Være (to be) in Danish

In Brief

Danish være means “to be.” Its present form is er and its past form is var, with exactly the same form for every person: jeg er, du er, vi er; jeg var, de var. Use it for identity, descriptions, location, time, and weather: Hun er læge, Vi er hjemme, Det er koldt.

Overview

Være is one of the most useful verbs in Danish. You need it to say who someone is, describe people and things, give a location, and talk about the time or weather. It is irregular, which means its forms do not follow the usual pattern of Danish verbs. Fortunately, it is simpler than English in one important way: Danish does not have separate equivalents of am, is, and are.

This is an A1 grammar point and belongs among the first Danish verbs to learn. The core rule is short: use er for the present and var for the past, whatever the subject (the person or thing the sentence is about). Once those two forms are familiar, you can already produce sentences such as Jeg er træt (“I am tired”) and De var i København (“They were in Copenhagen”).

The verb also appears in more advanced structures. Its past participle (a verb form used with an auxiliary verb) is været, as in har været (“has/have been”). It can also help describe a resulting state, as in Døren er lukket (“The door is closed”). These later uses are covered separately below so that the beginner rule remains clear.

How It Works

The main forms

Form	Danish	Typical English equivalent
Infinitive	(at) være	(to) be
Present	er	am, is, are
Past	var	was, were
Past participle	været	been
Imperative	vær	be!

The infinitive is the basic dictionary form of a verb. Danish usually writes it with the infinitive marker at, comparable to English to: Det er vigtigt at være ærlig (“It is important to be honest”). After a modal verb such as kan, vil, skal, or må, there is no at: Du skal være klar (“You must be ready”).

One form for every person

English changes to be according to the subject. Danish does not change er or var in this way.

Person	Present	Past
jeg (I)	jeg er	jeg var
du (you, singular)	du er	du var
han/hun/den/det (he/she/it)	han/hun/den/det er	han/hun/den/det var
vi (we)	vi er	vi var
I (you, plural)	I er	I var
de (they)	de er	de var

Notice that Danish I, meaning plural “you,” is always capitalized. The verb still remains unchanged.

Identity, roles, and classification

Use være to identify or classify someone or something:

• Jeg er Sara. — “I am Sara.”
• Han er min nabo. — “He is my neighbor.”
• Mette er læge. — “Mette is a doctor.”
• Det er en god idé. — “It is a good idea.”

A profession, nationality, religion, or similar category normally has no indefinite article when it simply classifies the subject: Hun er lærer, not Hun er en lærer. An article becomes natural when the noun has extra description or refers to a particular identity: Hun er en dygtig lærer (“She is a skilled teacher”) and Hun er den nye lærer (“She is the new teacher”).

Descriptions and adjective agreement

An adjective is a describing word such as “tired,” “warm,” or “large.” An adjective after være describes the subject, and its Danish ending may change to match that subject.

Subject type	Pattern	Example
Common-gender singular	base form	Bilen er stor. — The car is big.
Neuter singular	often -t	Huset er stort. — The house is big.
Plural	often -e	Husene er store. — The houses are big.

This agreement belongs to the wider Danish adjective system, and some adjectives have irregular or unchanging forms. At first, remember the common contrast in stor – stort – store. In weather and other impersonal statements with det, the adjective normally takes the neuter form: Det er koldt and Det er dejligt.

Location, time, and weather

Use være for where someone or something is:

• Vi er hjemme. — “We are at home.”
• Nøglerne er på bordet. — “The keys are on the table.”
• Hun var i Aarhus i går. — “She was in Aarhus yesterday.”

It also appears in statements about time, dates, and events: Klokken er otte (“It is eight o’clock”), Det er fredag (“It is Friday”), and Mødet er på tirsdag (“The meeting is on Tuesday”). Weather descriptions commonly use the formal subject det, a grammatical “it” that does not refer to a particular object: Det er varmt i dag (“It is warm today”).

Negation, questions, and word order

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

• Statement: Du er træt. — “You are tired.”
• Negative: Du er ikke træt. — “You are not tired.”

For a yes/no question, place the verb before the subject. Danish does not add an equivalent of English do:

• Er du træt? — “Are you tired?”
• Var de hjemme? — “Were they at home?”

Danish statements follow the V2 rule: the finite verb occupies the second grammatical position. If another element comes first, the subject moves after er or var:

• Jeg er hjemme i dag. — “I am at home today.”
• I dag er jeg hjemme. — “Today I am at home.”

Perfect and future forms

The past participle været combines most often with har to form the present perfect:

• Jeg har været i Danmark. — “I have been to Denmark.”
• Hun har været syg hele ugen. — “She has been ill all week.”

Use havde været for a state or experience before another point in the past: Vi havde været der før (“We had been there before”). Future meaning can be expressed with a modal verb or, when the context is already clear, the present tense: Jeg vil være hjemme klokken seks (“I will be home at six”) and Jeg er hjemme igen i morgen (“I’ll be home again tomorrow”).

