vilja means "want," and it splits into two patterns that English collapses into one. When you want to do something, vilja takes a bare infinitive, just like an English modal: Jag vill resa ("I want to travel"). But when you want a thing, Swedish does not say "want X" — it says "want to have X," vill ha + noun: Jag vill ha kaffe ("I want coffee," literally "I want to have coffee"). Forgetting that little ha is the single most common mistake English speakers make with this verb, so it sits at the centre of this page. We finish with the polite skulle vilja, which is how you ask for things without sounding blunt.
Forms
vilja is irregular. Memorise the three principal parts:
| Infinitive | Present | Past | Supine (with har/hade) |
|---|---|---|---|
| vilja | vill | ville | velat |
Watch the spelling: the infinitive is vilja (with j), the present is vill (double l, no j). They look close enough to swap by accident. As always, the forms are the same for every subject: jag vill, du vill, de vill.
Jag vill, du vill, vi vill — alla vill.
I want, you want, we want — everyone wants. One present form 'vill' for every subject.
Wanting to DO something: vilja + bare infinitive
When the thing you want is an action, use vilja + the bare infinitive of the verb — no att, exactly like the other modals.
Jag vill resa till Japan nästa år.
I want to travel to Japan next year. vill + resa — bare infinitive, no 'att'.
Vi vill stanna en vecka till.
We want to stay one more week. vill + stanna.
Vad vill du göra ikväll?
What do you want to do tonight? Question word order — 'vill' before the subject.
Han ville inte prata om det.
He didn't want to talk about it. Past 'ville', negated by 'inte'.
Wanting a THING: vill HA + noun (the obligatory ha)
Here is the construction that trips everyone up. To say you want an object — a coffee, a car, a glass of water — Swedish requires vill ha + the noun. Literally it is "I want to have coffee," and the ha ("to have") is not optional.
Jag vill ha kaffe, tack.
I want coffee, please. vill HA kaffe — NOT 'vill kaffe'. The 'ha' is obligatory before a noun object.
Han vill ha en ny bil.
He wants a new car. Again 'vill ha' + noun.
Vad vill du ha till middag?
What do you want for dinner? 'Vad vill du ha …?' is the everyday way to ask what someone wants.
Barnen ville ha glass efter maten.
The children wanted ice cream after the meal. Past: 'ville ha' + noun.
Why the ha? Think of it structurally rather than as a quirk: vilja is a modal, and modals in Swedish attach to a verb, not to a bare noun. "Coffee" is a noun, so you need a verb for vill to hook onto — and the natural verb for possessing/receiving a thing is ha ("to have"). So vill ha is just vill doing what every modal does (taking a verb), with that verb being ha. Once you see that, the construction stops feeling arbitrary: you are never really saying "want a noun," you are saying "want to have a noun."
Asking politely: skulle vilja ("would like")
Bare vill can sound a touch blunt — Jag vill ha en kaffe is fine but reads as a flat statement of desire, closer to "I want a coffee." To soften it into "I would like," Swedish uses the conditional skulle vilja. This is the register you want in a café, a shop, or any polite request (formal/polite).
Jag skulle vilja boka ett bord för två.
I would like to book a table for two. 'skulle vilja' + bare infinitive — the polite way to make a request.
Jag skulle vilja ha en kopp te, tack.
I would like a cup of tea, please. Note the chain: skulle vilja HA + noun — the 'ha' is still required before the noun object.
Vi skulle vilja veta mer om kursen.
We would like to know more about the course. 'skulle vilja veta' — polite request for information.
Structurally, skulle vilja is skulle (the conditional auxiliary, "would") + the infinitive vilja — and then vilja governs the next verb exactly as before. So you keep the same do/thing split: skulle vilja resa (do) vs skulle vilja ha kaffe (thing). The conditional skulle is covered in depth on The Conditional with skulle; for the broader toolkit of softening requests, see Politeness and Requests.
Jag ville gärna komma, men jag kunde inte.
I would have liked to come, but I couldn't. The past 'ville' + 'gärna' is another soft way to express a (past) wish.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag vill kaffe.
Incorrect — wanting a thing needs 'ha': vill HA kaffe.
✅ Jag vill ha kaffe.
I want coffee.
❌ Hon vill att resa till Italien.
Incorrect — after the modal 'vilja', no 'att' before the verb.
✅ Hon vill resa till Italien.
She wants to travel to Italy.
❌ Vad vill du? (when ordering food and meaning 'what do you want to eat')
Risky — bare 'Vad vill du?' means 'What do you want?' in a confrontational sense. For ordering, add 'ha'.
✅ Vad vill du ha?
What would you like (to have)? The natural way to take an order.
❌ Jag skulle vilja en kaffe.
Incorrect — even after 'skulle vilja', a noun object needs 'ha'.
✅ Jag skulle vilja ha en kaffe.
I would like a coffee.
❌ Han har ville hjälpa till.
Incorrect — after 'har' use the supine 'velat', not the past 'ville'.
✅ Han har velat hjälpa till.
He has wanted to help out.
Key Takeaways
- vilja = vill / ville / velat, irregular and invariable for person. (Mind the spelling: infinitive vilja with j, present vill without.)
- Want to DO → vilja
- bare infinitive: Jag vill resa.
- Want a THING → vill ha
- noun: Jag vill ha kaffe. The ha is obligatory — dropping it is the classic error.
- For polite requests, use the conditional skulle vilja ("would like"): Jag skulle vilja boka ett bord — and you still keep the ha before a noun (skulle vilja ha …).
- The ha makes sense once you see vilja is a modal: it needs a verb to attach to, and "to have" is that verb when the object is a thing.
Related Topics
- Modal Verbs: OverviewA2 — The Swedish modal verbs — kan, vill, ska, måste, får, bör, lär, må — all share one liberating syntax: they take a BARE infinitive with NO att (Jag kan simma, not *Jag kan att simma), and like all Swedish verbs they never agree for person. Learn one present form and you can build every modal sentence. This page maps the whole set and warns you that several modals (få, ska, må) are heavily polysemous.
- The Conditional with skulleB1 — skulle + infinitive is Swedish for 'would'. It builds hypotheticals (Jag skulle resa om jag hade pengar), past counterfactuals with ha + supine (Jag skulle ha stannat), and ultra-polite requests (Skulle du kunna…?). The twist: skulle is just the past tense of ska, doing double duty as both 'would' and 'was going to' — one form for two jobs English splits.
- Politeness FormulasA2 — The everyday courtesy phrases — tack and its expansions (tack så mycket, tusen tack), the ursäkta/förlåt split ('excuse me' for getting attention vs 'sorry' for apologising), varsågod ('here you go'), and softeners like ingen fara / det är lugnt. The big surprise for English speakers: Swedish has no routine 'you're welcome' — the answer to 'thanks' is usually minimal or nothing at all, so don't reach for one.
- vilja (to want)A2 — vilja is Swedish 'want' — present vill, past ville — and it takes a bare infinitive (Jag vill åka hem). But wanting a THING needs vill ha + noun ('want to have'): Jag vill ha vatten, not *Jag vill vatten. The polite version is skulle vilja, and beware the unrelated homograph vill (a form of villa, 'to err / be lost').