{"id":6843,"date":"2015-01-22T13:26:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T13:26:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=6843"},"modified":"2015-01-20T14:10:06","modified_gmt":"2015-01-20T14:10:06","slug":"how-to-want-in-swedish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/how-to-want-in-swedish\/","title":{"rendered":"How to want in Swedish"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hejsan hejsan!<\/em><\/p>\n

Human beings need and want all over the place. Consequently, one of the most basic and, frankly, most important things you can learn to say in a foreign language is “I want”. It’s simply something you want<\/em> to know how to say! (ho ho)<\/p>\n

In Swedish, there are two easy ways to say “want”: att vilja<\/em><\/strong> and att vilja ha<\/em><\/strong>. The catch is this: there’s a difference! Let me explain.<\/p>\n

Vilja<\/em> is used when you “want to [do something]”.<\/strong> In other words,\u00a0vilja<\/em> can only be followed by a verb in infinitive form. For example:<\/p>\n

Lotta vill springa<\/span> ett maraton.<\/em> – “Lotta wants to run<\/span> in a marathon.”<\/p>\n

As you can see, the present tense of vilja<\/em> is vill<\/em><\/strong>. It is followed directly by a verb springa<\/em> in its infinitive form. Note that with vilja<\/em>, the following verb never takes the infinitive marker att<\/em><\/strong>. In other words, it would be incorrect to say *Lotta vill att springa ett maraton<\/em>. The equivalent negative construction is as follows:<\/p>\n

Kalle vill inte b\u00e4dda<\/span> sin s\u00e4ng.<\/em> – “Kalle does not want to make<\/span> his bed.”<\/p>\n

Here, you see that inte<\/em> comes after<\/span> vilja<\/em> and before the following verb b\u00e4dda<\/em>. Inte<\/em> is a clausal adverb, and clausal adverbs almost always come after<\/span> the finite (non-infinitive) verb in main clauses.<\/p>\n

What about\u00a0vilja ha<\/em>, then? Vilja ha<\/em> is used when you “want [something]”.<\/strong> In other words, vilja ha<\/em> can only be followed by a noun phrase. For example:<\/p>\n

Lillebror vill ha en cykel<\/span> i julklapp.<\/em> – “Little brother wants a bicycle<\/span> for Christmas.”<\/p>\n

The rule remains: vilja<\/em><\/strong> must always be followed by a verb, and when you “want” a noun, that verb is ha<\/em><\/strong>. So naturally, a negative vill ha<\/em> sentence would look like this, with inte<\/em> following\u00a0vill<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Farmor vill inte ha mj\u00f6lk<\/span> i sitt te.<\/em> – “Grandma doesn’t want milk<\/span> in her tea.”<\/p>\n

See? Even though there are two ways of wanting in Swedish, as long as you follow the rule that vilja<\/em> must always be followed by a verb in infinitive form, you will have no trouble mastering it.<\/p>\n

For reference, here are the conjugations of vilja<\/em>:<\/strong><\/p>\n

vilja <\/em>– infinitive “to want”
\nvill<\/em> – present tense “want(s)”
\nville<\/em> – past tense “wanted”
\nhar velat<\/em> – perfect “have wanted”
\nhade velat<\/em> – past perfect “had wanted”<\/p>\n

Lastly, if you want to be a little less assertive<\/strong> with your wanting, replace\u00a0vill<\/em> with skulle vilja<\/em> <\/strong>and replace vill ha<\/em> with skulle vilja ha<\/em> <\/strong>in present tense. This is the Swedish equivalent of “would like [to]”, rather than the blunter “want [to]”.<\/p>\n

Good luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hejsan hejsan! Human beings need and want all over the place. Consequently, one of the most basic and, frankly, most important things you can learn to say in a foreign language is “I want”. It’s simply something you want to know how to say! (ho ho) In Swedish, there are two easy ways to say…<\/p>\n

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