skal vi tage bussen?	Shall we take the bus?	skal + subject + infinitive tage
Vil hun have kaffe?	Does she want coffee?	vil + subject + infinitive have

English learners should resist adding anything like do. The Danish present-tense verb already does the job: Arbejder du her?, not a construction modeled on “Do you work here?”

Information questions: question element first

An information question begins with a question element—a question word or a longer phrase built around one. If that element is not the subject, the usual order is:

question element + finite verb + subject + the rest + ?

Question word	Core meaning	Danish example	English meaning
hvad	what	Hvad laver du?	What are you doing?
hvem	who	Hvem besøger du?	Who are you visiting?
hvor	where	Hvor bor de?	Where do they live?
hvornår	when	Hvornår åbner butikken?	When does the shop open?
hvordan	how	Hvordan kommer vi derhen?	How do we get there?
hvorfor	why	Hvorfor lærer du dansk?	Why are you learning Danish?

The first element can contain several words. Danish still treats the whole phrase as the opening element, and the finite verb follows it:

• Hvor gammel er din søn? — “How old is your son?”
• Hvor meget koster billetten? — “How much does the ticket cost?”
• Hvor mange sprog taler du? — “How many languages do you speak?”
• Hvor længe bliver I? — “How long are you staying?”
• Hvor tit træner hun? — “How often does she exercise?”

Choosing the right question word

English what and which do not map to one single Danish form in every context. Use hvad when asking generally what something is or what someone does: Hvad er det? (“What is it?”). Use hvilken, hvilket, or hvilke when choosing or identifying a noun. These forms agree with the noun’s grammatical gender and number:

Danish form	Used with	Example	English
hvilken	common-gender singular	Hvilken bus tager du?	Which bus are you taking?
hvilket	neuter singular	Hvilket tog går til Odense?	Which train goes to Odense?
hvilke	plural	Hvilke bøger læser I?	Which books are you reading?

Use hvem for a person: Hvem taler du med? (“Who are you talking to?”). In normal conversation, Danish readily leaves a preposition such as med or til at the end. Med hvem taler du? is also grammatical, but sounds more formal.

When the question word is the subject

The verb-before-subject rule needs one important clarification. Sometimes the question word or question phrase is itself the subject—the person or thing doing the action. There is then no separate subject to place after the verb:

• Hvem kommer i aften? — “Who is coming tonight?”
• Hvem ringede? — “Who called?”
• Hvilken bus kører til centrum? — “Which bus goes to the city center?”

Compare Hvem ringede? with Hvem ringede du til? In the first question, hvem is the caller and therefore the subject. In the second, du is the subject, while hvem is the person receiving the call.

Negative questions and adverbs

In a direct question, ikke (“not”) normally follows the subject:

finite verb + subject + ikke + rest

• Kommer du ikke i morgen? — “Aren’t you coming tomorrow?”
• Har hun ikke set beskeden? — “Hasn’t she seen the message?”
• Hvorfor svarer han ikke? — “Why isn’t he answering?”

Other short sentence adverbs often occupy a similar position: Kommer hun også? (“Is she coming too?”), Har du allerede spist? (“Have you already eaten?”). A negative question can be a genuine request for information, but it often suggests that the speaker expected the opposite: Er du ikke sulten? may imply “I thought you were hungry.”

Asking politely

Word order marks a sentence as a question; modal verbs and polite expressions adjust its tone. Kan du …? is a normal everyday request. Kunne du …? (“Could you …?”) is a little softer, while Vil du være sød at …? (“Would you please …?”) can make a request more explicit.

• Kan du gentage det? — “Can you repeat that?”
• Kunne du tale lidt langsommere? — “Could you speak a little more slowly?”
• Må jeg betale med kort? — “May I pay by card?”

Danish commonly uses informal du. Capitalized De is the formal singular “you,” but it is much less common in modern everyday Danish than formal pronouns are in some European languages. The question pattern does not change: Taler De engelsk?

Examples in Context

Danish	English	Note
Taler du dansk?	Do you speak Danish?	Ordinary verb first; no equivalent of English do
Er der et apotek i nærheden?	Is there a pharmacy nearby?	Yes/no question with der er
Har I et bord til to?	Do you have a table for two?	Useful in a restaurant
Kan jeg få regningen?	Can I have the bill?	Polite everyday request
Hvor bor du?	Where do you live?	Place question
Hvad hedder du?	What is your name?	Literally asks what you are called
Hvordan har du det?	How are you?	Fixed everyday question
Hvornår går det næste tog?	When does the next train leave?	Time question
Hvorfor er døren lukket?	Why is the door closed?	Question word + verb + subject
Hvem venter du på?	Who are you waiting for?	Preposition at the end
Hvem arbejder her?	Who works here?	hvem is the subject
Hvilket nummer skal jeg ringe til?	Which number should I call?	Neuter hvilket with nummer
Hvor mange billetter skal vi købe?	How many tickets should we buy?	Multiword question element
Har du ikke din nøgle?	Don’t you have your key?	Negative question; may express surprise

Common Mistakes

Adding an English-style form of “do”

• Wrong: Gør du taler dansk?
• Right: Taler du dansk?
• Why: Danish does not use gøre to build ordinary questions in the way English uses do. Put the existing finite verb first.

