Learn Danish: Faren vil blive hjemme nu. - The father wants to stay home now.

In Danish, vil is a tricky false friend! While it looks exactly like the English word 'will', it usually means 'want to' or 'wants to'. It expresses a desire or will to do something, rather than just stating what will happen in the future.

Why is there no Danish word for 'to' before blive?

Because vil is a modal verb. Just like in English where we say 'he must stay' rather than 'he must to stay', Danish modal verbs are followed directly by the dictionary form of the next verb (the bare infinitive). We just write blive without adding at (to) in front of it.

How did the word for father (far) turn into faren?

In Danish, you express 'the' by adding a specific ending to the noun instead of putting a separate word in front. Adding the -en suffix to far gives us faren, meaning 'the father'.

Why does the sentence use hjemme instead of just hjem?

Danish has two different words for 'home' depending on movement. You use hjem when there is movement towards the home, like 'going home'. You use hjemme when there is no movement and you are already resting 'at home'. Since the father wants to stay in one place, we use the static word hjemme.