Questions & Answers about Jeg vil gjerne reservere et bord på kafeen i morgen.
Why does gjerne come after vil in jeg vil gjerne ...?
In Norwegian, gjerne is an adverb that often sits in the “adverb slot” after the finite (conjugated) verb in main clauses. The pattern is commonly:
- Subject + finite verb + adverb + infinitive/rest
So Jeg vil gjerne reservere ... is a very typical, natural placement. You can also move gjerne later for emphasis, but this is the default.
What exactly does vil gjerne mean grammatically—does vil mean “want” or “will”?
Vil is the present tense of å ville, which can mean “want” in many everyday contexts (especially with an infinitive): Jeg vil reservere ... = “I want to reserve ...”.
Adding gjerne softens it to something like “I’d like to ... / I’d be happy to ...”, which sounds more polite and less blunt than a plain “I want to”.
Why is reservere not conjugated—why isn’t it reserverer?
Because after the modal-like verb vil, Norwegian uses the infinitive: vil + infinitive.
- Jeg vil reservere ... (I want to reserve ...)
- Jeg reserverer ... would be “I reserve / I am reserving ...” (a straightforward present-tense statement without vil).
Is missing before ? I learned infinitives often have .