Know: Vide or kende

I have been asked about the translation of the English verb know, which is normally translated into either vide or kende. But when do you use which?

The two verbs are conjugated in the following way:

Imperative Infinitive Present Past Past participle
Vid Vide Ved Vidste (Har) vidst
Kend Kende Kender Kendte (Har) kendt

 

To make the correct choice, you will need to know how to analyse a sentence and find the direct object, and you need to be able to distinguish between a phrase and a sentence.

Once you can do that, the choice is extremely simple:

If the object is a sentence, you use vide

If the object is not a sentence, you use kende

Examples:

1: I have known him since 1973 (object: him = not a sentence)

 Jeg har kendt ham siden 1973

2: I know where he lives (object: where he lives = a sentence)

Jeg ved, hvor han bor

Special case: det

A sentence like “I don’t know” would be “Jeg ved det ikke” or “Det ved jeg ikke” in Danish. Here the object is det (which is not a sentence) so according to the rule we should use kende. However, det refers back to a preceding sentence (what you don’t know, for instance “where Peter is” or “what time it is”) and therefore we use vide.

I hope it makes sense – if anything is unclear, or if you have further questions, please write to me and I will do my best to help.

 

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