Vil have | Danish Grammar

Vil have is the everyday Danish way to say "to want (something)" — jeg vil have en kop kaffe = "I want a cup of coffee". Danish has no single verb meaning simply "to want a thing"; instead it combines the modal vil ("will/want") with have ("have") into a fixed two-word unit. That looks alarmingly like English "will have", and that resemblance is the single biggest trap on this page. Vil have does not mean the future "will have". It means WANT, right now. Once that clicks, the rest is just learning to soften it politely with gerne.

Principal parts

Form	Danish	English
Infinitive	(at) ville have	to want (to have)
Present	vil have	want(s)
Past	ville have	wanted
Past participle	villet have	(have) wanted

Notice that the present vil have and the past ville have differ only in the modal: present vil, past ville. The have part never changes. There is no real imperative ("want!" makes no sense as a command), and vil have is not used in the passive.

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This is a fixed construction, not two free verbs. Learn vil have as a single chunk meaning "want (a thing)". The modal vil on its own cannot take a noun object — it needs have to grab hold of the thing wanted. See ville for the modal in full.

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No agreement. Vil have is the whole present for every subject — jeg vil have, du vil have, hun vil have, vi vil have, de vil have. One form for everyone, just like every Danish verb.

Present: vil have

Subject	Form	Example
jeg	vil have	jeg vil have en kaffe
du	vil have	vil du have mere?
han / hun	vil have	hun vil have en is
vi	vil have	vi vil have et bord til to
de	vil have	de vil have det samme

Jeg vil have en kop kaffe og et stykke kage.

I want a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

Hvad vil du have til aftensmad?

What do you want for dinner?

The big point: WANT, not the future

English "will have" points to the future ("I'll have finished by Friday"). Danish vil have points to desire ("I want this thing"). They look identical and mean opposite things, so this is worth dwelling on.

Jeg vil have en øl.

I want a beer. (NOT 'I will have a beer' as a future statement)

Børnene vil have is, men de får frugt.

The kids want ice cream, but they're getting fruit.

So how does Danish say the English "I'll have a coffee" (placing an order, predicting what you'll get)? It uses få ("get/have"), in the plain present:

Danish	English	Sense
jeg vil have en kaffe	I want a coffee	stated desire
jeg får en kaffe	I'll have / get a coffee	what I'll end up with

Jeg får en kaffe, tak.

I'll have a coffee, please. (ordering — using få)

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The reflex to avoid: hearing English "I'll have…" and producing jeg vil have… thinking it is a future. Vil have is always a want. For the casual ordering "I'll have…", Danish reaches for få (jeg får…) or, more politely, vil gerne have (below).

The polite version: vil gerne have

Bare vil have can sound blunt — like a child demanding. Adding the little word gerne ("gladly") turns "I want" into "I'd like", and this is the polite request formula Danes use dozens of times a day, at the bakery, the bar, the ticket counter.

Jeg vil gerne have en croissant og en juice, tak.

I'd like a croissant and a juice, please.

Vil I gerne have noget at drikke?

Would you like something to drink?

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If you remember one phrase from this page, make it vil gerne have — "I'd like (to have)". It is the courteous way to ask for almost anything. Plain vil have is fine among family or in a hurry, but vil gerne have is what you want with strangers and staff.

vil hellere have — would rather have

Swap gerne for hellere ("more gladly", the comparative) to state a preference: "would rather have".

Jeg vil hellere have te end kaffe.

I'd rather have tea than coffee.

Past: ville have

The past ville have means "wanted (something)". Remember that ville here is the past of the modal, spelled the same as the infinitive ville.

Hun ville have den røde kjole, men de havde kun den blå.

She wanted the red dress, but they only had the blue one.

Som barn ville jeg altid have dessert først.

As a child I always wanted dessert first.

Present perfect: har villet have

The perfect is har + villet (participle of the modal) + have. It is a real form but heavy, so it appears mostly in writing or careful speech.

Jeg har altid villet have en hund.

I've always wanted (to have) a dog.

"Want someone to do something" — vil have at

To want another person to do something, Danish adds at plus a clause: vil have at + clause. This differs from English "want someone to…": Danish has no bare infinitive here — it spells out "want that…".

Jeg vil have, at du rydder op på dit værelse.

I want you to tidy your room. (lit. 'I want that you tidy…')

Hun vil have, at vi kommer til tiden.

She wants us to come on time.

Common collocations and fixed expressions

vil have — want (a thing)
vil gerne have — would like (the polite request)
vil hellere have — would rather have
vil ikke have — don't want
hvad vil du have? — what do you want / would you like?
vil have at + clause — want someone to do something

Jeg vil ikke have mælk i kaffen, tak.

I don't want milk in my coffee, thanks.

A natural exchange

— Hej, hvad vil du have? — Jeg vil gerne have en kanelsnegl, tak. Og min søn vil have en kakao. — Han vil hellere have en juice, tror jeg. — Nej, jeg vil have kakao!

— Hi, what would you like? — I'd like a cinnamon roll, please. And my son wants a hot chocolate. — He'd rather have a juice, I think. — No, I want hot chocolate!

Notice the register slide: the parent uses the polite vil gerne have, while the child uses the blunt vil have — exactly the difference a Danish ear hears.

Common mistakes

❌ Jeg vil en kop kaffe.

Incomplete — vil alone can't take a noun object; you need vil HAVE to grab the thing.

✅ Jeg vil have en kop kaffe.

I want a cup of coffee.

❌ Jeg vil have en kaffe. (when you mean: I'll have a coffee, placing an order)

Mis-transfer of English 'will have' — vil have means WANT. For ordering, use jeg får / jeg vil gerne have.

✅ Jeg vil gerne have en kaffe, tak.

I'd like a coffee, please.

❌ Jeg gerne vil have en sandwich.

Wrong word order — gerne sits right after the finite verb vil.

✅ Jeg vil gerne have en sandwich.

I'd like a sandwich.

❌ Jeg vil dig at komme.

Wrong structure — to want someone to do something is vil have at + clause.

✅ Jeg vil have, at du kommer.

I want you to come.

❌ Hun villede have en is.

Wrong past form — the past of the modal is ville (same as the infinitive), not villede.

✅ Hun ville have en is.

She wanted an ice cream.

Key Takeaways

Vil have = "want (a thing)", not the English future "will have". Learn it as one chunk.
Vil alone cannot take a noun — it needs have to hold the wanted thing.
Vil gerne have is the polite "I'd like"; vil hellere have is "would rather have".
For the casual ordering "I'll have…", Danish uses få (jeg får…), not vil have.
To want someone else to act, use vil have at + clause — Danish spells out "want that…".

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