Causative Constructions in Danish

In Brief

Danish chooses different constructions according to the kind of influence involved: få nogen til at gøre noget means to get or cause someone to do something, lade nogen gøre noget means to let them do it, and bede nogen om at gøre noget means to ask them to do it. Notice the small but essential differences: til at follows få, there is no at after lade, and om at follows bede.

Overview

A causative construction describes a situation in which one person or thing brings about another action or state. In Jeg fik ham til at grine (“I made him laugh”), jeg causes the laughter, but ham is the person who actually laughs. The person or thing that performs the second action is expressed as an object (the person or thing affected by the first verb), so Danish uses forms such as mig, dig, ham, hende, os, jer, and dem.

At B2, the main challenge is not learning a new tense. It is choosing a construction that accurately shows whether someone caused a result, gave permission, made a request, or applied force. English often uses the broad verb “make,” or structures with “get,” “have,” and “let.” Danish divides those meanings among several patterns and does not normally use lave—the ordinary verb for making or producing an object—as a general equivalent of English “make.”

These constructions are common in everyday instructions, workplace communication, family conversations, news, and descriptions of services: getting a colleague to respond, letting a child stay up, asking a customer to wait, or having a bicycle repaired. They also combine freely with past, future, modal, negative, and passive forms.

How It Works

The basic choice

Danish pattern	Core meaning	Danish example	English translation
få + object + til at + infinitive	get, persuade, or cause someone/something to act	Jeg fik ham til at grine.	I made him laugh.
lade + object + infinitive	let or allow someone to act	Hun lod børnene lege.	She let the children play.
bede + object + om at + infinitive	ask or request that someone act	Vi bad dem om at vente.	We asked them to wait.
tvinge + object + til at + infinitive	force or compel someone to act	De tvang ham til at gå.	They forced him to leave.
få + object + past participle	arrange for something to be done	Jeg fik bilen repareret.	I had the car repaired.

An infinitive is the basic form of a verb, such as grine (“laugh”) or vente (“wait”). A past participle is the form used in expressions such as har repareret (“has repaired”); in få bilen repareret, it describes the result achieved for the car.

1. Få nogen til at gøre noget: getting or causing an action

The most flexible everyday causative is:

subject + få + object + til at + infinitive

• Jeg får hende til at ringe. — I get her to call.
• Jeg fik hende til at ringe. — I got her to call.
• Jeg har fået hende til at ringe. — I have gotten her to call.

The important forms are får (present), fik (past), and har fået (perfect). The object may be a person, but it may also be a thing:

• Kan du få computeren til at starte? — Can you get the computer to start?
• Varmen fik isen til at smelte. — The heat caused the ice to melt.

This pattern focuses on the result. In a past affirmative sentence such as Jeg fik ham til at gå, the usual understanding is that he did leave. It does not say exactly how the result was achieved: persuasion, encouragement, circumstances, or pressure may all be possible. If actual coercion matters, use tvinge nogen til at.

2. Lade nogen gøre noget: allowing or not preventing

With lade, Danish uses a bare infinitive—an infinitive without at:

subject + lade + object + infinitive

• Hun lader børnene lege. — She lets the children play.
• Hun lod børnene lege. — She let the children play.
• Hun har ladet børnene lege. — She has let the children play.

The principal forms are lader, lod, and har ladet. In the imperative (the form used for a command), use lad:

• Lad hende komme ind. — Let her come in.
• Lad mig forklare. — Let me explain.
• Lad os begynde. — Let’s begin.

Where få actively brings about a result, lade normally removes an obstacle or grants permission. Compare:

• Jeg fik ham til at tale. — I got him to speak.
• Jeg lod ham tale. — I let him speak.

3. Bede nogen om at gøre noget: making a request

Use:

subject + bede + object + om at + infinitive

The main forms are beder, bad, and har bedt:

• Jeg beder dig om at være stille. — I am asking you to be quiet.
• Jeg bad dig om at være stille. — I asked you to be quiet.
• Jeg har bedt dig om at være stille. — I have asked you to be quiet.

This pattern reports a request, not its result. Jeg bad ham om at ringe tells us that I asked; it does not tell us whether he called. By contrast, Jeg fik ham til at ringe normally presents the call as a result that was achieved.

The preposition om belongs to the construction. English “ask someone to do something” has no equivalent of this word, so English-speaking learners often omit it.

