Han vil aldri forråde en venn.

Vil is the present-tense form of å ville. In Norwegian, å ville can mean several related things, such as want to, intend to, or will in a future sense.

In this sentence, vil gives a strong sense of will/would never. It is not just describing a repeated habit; it suggests a firm attitude, intention, or character.

Both are possible, but they are slightly different.

• Han forråder aldri en venn = a plain statement of fact or habit
• Han vil aldri forråde en venn = stronger, with a modal nuance of intention, refusal, or moral certainty

So vil adds something like he would never or he will never rather than simply he never does.

Because in a normal Norwegian main clause, adverbs like aldri, ikke, ofte, and alltid usually come after the finite verb.

Here, the finite verb is vil, so the standard order is:

Han vil aldri forråde en venn.

This is a very important Norwegian word-order rule.

Not in this main clause with normal word order.

But in a subordinate clause, it often does. For example:

Jeg vet at han aldri vil forråde en venn.

So the contrast is:

• main clause: Han vil aldri ...
• subordinate clause: ... at han aldri vil ...

That difference is one of the key patterns in Norwegian syntax.

Because it comes after the modal verb vil. After modal verbs in Norwegian, the next verb normally stays in the bare infinitive.

So you get:

• vil forråde
• kan komme
• må gå
• skal gjøre

This is similar to English, where you say will betray, not will to betray.

For the same reason: after a modal verb like vil, Norwegian uses the infinitive without å.

So:

• Han vil forråde = correct
• Han vil å forråde = incorrect

The infinitive marker å is used in many other situations, but not after modal verbs like vil, kan, må, skal, and bør.

En venn is:

• indefinite: not a specific friend
• singular: one friend
• masculine/common article form: en

The noun is venn, and here it means a friend, not the friend. If it were definite, it would be vennen.

So:

• en venn = a friend
• vennen = the friend

Here it is mainly the indefinite article, like English a.

Of course, en can also mean one, depending on context, but in this sentence en venn is best understood as a friend, not one friend in a contrastive or counting sense.

If you really wanted to stress the number, the context or intonation would usually make that clear.

Norwegian often uses the indefinite singular to make a general statement about a type of person or thing.

So forråde en venn means betraying a friend / any friend, not necessarily one particular friend.

This works much like English, where you can say Never betray a friend as a general rule.

Not necessarily.

Traditionally, venn is the masculine noun, and venninne can mean a female friend. But in modern Norwegian, venn is often used quite generally when the person’s gender is not important.

So in this sentence, en venn can naturally be understood as a friend in a general sense.

As a yes/no question, the finite verb moves to the front:

Vil han aldri forråde en venn?

That is standard Norwegian question word order.

So you can compare:

• statement: Han vil aldri forråde en venn.
• question: Vil han aldri forråde en venn?

A useful basic pattern is:

• infinitive: å forråde
• present: forråder
• past: forrådte
• past participle: forrådt

So you might see forms like:

• Han forråder ikke vennene sine.
• Han forrådte en venn.
• Han har forrådt en venn.

In your sentence, it stays in the infinitive because it follows vil.