Alla vill ha fred.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.