Keeping statement order in a neutral written question

• Wrong: Du bor hvor?
• Right: Hvor bor du?
• Why: A standard information question puts the question element first, then the finite verb, then the subject. Du bor hvor? can occur as an echo question when reacting with surprise, but it is not the neutral beginner pattern.

Moving every verb to the front

• Wrong: Har set du filmen?
• Right: Har du set filmen?
• Why: Only the finite verb har moves before the subject. The participle set stays later.

Inverting after a subject question word

• Wrong: Hvem kommer han i aften? when you mean “Who is coming tonight?”
• Right: Hvem kommer i aften?
• Why: Here hvem is already the subject. Add han only if it has another role or you intend a different question.

Choosing the wrong form of hvilken

• Wrong: Hvilken tog tager du?
• Right: Hvilket tog tager du?
• Why: Tog is a neuter noun (et tog), so singular “which” is hvilket. Use hvilken with an en noun and hvilke with plural nouns.

Putting ikke before the subject

• Wrong: Kommer ikke du i morgen? in an ordinary neutral question
• Right: Kommer du ikke i morgen?
• Why: In the basic pattern, the subject follows the finite verb, and ikke follows the subject. Other placements can create special emphasis, but they are not the default.

Usage Notes

In speech, intonation—the rise and fall of the voice—helps listeners recognize attitude and expectation. You may hear a statement-shaped echo question such as Du bor i Aalborg? when someone is checking surprising information. Standard neutral questions, especially in writing, use the regular question order: Bor du i Aalborg?

A short question can also omit information that is clear from the situation: Kaffe? (“Coffee?”), Hvorhen? (“Where to?”), or Hvorfor ikke? (“Why not?”). These are normal conversational fragments, not alternative full-sentence word-order rules.

After a negative question or statement, Danish can use jo to contradict the negative assumption. If someone asks Kommer du ikke? (“Aren’t you coming?”), answer Jo, det gør jeg to mean “Yes, I am.” Use nej if the negative statement is true: Nej, det gør jeg ikke (“No, I’m not”). This three-way distinction among ja, nej, and jo has no exact one-word match in standard English.

Beyond the Basics: Direct, Indirect, and Tag Questions

You do not need to master these patterns at A1, but you will meet them later. A direct question stands on its own: Hvor bor han? An indirect question is contained inside a larger sentence, as in “Do you know where he lives?” Danish does not keep direct-question inversion inside the embedded part:

Danish	English	Pattern
Hvor bor han?	Where does he live?	Direct: question word + verb + subject
Ved du, hvor han bor?	Do you know where he lives?	Embedded: question word + subject + verb
Kommer hun?	Is she coming?	Direct yes/no question
Jeg ved ikke, om hun kommer.	I don’t know whether she is coming.	Embedded yes/no question uses om

Be careful: Ved du …? is itself a direct yes/no question, so ved comes before du. Only the clause hvor han bor has embedded-question order.

Danish also uses short tag questions to ask for confirmation. Common choices include ikke?, vel?, and a fuller tag such as er det ikke?: Du kommer i morgen, ikke? (“You’re coming tomorrow, right?”) and Det er dyrt, er det ikke? (“It’s expensive, isn’t it?”). Particles such as vel add shades of expectation, so learn them from complete conversations rather than treating them as interchangeable endings.

At a more advanced level, you will also encounter hvis meaning “whose”: Hvis jakke er det? (“Whose jacket is it?”). Do not confuse this interrogative hvis with the conjunction hvis meaning “if”; context and sentence structure make the meaning clear.

Practice Tips

1. Transform statements aloud. Start with ten short statements, such as Du arbejder her and Hun kan komme. Move only the finite verb: Arbejder du her? and Kan hun komme? This trains the pattern without making you search for vocabulary at the same time.
2. Build question families. Keep one answer and ask several questions about it. From Anna tager toget til Aarhus på fredag, make Hvem tager toget?, Hvad tager Anna?, Hvor tager hun hen?, and Hvornår tager hun afsted?
3. Notice subject questions. When listening or reading, mark whether hvem or a phrase with hvilken/hvilket/hvilke is doing the action. Contrast Hvem ringer? with Hvem ringer du til? until the missing or present separate subject feels natural.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Basic Word Order — explains Danish V2 order and why the finite verb changes position.
• Related skill: Negation with Ikke — develops the placement of ikke in main and subordinate clauses.
• Next step: Indirect Questions — contrasts direct question order with embedded clause order.