{"id":6980,"date":"2015-08-27T12:32:03","date_gmt":"2015-08-27T12:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/?p=6980"},"modified":"2015-08-26T13:03:17","modified_gmt":"2015-08-26T13:03:17","slug":"swedish-verbs-vill-does-not-mean-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/swedish\/swedish-verbs-vill-does-not-mean-will\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish verbs: “vill” does not mean “will”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot that Swedish and English have in common. There is plenty of similar vocabulary \u2013 dag<\/em> means “day”, skyskrapa<\/em> means “skyscraper” \u2013 and plenty of similar expressions as well. One word that is a false cognate \u2013 a faux ami<\/em> \u2013 is the Swedish verb vilja<\/em>. Its present form is vill<\/em>, and it does not<\/span> mean “will”.<\/p>\n

The Swedish verb vilja<\/em> actually means “to want”. So, if you hear someone say:<\/p>\n

a. Jag vill<\/strong> \u00e5ka till Spanien n\u00e4sta sommar.<\/em><\/p>\n

they don’t mean “I will<\/del> go to Spain next summer.”. They actually mean to say:<\/p>\n

b. “I want to<\/strong> go to Spain next summer.” \u221a<\/p>\n

The verb vilja<\/em> is conjugated like so:<\/p>\n

infinitive:<\/span> (att) vilja<\/strong>
\npresent:<\/span> vill<\/strong>
\npast:<\/span> ville<\/strong>
\npresent perfect:<\/span> har velat<\/strong>
\npast perfect:<\/span> hade velat<\/strong><\/p>\n

Vilja<\/em> takes no infinitive marker (att<\/em>) before the verb that follows it. The example (a.) above illustrates this perfectly:<\/p>\n

c. Jag vill \u00e5ka<\/strong> till Spanien n\u00e4sta sommar.<\/em><\/p>\n

As you can see, we say vill \u00e5ka<\/em> and not<\/span> vill att<\/del> \u00e5ka<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So far, we have talked about wanting to do<\/strong> something. This is really all you need, because\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>vill<\/strong><\/em> must (almost) always be followed by a verb<\/strong>. In English, both of these sentences are correct:<\/p>\n

d. “I want to go<\/strong> to Spain.”
\ne. “I want a car<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In example (e.), “want” is followed by a noun. This is not allowed in Swedish. To say you want something (or someone), you have to add the verb ha<\/em><\/strong>, “to have”. So, examples (d.) and (e.) are translated to Swedish like this:<\/p>\n

f. Jag vill \u00e5ka<\/strong><\/em> till Spanien.<\/em>
\ng. Jag vill ha<\/strong> en bil<\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n

In other words, with (g.), you are really saying “I want to have<\/strong> a car.”. The best way to memorize this is to learn vill<\/em> as meaning “to want to<\/span>“, rather than just “to want”. It will remind you that you need a verb after it, since you can’t say “I want to<\/del> a car<\/strong>.” \u2013 no, you “want to have a car<\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

Lycka till!<\/em> \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s a lot that Swedish and English have in common. There is plenty of similar vocabulary \u2013 dag means “day”, skyskrapa means “skyscraper” \u2013 and plenty of similar expressions as well. One word that is a false cognate \u2013 a faux ami \u2013 is the Swedish verb vilja. Its present form is vill, and it…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":62,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[6,3079,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6980","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-grammar","category-swedish-language","category-vocabulary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t