4. Choosing object pronouns

The person performing the second action appears after the first verb as an object. Danish therefore uses object forms rather than subject forms.

Subject form	Object form	English
jeg	mig	I → me
du	dig	you → you
han	ham	he → him
hun	hende	she → her
vi	os	we → us
I	jer	you → you (plural)
de	dem	they → them

Thus, say Hun fik mig til at grine, Lad ham tale, and Vi bad dem om at vente. With a noun, no special form is visible: Læreren bad eleverne om at sætte sig.

5. Having something done: få noget gjort

When you arrange for a service or focus on a completed result, use få with an object and a past participle:

subject + få + object + past participle

• Jeg fik cyklen repareret. — I had the bicycle repaired.
• Vi skal få vinduerne skiftet inden vinter. — We need to have the windows replaced before winter.

The person doing the work is usually not named because the result matters more. In Jeg fik cyklen repareret, the natural interpretation is that someone repaired it for me. With some verbs and contexts, the pattern can instead emphasize managing to complete a task: Jeg fik skrevet rapporten can mean “I managed to get the report written,” and the context tells us whether the speaker wrote it personally.

The object may come before the participle, as in få bilen repareret. With less specific objects, Danish also commonly places the participle first: Vi fik løst problemet (“We got the problem solved”). Learn both as complete phrases rather than trying to copy English word order mechanically.

6. Negation

The position of ikke helps show what is being denied:

• Jeg fik ham ikke til at komme. — I did not get him to come.
• Jeg lod ham ikke gå. — I did not let him leave.
• Jeg bad ham om ikke at gå. — I asked him not to leave.

In the first two examples, ikke negates the causative or permissive event. In the third, ikke belongs with gå: the request itself happened, and its content was “do not leave.” This distinction is particularly useful when reporting instructions.

Examples in Context

Danish	English	Note
Jeg fik ham til at grine.	I made him laugh.	A successful caused result
Kan du få printeren til at virke?	Can you get the printer to work?	A thing is caused to function
Nyheden fik hende til at ændre mening.	The news made her change her mind.	The cause is not a person
Vi prøvede at få børnene til at falde i søvn.	We tried to get the children to fall asleep.	prøvede shows that success is uncertain
Lad hende komme ind.	Let her come in.	Imperative of lade
Hun lod børnene lege i haven.	She let the children play in the garden.	Permission in the past
Lad mig lige tænke.	Just let me think for a moment.	Common conversational request
Lad os tage toget.	Let’s take the train.	Suggestion with lad os
Vi bad dem om at vente udenfor.	We asked them to wait outside.	A request; no result is stated
Chefen har bedt os om at sende rapporten i dag.	The manager has asked us to send the report today.	Perfect tense of bede
Jeg bad hende om ikke at fortælle det videre.	I asked her not to pass it on.	Negative action inside the request
De tvang ham til at underskrive.	They forced him to sign.	Explicit coercion
Jeg fik bilen repareret i går.	I had the car repaired yesterday.	A service performed by someone else
Vi fik endelig løst problemet.	We finally got the problem solved.	Focus on the completed result
Hun gjorde mig rolig.	She made me feel calm.	gøre + adjective expresses a resulting state

Common Mistakes

Adding at after lade

• Wrong: Hun lod børnene at lege.
• Right: Hun lod børnene lege.
• Why: Lade takes a bare infinitive. Unlike få nogen til at, there is no at before the second verb.

Omitting til after få

• Wrong: Jeg fik ham at grine.
• Right: Jeg fik ham til at grine.
• Why: When få introduces a second actor and an action, the fixed link is til at.

Copying English ask and dropping om

• Wrong: Vi bad dem at vente.
• Right: Vi bad dem om at vente.
• Why: Danish bede requires om at before the requested action.

Using a subject pronoun as the object

• Wrong: Hun fik jeg til at grine.
• Right: Hun fik mig til at grine.
• Why: The person who laughs is grammatically the object of fik, so use mig, not jeg. This is similar to English “She got me to laugh,” not “She got I to laugh.”

Translating every English “make” with lave

• Wrong: Nyheden lavede hende trist.
• Right: Nyheden gjorde hende trist.
• Also right for an action: Nyheden fik hende til at græde.
• Why: Lave usually means to make, prepare, or produce something: lave mad (“make food”). Use gøre + adjective for a resulting state and få ... til at + verb for a caused action.

