Jeg vil hellere have det gamle end det nye.

Hellere means rather or preferably.

So Jeg vil hellere have det gamle end det nye means something like:

• I would rather have the old one than the new one
• I prefer the old one to the new one

It is the comparative form of gerne in this kind of expression:

• gerne = gladly / willingly
• hellere = rather
• helst = preferably / most willingly

Examples:

• Jeg vil gerne have kaffe. = I’d like coffee.
• Jeg vil hellere have te. = I’d rather have tea.
• Jeg vil helst have te. = I’d prefer tea.

Vil is the modal verb here, and it often corresponds to want to, would like to, or would depending on context.

The structure is:

• Jeg = I
• vil = want / would like
• hellere = rather
• have = have / get / take
• det gamle = the old one
• end det nye = than the new one

So vil hellere have is literally something like want rather to have, but in natural English we say would rather have.

This word order is normal in Danish:

• subject + finite verb + adverb + infinitive

Compare:

• Jeg vil gerne spise nu. = I would like to eat now.
• Jeg vil hellere vente. = I would rather wait.

Not exactly in the sense of possess. In Danish, have is often used where English would say:

• have
• get
• take
• choose
• want

In this sentence, have is closer to have/get/take in a choice situation.

So:

• Jeg vil have det gamle. can mean I want the old one or I’ll take the old one.

That is very natural Danish.

Because Danish can use an adjective with det as a kind of stand-in for the one / the thing.

So:

• det gamle = the old one / the old thing
• det nye = the new one / the new thing

English does this too with the old one and the new one, but Danish often leaves out the noun completely when it is understood from context.

For example:

• Jeg tager den røde. = I’ll take the red one.
• Hun valgte det største. = She chose the biggest one.

Because after det in this kind of definite or substantivized expression, the adjective usually takes the -e form.

So:

• gammel = old
• ny = new

But here:

• det gamle
• det nye

This is the form you expect when the adjective is used with a definite meaning, especially when it stands alone as the old one, the new one, etc.

You can think of it as similar to:

• den gamle bil = the old car
• det gamle hus = the old house
• det gamle = the old one / the old thing

Because end is the normal word for than in comparisons.

Since hellere is comparative (rather), Danish uses end:

• hellere ... end ... = rather ... than ...
• større end = bigger than
• bedre end = better than

So:

• Jeg vil hellere have det gamle end det nye. = I’d rather have the old one than the new one.

Do not confuse end with og (and) or eller (or).

It would sound less natural. The most natural placement is:

• Jeg vil hellere have det gamle end det nye.

That is because hellere normally comes before the infinitive have in this type of sentence.

So for learners, the safest pattern is:

• subject + vil + hellere + infinitive

Examples:

• Jeg vil hellere gå. = I’d rather go.
• Hun vil hellere blive hjemme. = She’d rather stay home.

Formally, det is the neuter singular form, yes, but in a sentence like this the whole phrase often works more abstractly as the old one / the old thing / the old version.

What exactly it refers to depends on context:

• an old phone
• an old model
• an old house
• an old option
• an old one in general

So grammatically it is built with det, but semantically it often just means the old one.

If the noun were explicitly included, the form would depend on that noun:

• den gamle bil = the old car
• det gamle hus = the old house

But when the noun is omitted, det gamle is a very common general expression.

A learner may wonder why Danish does not use something more directly like better.

In Danish, hellere is the normal word in the pattern would rather:

• Jeg vil hellere have X end Y.

You do not normally say:

• Jeg vil bedre have ... for this meaning.

If you want to say like better, you would often use a different structure:

• Jeg kan bedre lide det gamle end det nye. = I like the old one better than the new one.

So:

• vil hellere have = would rather have / would prefer to take
• kan bedre lide = like better

They are related in meaning, but not interchangeable in grammar.

In careful pronunciation, roughly:

• Jeg ≈ yai or yai/yei
• vil ≈ vil
• hellere ≈ HEL-er-ə
• have ≈ HA-və
• det ≈ de
• gamle ≈ GAM-lə
• end ≈ en
• det nye ≈ de NY-ə

In everyday speech, some words are reduced, especially det and end.

A rough learner-friendly version might be:

Yai vil HEL-er ha de GAM-lə en de NY-ə

But pronunciation varies by speaker and region, and Danish reductions can be strong in natural speech.

Yes. That is a very natural translation.

Even though the Danish structure is literally closer to I would rather have the old one than the new one, the meaning is often basically the same as:

• I prefer the old one to the new one

The exact English translation depends on tone and context:

• I’d rather have the old one than the new one = closer to the Danish wording
• I prefer the old one to the new one = smoother English in many contexts

So both are good ways to understand the sentence.