# Swedish: want/desire (verb)



## TunS

Hej,

This may seem like a very vague question, but I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to express 'want/desire' in Swedish? For example, how would you say:

_*I want him to leave as soon as he has finished (eating).*_

Tack så mycket!


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

Varsågod! 

Vilja is the most common verb and it works in most situations unless you want to be extremely polite. Your context sentence in Swedish, one variant: Jag *vill* att han går härifrån så fort han har ätit färdigt.. 

As far as I'm aware, it's cognate with  English will.

Let's see if some of the other Swedish-speaking forer@s have additional comments...

/Wilma


----------



## TunS

Tack igen Wilma!  

I searched Google a few times and I had a inkling that 'vill' played some part, but then I convinced myself that it meant 'will' - 'False friend (falska vänner i svenska?)' maybe?

Just to clarify, as my Swedish is awfully basic , that I have understood all the parts to the sentence, could you tell me If I'm wrong in saying the following:

härifrån - translates as 'from here'.
att han går - 'Att' is used with the infinitive 'går'(?)
så fort - I'm guessing means ''as soon as'.

Sorry for being a pain!


----------



## USB-anslutning

TunS said:


> att han går - 'Att' is used with the infinitive 'går'(?)


 The rest is correct, but "att han går" means "that he leaves/goes". The infinitive would be "gå" and "han" (which is the third person masculine singular subject) generally goes with present or past. Vill doesn't take the infinitive marker (att) either, so if you see "vill" and "att" it's most likely a subclause or something like that.   

A note about vill, one thing I see quite often from people learning Swedish is it being used like: Jag vill glass (I want ice cream) This doesn't work in Swedish, instead you'd say "Jag vill ha ice cream" (I want to have ice cream)


----------



## TunS

USB-anslutning said:


> A note about vill, one thing I see quite often from people learning Swedish is it being used like: Jag vill glass (I want ice cream) This doesn't work in Swedish, instead you'd say "Jag vill ha ice cream" (I want to have ice cream)



Tack USB-anslutning .

That helps a lot, so in that respect 'vill' has a slightly similar feeling to English's 'will', as in 'I will have ice cream (even if it kills me!)'. Its sounds a bit odd, but the sense of desire is there!


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

USB-anslutning said:


> instead you'd say "Jag vill ha ice cream"


I would normally say Jag vill ha glass...  (n.b. ha=have, infinitive)

Some other examples: 
Mamma, jag vill att du ger mig pengar för jag vill köpa glass. (literally:
'Mum, I want that you give me money for I want to buy ice cream')

/Wilma

P.S. In case you haven't noticed, there are some links to online dictionaries at the top of this forum, some of which give good examples.


----------



## maiteinliverpool

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Varsågod!
> 
> Vilja is the most common verb and it works in most situations unless you want to be extremely polite. Your context sentence in Swedish, one variant: Jag *vill* att han går härifrån så fort han har ätit färdigt..
> 
> As far as I'm aware, it's cognate with  English will.
> 
> Let's see if some of the other Swedish-speaking forer@s have additional comments...
> 
> /Wilma



Do you mean it is cognate with "want"?

This is actually quite interesting  Then in Swedish, you tend to say literally "I want cheese" rather than "I would like cheese", is this right?

"Jag vill ost, tack"

Unless, like you explained, you want to be extremely polite... is that ok?


----------



## Basaloe

maiteinliverpool said:


> Do you mean it is cognate with "want"?
> 
> This is actually quite interesting  Then in Swedish, you tend to say literally "I want cheese" rather than "I would like cheese", is this right?
> 
> "Jag vill ost, tack"
> 
> Unless, like you explained, you want to be extremely polite... is that ok?



You cant say "I want cheese" (Jag vill ost) at all. Its grammatically wrong. The corretct way of saying it is "I want to have cheese" (Jag vill ha ost). The more polite way is: I would like to have cheese (Jag skulle vlija ha ost).
*http://www.thefreedictionary.com/grammatically*


----------



## maiteinliverpool

Basaloe said:


> You cant say "I want cheese" (Jag vill ost) at all. Its grammatically wrong. The corretct way of saying it is "I want to have cheese" (Jag vill ha ost). The more polite way is: I would like to have cheese (Jag skulle vlija ha ost).


 
I know!  As soon as I logef off (I was running late) I realised I had forgotten to write the "ha"  But in a colloquial way, which one is more usual? Tack!


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

maiteinliverpool said:


> I know!  As soon as I logef off (I was running late) I realised I had forgotten to write the "ha"  But in a colloquial way, which one is more usual? Tack!


Jag vill ha ost/glass/whatever... is definitely the most common way of expressing what you want, when talking with friends, family etc. It's not quite polite enough to say to strangers, so if you ask for something, like in a shop, it's Jag skulle vilja ha...  
 
When I said that it's cognate with English will, I meant that both verbs share a common ancestry, from a proto-indo-european word, which means that there are similar-looking verbs in many other languages, but the way they are used and their modern meanings are not necessarily the same. The online etymology dictionary gives more details: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=will&searchmode=none

/Wilma


----------



## maiteinliverpool

Wilma_Sweden said:


> Jag vill ha ost/glass/whatever... is definitely the most common way of expressing what you want, when talking with friends, family etc. It's not quite polite enough to say to strangers, so if you ask for something, like in a shop, it's Jag skulle vilja ha...
> 
> When I said that it's cognate with English will, I meant that both verbs share a common ancestry, from a proto-indo-european word, which means that there are similar-looking verbs in many other languages, but the way they are used and their modern meanings are not necessarily the same. The online etymology dictionary gives more details: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?search=will&searchmode=none
> 
> /Wilma



Tack tack!  

All the Swedish grammar books I own stress how important it is to understand that will is not the same as vill hehe so i thought you meant that  but understood now hehe


----------



## TunS

Thanks everyone for your contributions 



Wilma_Sweden said:


> It's not quite polite enough to say to strangers, so if you ask for something, like in a shop, it's Jag skulle vilja ha...



Ahh, so Swedish is the same as English (and various other languages) here, as in it uses the conditional to heighten the politeness. Intressant, inte sant?


----------



## Wilma_Sweden

TunS said:


> Thanks everyone for your contributions


You're welcome!



> Ahh, so Swedish is the same as English (and various other languages) here, as in it uses the conditional to heighten the politeness. Intressant, inte sant?


Absolut! 

I wonder whether it's true for all Indo-European languages, but we would need to save that discussion for a separate thread in the 'All languages' forum.

/Wilma


----------



## maiteinliverpool

It would be interesting, let us know if that finally happens!


----------

