Jag vill prova kläder.

I

Breakdown of Jag vill prova kläder.

• vilja: to want
• kläderna: the clothes
• prova: to try

Questions & Answers about Jag vill prova kläder.

What is the overall structure of the sentence "Jag vill prova kläder," and how does it compare to its English equivalent?

The sentence follows the Swedish word order of Subject + Modal Verb + Bare Infinitive + Object. Here:
• Jag means I.
• Vill means want.
• Prova means try (or try on).
• Kläder means clothes.

This structure parallels the English sentence "I want to try on clothes," with the key point being that Swedish uses the bare infinitive (omitting any equivalent of "to") after modal verbs like vill.

Why is there no att (the equivalent of "to" in English) before prova in this sentence?

In Swedish, modal verbs such as vill (want), kan (can), and måste (must) are always followed directly by the bare infinitive. Unlike English, where you would say "I want to try on clothes," in Swedish you do not insert att between the modal verb and the main verb. So, instead of saying "Jag vill att prova kläder," the correct form is simply "Jag vill prova kläder."

What does each word in the sentence "Jag vill prova kläder" mean?