Examples in Context

Danish	English	Note
Jeg er lærer.	I am a teacher.	A profession used without an article.
Hun er træt efter arbejde.	She is tired after work.	A description in the present.
Det er min søster.	That is my sister.	Det er identifies someone.
Kaffen er varm.	The coffee is hot.	Common-gender singular adjective.
Huset er gammelt.	The house is old.	Neuter singular adjective in -t.
Børnene er glade.	The children are happy.	Plural adjective in -e.
Vi er hjemme i aften.	We are at home tonight.	Location with hjemme.
Det er koldt, men det regner ikke.	It is cold, but it is not raining.	Impersonal weather statement.
Er du klar?	Are you ready?	Yes/no question with verb first.
Hvor er stationen?	Where is the station?	Question word followed by the verb.
Du er ikke alene.	You are not alone.	Ikke follows the verb in a main clause.
På mandag er jeg i Odense.	On Monday I am in Odense.	V2 order after a time phrase.
Vi var hjemme i går.	We were home yesterday.	Past var, unchanged in the plural.
Det var hyggeligt at møde jer.	It was lovely to meet you all.	Past impersonal det var.
Han har været syg hele ugen.	He has been ill all week.	Perfect har været.

Common Mistakes

Changing the verb for different people

• Wrong: Jeg er, men de ere.
• Right: Jeg er, og de er.
• Why: Modern Danish uses er for every person, singular and plural. Do not try to reproduce English am/is/are distinctions.

Adding an article before a simple profession

• Wrong: Hun er en læge. (when only stating her profession)
• Right: Hun er læge.
• Why: A bare profession usually classifies the person. Use en when the noun is described or emphasized: Hun er en god læge.

Forgetting adjective agreement

• Wrong: Huset er stor.
• Right: Huset er stort.
• Why: Hus is a neuter noun, so the predicative adjective (the description after the verb) normally takes -t. In the plural, use Husene er store.

Using statement order in a direct question

• Wrong: Du er klar? as a neutral information question
• Right: Er du klar?
• Why: A standard yes/no question begins with the finite verb. Statement order can occur with questioning intonation when expressing surprise or checking something already assumed, but it is not the basic neutral pattern.

Translating every English “there is” with det er

• Wrong: Det er en café her. when you mean that a café exists here
• Right: Der er en café her.
• Why: Det er identifies or describes: Det er caféen (“That is the café”). Der er introduces the existence or presence of something: “There is/are.”

Translating English expressions word for word

• Wrong: Jeg er kold. when you mean “I feel cold.”
• Right: Jeg fryser.
• Why: Jeg er kold describes you as cold to the touch or can suggest emotional coldness. Danish uses a verb meaning “freeze” for the physical sensation. Similarly, “I am right” is Jeg har ret, literally “I have right.”

Usage Notes

In everyday speech, er is often pronounced lightly and may seem to blend into the words around it. The spelling does not change: write det er, jeg er, and hun er. Informal messages may imitate contractions from speech, but learners should use the full standard forms.

Danish often uses det er when identifying a person or thing, even where English chooses “this is” or “that is”: Det er Peter can mean “This/that is Peter.” On the telephone, Det er Anna is a natural way to identify yourself. For a location, however, choose a suitable personal pronoun when needed: Hun er i køkkenet (“She is in the kitchen”).

English and Danish overlap greatly in using “be” for identity and description, but not every fixed expression matches. Learn frequent phrases as complete units: være bange for (“be afraid of”), være glad for (“be fond of / pleased about”), være enig med (“agree with”), and være interesseret i (“be interested in”). The preposition is part of the expression.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master these patterns at A1, but være continues to play several important roles later.

Resulting states and the stative passive

Være + past participle can describe the state resulting from an action. A past participle is a form such as lukket (“closed”) or skrevet (“written”).

• Døren er lukket. — “The door is closed.”
• Rapporten er skrevet på dansk. — “The report is written in Danish.”

This construction focuses on the condition or result. Danish often uses blive + past participle when the action or change itself is central: Døren blev lukket klokken ti (“The door was closed at ten”). The contrast later develops into the Danish være-passive and blive-passive systems.

Cleft sentences for emphasis

Danish can place focus on one element with det er … der/som:

• Det er Maria, der ringer. — “It is Maria who is calling.”
• Det var i går, vi mødtes. — “It was yesterday that we met.”

A cleft sentence is simply a sentence split into two parts to emphasize one piece of information. The verb være still follows the ordinary tense rule: er for present focus, var for past focus.

Imperative and fixed formal uses

The imperative vær gives an instruction: Vær forsigtig! (“Be careful!”), Vær stille! (“Be quiet!”), and the polite formula Vær så venlig at vente (“Please wait”). Its plural is not different; Danish imperatives do not change according to the number of people addressed.

Very formal or fixed expressions may preserve a rare subjunctive-like være, as in Hermed være sagt … (“Let it hereby be said …”). This is not a productive everyday pattern. Recognize it when reading formal or literary Danish, but use normal er, var, or vær in ordinary conversation.

Practice Tips

1. Build two six-line drills. Pair jeg, du, han/hun, vi, I, de first with er, then with var. Say a different realistic description after each one. This reinforces that the verb never changes with the person.
2. Transform one sentence four ways. Start with Du er hjemme: make it negative (Du er ikke hjemme), a question (Er du hjemme?), past (Du var hjemme), and fronted (I dag er du hjemme). This practices the verb together with Danish word order.
3. Collect whole expressions. Write down useful chunks such as være på arbejde, være bange for, and være interesseret i. Learning the accompanying preposition and noun phrase prevents literal translations from English.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Personal Pronouns — learn the subjects used with er and var.
• Next step: Der er (There is/are) — use være to say that something exists or is present.
• Next step: Formal Subject Det — understand det in weather, time, and other impersonal statements.