Volition: θέλω να / θα ήθελα

θέλω is one of the first verbs anybody learns, and the frame θέλω να + verb is laid out on να after modal verbs. What that page cannot do in passing is the interesting part: whose action you are wanting, what happens when you negate, how Greek climbs from a vague wish to an announced decision, and the everyday θέλει that has nothing to do with wanting at all.

Two complements: a thing or an action

θέλω takes either a noun in the accusative (you want a thing) or a να-clause (you want something to happen). There is no third option — no bare verb, no "that"-clause.

In speech the second person is almost always the shortened θες (informal) rather than θέλεις: Τι θες; ("What do you want?"), Θες καφέ; ("Fancy a coffee?"). Both forms are correct and you will see both in writing.

Whose action is it?

Here is the structural fact that shapes everything else. The να-verb carries its own person ending, so it can describe your action or somebody else's, and the only thing that tells them apart is that ending.

Two words differ — φύγω against φύγεις — and the whole meaning of the sentence turns on them. English has to insert an object pronoun ("I want you to leave"); Greek has no slot for one, because the ending has already said it, which is why the να overview warns against a stray εσένα. A nominative pronoun can be fronted for contrast — Θέλω εσύ να μιλήσεις πρώτος ("I want you to speak first") — but that is emphasis, not the ordinary way to build the sentence.

The wanted person can also be named by a full noun phrase, which normally sits after the να-verb (it can be fronted before να for emphasis — Θέλω η αδερφή μου να είναι εκεί — but nothing may come between να and its verb except a clitic pronoun or μην, as in Θέλω να μην το μάθει):

One honest wrinkle: in the third person the sentence can be genuinely ambiguous. Θέλει να φύγει is "he wants to leave" or "he wants him/her to leave", depending on who is in the room. Greek fixes it when it has to by naming the subject or adding ο ίδιος ("himself"): Θέλει να φύγει ο ίδιος.

Δεν θέλω να vs Θέλω να μην

This is the point English speakers get wrong most often, and it is not about grammar but about where the negation lands.

• Δεν θέλω να πάει — I have no such wish. The wanting is denied.
• Θέλω να μην πάει — I actively wish for the opposite. The going is denied.

English blurs the two: when a speaker says "I don't want you to go", they almost always mean the second one — the wish is for the not-going, not merely an absence of wishing. Linguists call this neg-raising: the "not" starts in the lower clause and climbs into the higher one. Greek allows the climb too, so Δεν θέλω να πας is the ordinary way to say it — but Greek also keeps Θέλω να μην πας available as a deliberate, emphatic alternative, and it is heard as considerably stronger.

Politeness: θέλω → ήθελα → θα ήθελα

The bare present is direct. Two softer rungs exist, and they are matters of register, not correctness: the imperfect ήθελα and the conditional θα ήθελα (formal, polite). Both are covered in full on the imperfect for politeness and the conditional for politeness.

Worth knowing, because it catches people out: ήθελα does two entirely different jobs. Next to a request it is a present-time softener ("I'd like"); in a narrative about the past it is a real past tense ("I wanted"). The company it keeps decides which.

From wanting to planning

Greek has a whole ladder between "I fancy it" and "it's happening", and using the wrong rung sounds evasive or overcommitted:

Note where θα sits: Θα έρθω στο πάρτι σου is a commitment, while Θέλω να έρθω στο πάρτι σου announces a wish and quietly leaves the door open. Answer an invitation with θέλω να and a Greek host will assume you are not sure yet.

The impersonal θέλει: "it takes"

Third-person θέλει with a plain object means "it takes / it needs" — no wanting involved, and no person in sight. This is everyday Greek and it surprises learners who have filed θέλω under "want".

Two idioms to have ready

θέλω να πω means "I mean" — the standard repair and clarification phrase, and Τι θες να πεις; is "What do you mean?" (informal). And θέλεις δε θέλεις (informal) is "like it or not".

Common Mistakes

1. Sliding για να in front of the wanted action. για να is the purpose linker ("in order to"); a complement of θέλω is a plain να-clause.

2. Letting the negation land in the wrong clause. Both are correct Greek; they are two different wishes.

3. Reading every ήθελα as a past tense. The same form is a polite present next to a request and a genuine past in a story.

4. Accepting an invitation with θέλω. Grammatical, but it commits you to nothing — Greek hears a wish, not a yes.

Key Takeaways

• θέλω takes an accusative noun or a να-clause — not a bare verb, and not an ότι-clause.
• The person of the να-verb is the whole difference between Θέλω να φύγω (I leave) and Θέλω να φύγεις (you leave); an object pronoun has no place there, and a nominative one only for contrast.
• Δεν θέλω να… denies the wanting; Θέλω να μην… wishes for the opposite. English blurs them, Greek keeps both.
• Register ladder for requests: Θέλω (direct) → Ήθελα (polite) → Θα ήθελα (formal) — all correct, all different in tone.
• Intention ladder: θέλω να (desire) → σκέφτομαι να → λέω να (informal) → σκοπεύω να / έχω σκοπό να → θα (a decision). Answering an invitation needs the last rung.
• θέλει
  • object = "it takes" (Θέλει υπομονή, Θέλει δυο ώρες), and θέλω να πω = "I mean".