Við viljum dansa saman.

to want

Breakdown of Við viljum dansa saman.

• við: we
• saman: together
• dansa: to dance

Questions & Answers about Við viljum dansa saman.

Why is there no word for to before dansa?

In Icelandic, the base form of the verb (the infinitive) is usually just the verb itself, without a separate word like English to.

• dansa = to dance
• In dictionaries you’ll often see að dansa listed, where að is like to, but:
  • After verbs like vilja (to want), geta (can), mega (may), ætla (intend to), you normally use a bare infinitive (no að).

So Við viljum dansa saman literally is We want dance together, but it means We want to dance together.

Can I say Við viljum að dansa saman?

No, that is not idiomatic Icelandic.

• With vilja (to want), you use the infinitive without að:
  • Við viljum dansa saman. ✅
  • Við viljum að dansa saman. ❌

You do use að:

• When the infinitive is not governed by these modal‑like verbs:
  • Ég byrja að dansa. – I start to dance.
• Or in some more complex structures:
  • Það er gaman að dansa. – It is fun to dance.

But directly after vilja, drop að.

What form of the verb is viljum, and how is vilja conjugated?

viljum is the present tense, 1st person plural form of vilja (to want).

Present tense of vilja:

• ég vil – I want
• þú vilt – you (sg) want
• hann / hún / það vill – he / she / it wants
• við viljum – we want
• þið viljið – you (pl) want
• þeir / þær / þau vilja – they want

So Við viljum dansa saman = We want to dance together.

Note that the dictionary form vilja (with -a) is the infinitive, but in the present tense some forms lose that final -a, and the consonant changes a bit (vil, vilt, vill, etc.).

What exactly does við mean here, and is it always used for we and us?

Here Við (capitalized at the beginning of the sentence) is the personal pronoun in the nominative case, meaning we (as the subject).

Icelandic has case forms, so we / us is not always við:

• við – nominative (subject) = we
  
  • Við viljum dansa. – We want to dance.
• okkur – accusative & dative (object/indirect object) = us
  • Hann elskar okkur. – He loves us.
  • Hún gaf okkur bók. – She gave us a book.

There is also a small word við that is a preposition meaning roughly by / against / with (in some senses), but that is a different word; you recognize the pronoun by its role in the sentence and (in the middle of a sentence) by capitalization.

What does saman mean exactly, and why is it at the end?

saman is an adverb meaning together.

• Við viljum dansa saman. – We want to dance together.

In Icelandic, adverbs like saman commonly come after the verb phrase they modify, often near the end of the sentence.

You will normally say:

• Við dönsum saman. – We dance together.
• Þau búa saman. – They live together.

Putting saman earlier, like Við viljum saman dansa, is either wrong or sounds very marked/poetic. For ordinary speech, keep saman where it is: dansa saman.

Is vilja the only way to say want, or could I also use langar here?

You can express want with both vilja and langar, but they work differently.

1. vilja – direct, clear want / will

   • Ég vil dansa. – I want to dance.
   • Við viljum dansa saman. – We want to dance together.

2. langar – more like feel like / have a desire, and it needs a special construction:

   • You say literally “[someone in accusative] longs to”:
     • Mig langar að dansa. – literally Me longs to dance → I feel like dancing / I want to dance.
     • Okkur langar að dansa saman. – We feel like dancing together.

Both are common, but:

• vilja is structurally simpler for learners.
• langar is very frequent in everyday speech for I’d like to / I feel like.

In the exact sentence you gave, the natural alternatives would be:

• Við viljum dansa saman. – We want to dance together.
• Okkur langar að dansa saman. – We feel like dancing together.

How would I say We don’t want to dance together?

You add ekki (not) after the finite verb:

• Við viljum ekki dansa saman. – We don’t want to dance together.

Word order pattern:

• Subject – við
• Finite verb – viljum
• Negation – ekki
• Infinitive – dansa
• Adverb – saman

How do I turn this into a yes–no question?

In Icelandic yes–no questions, the finite verb usually moves to the first position.

For We want to dance together → Do we want to dance together?

• Viljum við dansa saman? – Do we want to dance together?

Other useful patterns:

• Viljið þið dansa saman? – Do you (plural) want to dance together?
• Viltu dansa saman? – Do you (sg) want to dance together?

So the pattern is generally:

• Verb – Subject – [rest of the sentence]

What is the word order in Við viljum dansa saman, and is it similar to English?

Yes, here it’s very similar to English:

• Við – subject (we)
• viljum – finite verb (want)
• dansa – infinitive (to dance)
• saman – adverb (together)

So: Subject – Verb – (Infinitive) – Adverb, like English We want to dance together.

The main difference you notice when you start making questions or adding things like ekki is that Icelandic is very strict about the verb being early in the sentence (so-called verb‑second rule in statements), but in this simple sentence it lines up neatly with English.

How do you pronounce Við viljum dansa saman?

Approximate pronunciation (very broad):

• Við ≈ vith (with a soft th as in this; short i as in sit)
• viljum ≈ VIL-yum
  
  • lj is like the lli in million.
• dansa ≈ DAN-sa (with a clean d, a as in father, s always like s in see)
• saman ≈ SAH-man (stress on the first syllable)

More precise (IPA‑style, but still simplified):

• Við – [vɪð]
• viljum – [ˈvɪljʏm]
• dansa – [ˈtansa] (spelled with d, but often pronounced unaspirated like t)
• saman – [ˈsaːman]

Key points:

• Stress is always on the first syllable in Icelandic words.
• ð is a soft, voiced th (like this, not thing), and at the end of the word it can be quite weak.