tillægge

Tillægge is a Danish verb meaning to attribute or ascribe something to someone or something. It is used when one assigns a quality, responsibility, blame, or a result to a person, group, or cause. The sense is often analytical or evaluative, and the term commonly appears in academic, legal, or journalistic writing.

The construction is transitive: the thing being attributed is the direct object, and the recipient or source to which it is attributed is expressed as another noun phrase, often with a prepositional element. Typical patterns include tillægge noget til nogen (to attribute something to someone) and tillægge nogen noget (to attribute something to someone, with the thing as the direct object). In practice, tillægge is frequently used to discuss responsibility, blame, or causal explanations. For example, one might say: Han tillægger hende skylden (he attributes the blame to her), or Forskerne tillægger resultaterne bestemte betingelser (the researchers attribute the results to certain conditions).

Etymology and register: the verb is formed from til- (a directional prefix) and lægge (to lay or place), conveying the idea of laying a label or property onto someone or something. Tillægge is used mainly in formal or written Danish; in everyday speech it is often replaced by tilskrive, which has a similar meaning but slightly different nuance.

See also: tilskrive, attributere.