Ville is one of the small set of Danish modal verbs, and it is the one English speakers most often misread. Its English cousin is will — but the resemblance is a trap. Where English will is a neutral marker of the future, Danish vil leans toward wanting: volition, intention, willingness. Get this distinction right and a great deal of natural-sounding Danish falls into place, including vil gerne, the phrase Danes use dozens of times a day to ask for things politely.
Principal parts
| Infinitive | Present | Past (datid) | Past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| (at) ville | vil | ville | (har) villet |
Notice that the infinitive and the past tense are spelled identically — both ville. Only the present, vil, stands apart. Context (and any time words in the sentence) tells the two *ville*s apart.
Ville across the tenses
As a modal, ville is followed by a bare infinitive — the main verb with no at in front of it. This is the single biggest structural habit to build: after a modal, no "at".
Present — vil + bare infinitive:
Jeg vil gerne bo i udlandet et år.
I would like to live abroad for a year.
Past — ville + bare infinitive:
Som barn ville jeg være astronaut.
As a child I wanted to be an astronaut.
Present perfect — har + the participle villet. Here the main verb appears as an infinitive after villet:
Jeg har altid villet lære at spille klaver.
I have always wanted to learn to play the piano.
Notice how the perfect stacks: har (auxiliary) + villet (participle of the modal) + lære (bare infinitive of the main verb). English does the same thing — have wanted to learn — except Danish drops the "to" before lære.
The meaning: wanting, not predicting
The core of ville is volition — the speaker's will or desire. From that core it stretches into the future, but always with a flavour of intention rather than neutral prediction.
Vil du have en kop kaffe?
Do you want a cup of coffee?
Han vil ikke høre på mig.
He won't listen to me. (refuses to — pure volition)
That last example is exactly why English won't also means "refuses to": the modal is about the will. Danish keeps this meaning front and centre.
When Danish needs a plain, neutral future — "the train leaves at six," "it will rain tomorrow" — it usually does not reach for vil. It uses the present tense instead, often with a time expression:
Toget kører klokken seks.
The train leaves / will leave at six o'clock.
Det regner i morgen.
It will rain tomorrow.
Using vil in those sentences (Det vil regne i morgen) is not wrong, but it sounds heavier and more deliberate — as if the rain had intentions. For everyday scheduled or predicted events, the present tense is the natural choice.
The essential collocations
A handful of fixed combinations carry most of the everyday workload of ville. Learn these as whole units.
vil have — "want (something)". Danish has no separate verb meaning simply "to want a thing"; it uses ville + have ("will have").
Jeg vil have en is, og hun vil have en kage.
I want an ice cream, and she wants a cake.
vil gerne — "would like". Adding the little word gerne ("gladly") softens vil from a bare "I want" into a polite "I'd like". This is the everyday request formula — at the bakery, the ticket counter, the doctor's office.
Jeg vil gerne bestille en kop te, tak.
I'd like to order a cup of tea, please.
ville gerne — the past, "would have liked / wanted to". Used for desires looking back, or to make a request even gentler and more tentative.
Jeg ville gerne have hjulpet, men jeg havde ikke tid.
I would have liked to help, but I didn't have time.
vil hellere — "would rather / prefer to". Hellere is the comparative "more gladly".
Vil du i biografen? — Nej, jeg vil hellere blive hjemme.
Do you want to go to the cinema? — No, I'd rather stay home.
A natural exchange
— Hej, jeg vil gerne have to billetter til klokken otte.
— Hi, I'd like two tickets for the eight o'clock show.
— Selvfølgelig. Vil I sidde foran eller bagved?
— Of course. Do you want to sit at the front or the back?
— Vi vil hellere sidde bagved, tak.
— We'd rather sit at the back, please.
Three turns of dialogue, three different shades of ville — a polite request (vil gerne have), a plain offer of choice (vil … sidde), and a stated preference (vil hellere) — and not one of them is the English neutral "will".
Common Mistakes
❌ Jeg vil ringe til dig i morgen. (meaning: a neutral promise to call)
Misleading — vil here sounds like willing/intending, which is fine, but for a plain future the present is more natural.
✅ Jeg ringer til dig i morgen.
I'll call you tomorrow.
This is the headline error: importing English will as a neutral future marker. For a simple plan or promise, Danish prefers the present tense (jeg ringer). Use vil when you genuinely mean willingness or intention.
❌ Jeg vil en kop kaffe.
Incorrect — ville cannot take a noun object directly.
✅ Jeg vil have en kop kaffe.
I want a cup of coffee.
To want a thing, you need vil have ("will have"). Vil alone must be followed by a verb, not a noun.
❌ Jeg vil at lære dansk.
Incorrect — a modal takes a bare infinitive, with no at.
✅ Jeg vil lære dansk.
I want to learn Danish.
After a modal like vil, the following verb appears with no at. English keeps "to" (want to learn); Danish drops it.
❌ Jeg gerne vil have en sandwich.
Incorrect word order — gerne belongs after the verb.
✅ Jeg vil gerne have en sandwich.
I'd like a sandwich.
The frame is vil gerne (have) in that order. The sentence adverb gerne sits right after the finite verb vil, not before it.
Key Takeaways
- Principal parts: (at) ville → vil (present) → ville (past) → villet (participle). One form per tense, all subjects.
- The core meaning is volition, not neutral future — for plain predictions and schedules, use the present tense.
- vil takes a bare infinitive (no at); to want a noun, use vil have.
- Learn the collocations: vil have (want), vil gerne (would like — the polite formula), ville gerne (would have liked), vil hellere (would rather).
Now practice Danish
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Start learning Danish→Related Topics
- Ville: Volition, Future and ConditionalA2 — The modal ville (vil/ville/villet) — wanting (vil have = 'want'), prediction/future, willingness, and the conditional ville gerne ('would like').
- Modal Verbs: An OverviewA2 — The six core Danish modals — kunne, ville, skulle, måtte, burde, turde — their present and past forms, and the iron rule that they take a bare infinitive with no at.
- SkulleA1 — The modal verb skulle — obligation, plans and arrangements, the reportative 'is said to', and skal vi…? — with full principal parts and tenses.
- KunneB2 — Full reference for the modal kunne ('can / be able to / could'): a preterite-present verb that takes a bare infinitive.
- Adding At After ModalsA1 — Danish modal verbs take a bare infinitive with no 'at' — so 'jeg vil at gå' is wrong; it's 'jeg vil gå', mirroring English 'I want to go' minus the 'to'.