ville (will/want — full paradigm) | Norwegian Grammar

This is the conjugation reference for ville, the Norwegian modal most likely to trip up an English speaker — because vil looks like English "will" but does not primarily mean "will." Its core meaning is want. This page gives the full paradigm and nails down that distinction; for the future-tense and conditional uses, follow the links to the future and conditional overviews.

Principal parts

Ville is a pure modal: the present takes no -r ending, and there is no imperative (you cannot command someone to want something). Note the doubled l throughout — vil has one l, every other form has two.

Infinitive	Present	Preterite	Perfect (har + supine)	Imperative
å ville	vil	ville	har villet	—
to want / be willing	want(s) / will	wanted / would	have wanted	(none)

One form per tense for every subject: jeg vil, du vil, han vil, vi vil, dere vil, de vil. No agreement, no -r.

vil means WANT — the central point

This is the most important sentence on the page: the default meaning of vil is "want," not "will." English speakers see vil and hear a neutral future auxiliary. It is not. Jeg vil expresses volition — desire, intention, willingness.

Jeg vil ha kaffe, takk.

I want coffee, please.

Hun vil ikke gå på festen.

She doesn't want to go to the party.

That second example is a trap: an English speaker might read hun vil ikke gå as "she won't go" (a prediction). To a Norwegian it first means "she doesn't want to go." The phrase vil ha ("want to have") is the everyday way to say "want" with an object — there is no separate verb for "want" that you reach for instead.

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If you want to express a pure, neutral future ("the bus will arrive at six," no desire involved), Norwegian usually does not use vil. It uses the present tense (bussen kommer klokka seks) or skal. Save vil for when someone actually wants something. See the future overview for the full picture.

When vil does edge toward "will"

Vil does carry a future/prediction sense, but typically when there is still a flavour of willingness, tendency, or a confident forecast — not a flat timetable fact.

Det vil ta noen uker før vi får svar.

It will take a few weeks before we get an answer.

En slik feil vil alltid bli oppdaget til slutt.

A mistake like that will always be discovered in the end.

These are predictions about how things tend to go, and here English "will" matches well. But the want reading is the one to reach for by default with a personal subject.

The infinitive = preterite trap

As with the other modals, the infinitive ville and the preterite ville are spelled identically. Only the syntax disambiguates: the infinitive follows another modal or å; the preterite is the finite verb of its clause.

Jeg har alltid villet lære å seile.

I've always wanted to learn to sail.

Hun ville reise til Japan, men billettene var for dyre.

She wanted to travel to Japan, but the tickets were too expensive.

In jeg har alltid villet the finite verb is har, so what follows is the supine villet. In hun ville reise the finite verb is ville (preterite), and reise is the bare infinitive after it. The preterite ville does double duty: it is both "wanted" (past desire) and conditional "would" (jeg ville gjort det samme = "I would have done the same").

Har du villet det lenge, eller er det en ny idé?

Have you wanted this for a long time, or is it a new idea?

The bare-infinitive rule

After ville in any form, the next verb is a bare infinitive with no å.

Vil du danse?

Do you want to dance?

De ville ikke betale for parkeringen.

They didn't want to pay for the parking.

ville as the conditional "would"

The second big job of the preterite ville is the conditional — English "would." This is how Norwegian builds hypothetical and counterfactual statements, usually paired with an om/hvis ("if") clause.

Jeg ville aldri ha sagt noe sånt.

I would never have said anything like that.

Hvis jeg var deg, ville jeg ringt henne med en gang.

If I were you, I'd call her right away.

So the single form ville spans "wanted" (past desire) and "would" (conditional), and context separates them — a past-desire reading usually has a concrete situation behind it, while a conditional reading usually has an explicit or implied if. For the full machinery of hypotheticals, see the conditional overview.

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Norwegian has no dedicated "would" auxiliary the way English does — it reuses the preterite modals (ville, skulle, kunne) plus, in the past, ha + supine. So jeg ville gjort det = "I would do it" and jeg ville ha gjort det = "I would have done it." The same ville you learned for "wanted" is doing conditional duty here.

Register notes

Vil and ville are register-neutral and extremely frequent in all styles. Two things worth knowing:

Vil gjerne ("would like to") is the standard polite softener for requests and orders: jeg vil gjerne ha en kaffe is warmer and more polite than bare jeg vil ha en kaffe, which can sound demanding. Add gjerne whenever you're ordering or asking for something.
In the conditional, the auxiliary ha is often dropped in casual speech — jeg ville gjort det for jeg ville ha gjort det — but both are correct and you'll hear and read both.

Jeg vil gjerne ha to billetter til forestillingen i kveld.

I'd like two tickets for tonight's show, please.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jeg vil en kaffe.

Incorrect — 'want an object' needs vil ha, not bare vil.

✅ Jeg vil ha en kaffe.

I want a coffee.

❌ Toget vil komme klokka åtte. (meaning a neutral timetable)

Misleading — for a flat future fact, use the present or skal, not vil.

✅ Toget kommer / skal komme klokka åtte.

The train arrives / is due at eight.

❌ Han viller ikke gå.

Incorrect — the modal present is vil, with no -r.

✅ Han vil ikke gå.

He doesn't want to go.

❌ Jeg har ville hjelpe.

Incorrect — the supine is villet, not the infinitive ville.

✅ Jeg har villet hjelpe.

I have wanted to help.

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