Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll.

I want to go to bed early tonight.

Breakdown of Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll.

• jag: I
• vilja: to want
• tidigt: early
• ikväll: tonight
• lägga sig: to lie down

Questions & Answers about Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll.

Why do we say lägga mig instead of just lägga?

In Swedish, lägga sig is a reflexive verb meaning “to go to bed / lie down (to sleep).”

• lägga = to lay/put something down (transitive: you need an object)
• lägga sig = to lie down / go to bed (reflexive: the object is yourself)

Because you’re doing the action to yourself, you must add the reflexive pronoun that matches the subject:

• Jag lägger mig. – I lie down / go to bed.
• Du lägger dig. – You lie down / go to bed.
• Han/Hon lägger sig. – He/She lies down / goes to bed.

So in Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll, mig is required; without it, the verb would be incomplete.

Why is the verb in the infinitive lägga and not lägger after vill?

After vill (“want to”), Swedish normally uses the infinitive form of the main verb without att:

• Jag vill lägga mig. – I want to go to bed.
• Jag vill äta. – I want to eat.
• Jag vill läsa. – I want to read.

So you say:

• vill + [infinitive]

and not:

• ✗ vill lägger
• ✗ vill lägger mig

lägger is the present tense; infinitive is lägga. With vill, you always use lägga, äta, läsa, etc.

Why is it tidigt ikväll and not ikväll tidigt?

Both tidigt ikväll and ikväll tidigt are understandable, but tidigt ikväll is the natural, default order.

A common pattern is: manner/time + more specific time:

• tidigt ikväll – early this evening
• sent imorgon kväll – late tomorrow evening

ikväll (“this evening”) is more like the time frame, and tidigt narrows it down. Native speakers normally put tidigt directly in front of ikväll in this kind of phrase.

Can I say Jag vill sova tidigt ikväll instead? What’s the difference?

You can say Jag vill sova tidigt ikväll, and people will understand, but it sounds less natural.

• Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll.
  Focus: the act of going to bed / turning in early.

• Jag vill sova tidigt ikväll.
  Focus: being asleep early (which is a bit vague or unusual to say).

In everyday Swedish, gå och lägga sig / lägga sig is the idiomatic way to talk about going to bed. So Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll is the more idiomatic and natural sentence.

What is the difference between lägga sig and gå och lägga sig?

lägga sig and gå och lägga sig often mean the same thing in practice: “to go to bed.”

• Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll. – I want to go to bed early tonight.
• Jag vill gå och lägga mig tidigt ikväll. – I want to go and go to bed early tonight.

gå och lägga sig literally highlights the going part (“go and lie down”), and can sound a bit more colloquial or vivid. But both are very common and usually interchangeable in this context.

Is ikväll one word or two, like i kväll?

Both ikväll and i kväll are correct and mean the same thing: “this evening / tonight (early in the night).”

• Modern, very common spelling: ikväll (one word)
• Slightly more formal or traditional: i kväll (two words)

You will see both in writing. As a learner, using ikväll as one word is perfectly fine and very natural.

How would the sentence change if the subject is “we” instead of “I”?

You need to change both the subject pronoun and the reflexive pronoun:

• Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll. – I want to go to bed early tonight.
• Vi vill lägga oss tidigt ikväll. – We want to go to bed early tonight.

Reflexive pronouns in the present tense:

• jag – mig
• du – dig
• han/hon/den/det – sig
• vi – oss
• ni – er
• de – sig

What is the difference between mig and mej?

mig and mej are two spellings of the same word, pronounced the same way in most accents: roughly like “may”.

• mig – standard, more formal spelling
• mej – informal, phonetic spelling, common in text messages, casual writing, song lyrics

In formal writing and in textbooks, you will almost always see mig. In speech, it sounds like mej. As a learner, it’s safest to write mig and say it like “mej.”

How would you make this sentence negative? Where does inte go?

With a modal verb like vill, inte comes after the modal verb and before the infinitive:

• Jag vill inte lägga mig tidigt ikväll.
  – I don’t want to go to bed early tonight.

Structure:

• [subject] + vill + inte + [infinitive + reflexive pronoun] + [time]

Other examples:

• Jag vill inte äta nu. – I don’t want to eat now.
• Vi vill inte gå hem. – We don’t want to go home.

Why is the verb vill in the present tense when we’re talking about the future (tonight)?

Swedish often uses the present tense to talk about the near future, especially when context makes the time clear:

• Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll.
  Literally: I want to go to bed early this evening → about the future.

The time expression ikväll signals that this is about later today. So present tense vill is enough; you don’t need a special future tense.

You could also say:

• Jag ska lägga mig tidigt ikväll. – I will / am going to go to bed early tonight.

Here, ska talks more about a plan or intention that feels decided.

What is the difference between lägga sig and ligga?

They’re different verbs:

• lägga sig – to lie down / to go to bed (action, movement to a lying position)
• ligga – to be lying (state, already in a lying position)

Examples:

• Jag ska lägga mig nu. – I’m going to lie down now / I’m going to bed now.
• Jag ligger i sängen. – I’m lying in bed.

In Jag vill lägga mig tidigt ikväll, you’re talking about the action of going to bed, so lägga mig is correct, not ligga.

How do you pronounce lägga and what does the double g mean?

lägga is pronounced roughly like “LEH-gya” in many accents:

• ä – like “e” in “bed”, but a bit more open.
• gg before a indicates a short vowel + hard g sound (actually often [gː + j] in careful speech).

Compare:

• lägga – short ä, double g → läg-ga
• läga (not a real word) would suggest a long vowel sound.

In Swedish, a double consonant after a vowel usually means the vowel is short (as in lägga, sätta, mellan). A single consonant often means the vowel is long.