Han vill betala med kort, men hon betalar kontant.

to want

Breakdown of Han vill betala med kort, men hon betalar kontant.

• hon: she
• han: he
• men: but

Questions & Answers about Han vill betala med kort, men hon betalar kontant.

Why is there no article in med kort?

When you talk about a method or means of payment in Swedish, you normally use the bare noun without an article: betala med kort, betala med Swish, betala med presentkort. You would only add an article if you mean a specific card, e.g. med kortet (the card) or med sitt kort (his/her own card).

What part of speech is kontant here, and could I say kontanter instead?

Here kontant is an adverb meaning “in cash,” as in betalar kontant. If you use the noun, it’s plural: kontanter (“cash, notes/coins”), and then you add a preposition: betalar med kontanter. Both are correct; kontant is a bit more concise and idiomatic.

Why is it vill betala and not vill att betala?

Modal verbs like vill, kan, ska, måste, bör are followed by a bare infinitive without att: Han vill betala. You use att as a conjunction before a full clause: Han vill att hon ska betala (He wants her to pay). Don’t say vill att betala.

Where does inte go in these clauses?