Using få when force is the important meaning

• Less precise: De fik ham til at underskrive.
• Precise: De tvang ham til at underskrive.
• Why: The first sentence says they got him to sign but leaves the method open. Tvinge explicitly says that he was forced.

Usage Notes

Result, permission, request, or force

The constructions are not interchangeable stylistic variants. They present different relationships between the people involved:

• få ... til at highlights an achieved or intended result;
• lade highlights permission or non-interference;
• bede ... om at highlights the request itself;
• tvinge ... til at highlights lack of free choice.

This distinction can affect politeness. Jeg bad ham om at gå sounds like a reported request. Jeg fik ham til at gå focuses on your success in bringing about his departure, while Jeg tvang ham til at gå sounds much stronger.

Everyday uses of lad

Lad mig ... is extremely common and is not always a literal request for permission. Lad mig se may mean “let me see,” while Lad mig lige tænke is a natural way to hold the floor while thinking. The small adverb lige often softens such requests.

Lad os ... introduces a joint suggestion: Lad os mødes klokken otte. It corresponds to English “let’s,” but Danish writes the two words separately.

Lade være med at is a different pattern

The fixed expression lade være med at + infinitive means “refrain from” or “not do”:

• Lad være med at råbe. — Stop shouting / Don’t shout.
• Han lod være med at svare. — He refrained from answering.

Although it contains lade, it does not mean that someone is allowing another person to act. Treat it as a separate expression.

Passive requests

Formal instructions often avoid naming the requester by using the passive:

• Gæsterne blev bedt om at vente. — The guests were asked to wait.
• Han blev tvunget til at forlade bygningen. — He was forced to leave the building.

The requested or forced person becomes the subject, but om at after bede and til at after tvinge remain.

Beyond the Basics

Causation without a second action verb

Not every English sentence with “make” needs a full causative infinitive. Danish often uses gøre + object + adjective when the result is a state:

• Musikken gjorde mig glad. — The music made me happy.
• Ventetiden gjorde dem utålmodige. — The wait made them impatient.

Use få ... til at when you present the result as an action or process: Musikken fik mig til at danse (“The music made me dance”). This action-versus-state distinction is more reliable than translating the English verb word for word.

Intentional and unintentional causes

The subject of få ... til at does not need to act intentionally. A person can deliberately persuade someone, but an event or condition can also cause a reaction:

• Hendes spørgsmål fik mig til at tænke. — Her question made me think.
• Regnen fik kampen til at stoppe. — The rain caused the match to stop.

With an impersonal cause, English “cause” or “make” may be the best translation. Danish keeps the same få ... til at structure.

Attempts versus achieved results

The surrounding verb can change whether success is asserted:

• Jeg fik ham til at svare. — I got him to answer; he answered.
• Jeg prøvede at få ham til at svare. — I tried to get him to answer; the outcome is unknown.
• Jeg kunne ikke få ham til at svare. — I could not get him to answer; he did not answer.

This is why it is useful to learn the whole clause, not just equate få with one English verb.

Resultative få and responsibility

A sentence such as Hun fik oversat kontrakten focuses on obtaining a translated contract. It may imply that she arranged for a translator to do the work, but context can also emphasize that she succeeded in getting the task completed. If the identity of the worker matters, name that person in a separate phrase or use a more explicit sentence: Hun bad en oversætter om at oversætte kontrakten (“She asked a translator to translate the contract”).

Practice Tips

1. Sort by intention. Take one situation—someone closes a window—and describe it four ways: Jeg fik ham til at lukke vinduet, Jeg lod ham lukke vinduet, Jeg bad ham om at lukke vinduet, and Jeg tvang ham til at lukke vinduet. Explain how the relationship changes each time.
2. Drill the linking words aloud. Repeat short frames as units: fik hende til at, lod hende, bad hende om at. This makes it easier to avoid inserting or deleting at under pressure.
3. Practise services and completed tasks. List five things you arrange to have done, such as få bilen repareret, få håret klippet, and få vinduerne skiftet. Then contrast them with requests naming the worker: Jeg bad frisøren om at klippe mit hår.

Related Concepts

• Linked prerequisite: Conditional Mood — useful for placing requests and intended results in hypothetical or polite contexts, as in what someone would ask or get another person to do.