døde

Döde is a term found in several Scandinavian languages, primarily as a past tense form of the verb meaning “to die” in Danish and Norwegian. In Danish and Norwegian Bokmål, the past tense is spelled døde and is used to say that someone died. Examples: Danish: Hun døde af sygdom. Norwegian: Han døde i natt. These forms are common in everyday speech, journalism, and literature in their respective languages.

In Swedish, the corresponding simple past tense of die is dog, not döde. The adjective “dead” is död, and it forms phrases such as den döde (the dead one) or de döda (the dead, plural). The form döde therefore does not function as a standard past tense in modern Swedish, though it may appear in older texts, dialectal spellings, or in cross-linguistic discussion of related verbs.

Etymology traces the Danish and Norwegian døde to common Germanic roots associated with death, shared with related words in other Scandinavian languages. The concept remains a basic part of everyday language in those communities, appearing in news reports, historical accounts, and personal narratives.

Overall, döde illustrates how closely related Scandinavian languages diverge in their verb conjugations for core semantic themes such as death, while still retaining recognizable cognates across the region.