Mission—Team—FAQ—Privacy—Terms—Sponsors—Grammar—Typing Course—Donate

© 2026 Elon Automation B.V.

Learn Hardcore Swedish: Alla vill ha fred. - Everyone wants peace.

Hardcore Swedish
/Taking a pet to the veterinarian
/Alla vill ha fred.

Alla vill ha fred.

Word

Alla vill ha fred.

Meaning

Everyone wants peace.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Swedish

Lesson

Taking a pet to the veterinarian

Breakdown of Alla vill ha fred.

Questions & Answers about Alla vill ha fred.

What does alla mean here?

In this sentence, alla means everyone.

A useful thing to know is that alla can also mean all depending on context:

Alla vill ha fred. = Everyone wants peace.
Alla barn sover. = All the children are sleeping.

So alla can refer either to:

a group of people in general (everyone), or
all members of a specific plural group (all).

Why is it vill and not something like villar?

Because vill is the present tense form of the verb vilja (to want), and Swedish verbs do not change depending on the subject the way English verbs sometimes do.

So:

jag vill = I want
du vill = you want
han vill = he wants
vi vill = we want
alla vill = everyone wants

The verb stays vill for all persons.

What is the base form of vill?

Elon.io is an online learning platform

We have an entire course teaching Swedish grammar and vocabulary.

Start learning Swedish now

The base form is vilja, meaning to want.

This is an irregular verb, so the forms are worth learning as a set:

vilja = to want
vill = want / wants
ville = wanted
velat = wanted (supine / past participle-related form)

So in Alla vill ha fred, vill is simply the present tense of vilja.

What does ha mean here?

Ha is the infinitive form of att ha, which means to have.

In vill ha, the literal structure is:

vill = want
ha = have

So word-for-word, Alla vill ha fred is roughly Everyone wants to have peace, though in natural English we usually just say Everyone wants peace.

Why is there no att before ha?

Because after vill, Swedish normally uses the infinitive without att.

So:

Jag vill ha kaffe. = I want coffee.
Hon vill sova. = She wants to sleep.
Alla vill ha fred. = Everyone wants peace.

This is similar to English in some cases where a second verb appears in a simple verb phrase, but in Swedish it is especially important to memorize which verbs take infinitives without att. Vilja is one of them.

Why is fred used without en or ett?

Because fred is being used here as a general, uncountable idea: peace.

In Swedish, abstract nouns and mass nouns often appear without an article when talking about them in a general sense.

Compare:

Vi vill ha fred. = We want peace.
Hon söker kärlek. = She is looking for love.
De behöver hjälp. = They need help.

If you added a definite article, freden, it would mean the peace, referring to a specific peace.

Is fred an en word or an ett word?

Fred is an en word:

en fred (rare in practice, because the general abstract noun usually appears without an article)
freden = the peace

Even though it is an en word, you usually just see fred by itself in expressions like this.

Why is the word order Alla vill ha fred?

This is the normal Swedish word order for a main clause:

subject
- verb
  - rest of sentence

So here:

Alla = subject
vill = finite verb
ha fred = rest of the predicate

Swedish main clauses usually put the finite verb in the second position, often called the V2 rule. Since the subject comes first here, the verb follows it directly.

Could I also say Alla vill fred without ha?

Usually, Alla vill ha fred is the most natural phrasing.

You may sometimes see vilja used directly with a noun in certain contexts, but with something like fred, vill ha is the standard and most idiomatic choice for learners.

So if you want to say Everyone wants peace, use:

Alla vill ha fred.

How is alla pronounced?

Alla is pronounced approximately like AH-lah, with the stress on the first syllable.

A rough guide:

a = a broad ah sound
double ll makes the preceding vowel short
final a is a weaker ah/uh-like sound depending on accent

So it sounds something like AHL-la.

How is vill pronounced?

Vill is pronounced roughly like vil, with a short i sound, somewhat similar to the vowel in English bit.

A rough guide:

v = usually like English v
i = short ih
ll = like English l

So: vill ≈ vil

Be careful not to pronounce it like English will exactly; the Swedish vowel is a bit different.

How is fred pronounced?

Fred is pronounced roughly like frayd or frehd, depending on how you approximate it in English, but neither is perfect.

A rough guide:

fr as in English free
e is a long Swedish e sound
d at the end is pronounced

So it is roughly fre:d, with a long vowel.

Does alla count as singular or plural here?

Grammatically, alla refers to more than one person in meaning, but Swedish still uses the same verb form regardless, so you do not have to worry much about singular vs. plural verb agreement.

In English, we say:

Everyone wants

In Swedish:

Alla vill

So the important thing is simply to learn that alla works naturally as the subject meaning everyone or all.

Can alla mean everything too?

No. Alla is used for people or countable plural things, not for everything in general.

Compare:

alla = all / everyone
allt = everything / all

Examples:

Alla vill ha fred. = Everyone wants peace.
Allt är bra. = Everything is good.

So if you mean everything, use allt, not alla.

Is this a complete and natural sentence in Swedish?

Yes. Alla vill ha fred is completely natural, grammatical Swedish.

It is short, direct, and idiomatic. It sounds like a general statement or slogan, and all three words are being used in a very standard way.

Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io