wil hê (to want) — Full Forms

To say I want in Afrikaans you almost never use a single verb — you use wil hê, literally "want to have". This is one of the most useful and most consistently mis-built constructions for English speakers, because the way you say I want you to come looks nothing like English. This page walks through the forms of wil hê, how to want a thing, and how to want someone else to do something. (For wil as a pure modal — I want to go — see the modals overview; here the focus is the wil hê construction itself.)

The forms

Wil hê is a two-part verb: the modal wil ("want") plus hê ("to have"). Note the circumflex on hê — it is obligatory. The spelling he without the circumflex is a different word entirely, so the accent is a meaning-bearing mark, not decoration. In the present, the two parts flank the object; in the perfect, wil combines with the participle gehad.

The everyday past is the modal preterite wou ("wanted"): Ek wou koffie hê ("I wanted coffee"). The full perfect with gehad exists but is heavier and less common in speech.

Wanting a thing: wil … hê

To want an object, wrap the thing between wil and hê. The object sits inside the bracket: wil + [thing] + hê.

This wil … hê bracket is the standard way to express wanting something concrete. The hê is not optional — Ek wil koffie on its own is incomplete and sounds like an unfinished sentence (it leaves you waiting for an infinitive). The hê closes the thought.

Wanting someone to do something: wil hê … moet

Here is the construction English speakers get wrong almost every time. To say I want you to come, you cannot use wil + an infinitive the way English uses want + to. English want takes a small infinitive clause (I want [you to come]); Afrikaans cannot. Instead it says, literally, "I want-have [you must come]": Ek wil hê jy moet kom.

The logic: wil hê opens the desire, and what you desire is a whole little clause — jy moet kom, "you must come". The moet ("must") is doing essential work; it is what turns "you come" into "you-should-come", the content of the wish. The traditional fuller form adds the conjunction dat ("that") — Ek wil hê dat jy moet kom — but modern Afrikaans, especially in speech, increasingly drops dat and uses the "clean" clause with ordinary main-clause word order: Ek wil hê jy moet kom. Both are correct; the dat-less version is more current and more conversational.

Why two objects and clauses tangle here is the broader topic of double objects and datives; the takeaway for wil hê specifically is: a thing goes inside the wil … hê bracket, but a desired action by someone else becomes a wil hê … moet clause.

Polite and emphatic uses

In the past-modal form wou, wil hê softens into a polite request, much like English I'd like / I wanted to ask. And wil hê can take stress for emphasis — I really do want.

For the wider field of expressing preferences and likes — I'd love to, I'd rather — see likes and dislikes.

Common Mistakes

This is the error. English I want you to come tempts a word-for-word build with an infinitive, but Afrikaans has no such pattern. You must switch to wil hê + a moet-clause: "I want-have you must come."

Dropping hê is the second-most-common error. Wil alone is a modal that expects a following verb; to want a thing, you need the closing hê.

Leaving out moet strips the wish of its force — jy kom is just "you come". The moet is what carries the "should/must" that makes it the content of a desire.

Two problems at once: hê needs its circumflex, and the thing wanted belongs between wil and hê, not after a stray, accentless he.

Key Takeaways

• Want in Afrikaans is normally wil hê ("want to have"), not a single verb. Hê keeps its circumflex.
• To want a thing: bracket it — wil
  • [thing] + hê (Ek wil koffie hê). Do not drop the hê.
• To want someone to act: wil hê
  • a moet-clause — Ek wil hê jy moet kom. The optional dat is older/more formal; dropping it is current and conversational.
• Never use wil
  • a bare infinitive clause for "want someone to" — that pattern does not exist in Afrikaans.
• The everyday past is wou (Ek wou koffie hê, "I wanted coffee").