Learn Hardcore Swedish: En viktig anledning är att hon vill ha mer tid med familjen. - An important reason is that she wants to have more time with the family.

The -t form (viktigt) is for ett-words in singular or for use as a predicative adverb/adjective in some contexts (e.g. Det är viktigt = “It is important”).

What is the difference between “anledning” and “orsak”?

Both can be translated as “reason”, but there is a nuance:

anledning – “reason”, “ground”, often used for more neutral or practical reasons
- En viktig anledning – An important reason
- Har du någon anledning att vara orolig? – Do you have any reason to be worried?
orsak – “cause”, “reason”, often more cause-and-effect, sometimes more formal or technical
- Orsaken till olyckan var halka. – The cause of the accident was ice.
- Vad är orsaken? – What is the cause?

In this sentence, anledning fits well because it’s about her personal motivation.

Why do we need both “vill” and “ha” in “vill ha mer tid”? Isn’t “vill” already “wants”?

In Swedish, vilja (“to want”) normally needs something after it:

another verb in infinitive (with att: Jag vill *äta* – I want to eat)
or a verb of possession: vill ha – “want to have”

Here, vill ha literally means “wants to have”:

hon vill ha mer tid = she wants (to have) more time

You can’t say just:

hon vill mer tid ❌

You need ha to show what she wants: she wants to have more time.

So the pattern to remember is:
vilja + ha + noun → vilja ha något (“to want something”)

What does “att” do in “är att hon vill ha mer tid …”? Is it like English “to” or “that”? Can it be left out?

Here, att is a subordinating conjunction meaning “that”, introducing a clause:

En viktig anledning är att hon vill ha mer tid med familjen.
= An important reason is that she wants more time with the family.

So:

It is not the “to” of an infinitive (att läsa = “to read”).
It is more like English “that” in “The reason is that she wants…”.

Important difference from English:

In English, you can often drop “that”:
- The reason is (that) she wants more time.
In standard Swedish, you cannot drop att here:
- En viktig anledning är att hon vill ha mer tid … ✅
- En viktig anledning är hon vill ha mer tid … ❌

So you need att in this structure.

Why is it “mer tid” and not “mer en tid” or something with an article?

Tid (“time”) is usually treated as an uncountable noun in this kind of meaning.

In Swedish, with uncountable nouns, when you talk about them in a general / abstract / quantity way, you usually don’t use an article:

mer tid – more time ✅
mycket tid – a lot of time ✅
lite tid – little time ✅

Compare with countable nouns, where you do use articles:

en bok – a book
fler böcker – more books

So “mer tid” (no article) is the normal and correct way to say “more time”.

Why is it “med familjen” and not just “med familj” or “med hennes familj”?

familjen has the definite ending (-en), so it literally means “the family”.

Why definite form?
In Swedish, when it’s clear whose family is meant (here: her family), you can often just use the definite form without a possessive:
- med familjen ≈ “with her family / with the family”
  This is natural because the context (she wants more time) tells us it’s her family.
Why not med familj?
- med familj sounds incomplete/unnatural in this sense.
  Usually you’d say:
  - med *min familj* – with my family
  - med *sin familj – with her own family (referring back to the subject)
    But idiomatically, *med familjen is smoother and very common.
What about “hennes familj” or “sin familj”?
You could say:
- … att hon vill ha mer tid med sin familj
  – emphasizes it’s her own family (referring to hon).
- … med hennes familj
  – would more likely be interpreted as some other woman’s family, not the subject’s own.

So:

med familjen = natural, unambiguous here, and commonly used.

Why is it “med familjen” and not something like “till familjen” or another preposition?

The preposition med means “with”, indicating company / being together:

ha mer tid med familjen = have more time with the family

Other prepositions would change the meaning:

tid *till familjen – more like “time *for the family”
- possible in some contexts, but a bit more abstract/allocating time to them.
tid *hos familjen – “time *at the family’s place/home”
tid *för familjen – “time *for the family” (focus on purpose)

Here, the idea is being together with them, so med is the natural and most direct choice.

Is the word order “hon vill ha mer tid med familjen” fixed, or can I move some parts?

Inside the att-clause, the basic word order is:

subject – verb – (verb) – object – prepositional phrase
hon – vill – ha – mer tid – med familjen

You have some flexibility, but not much without sounding odd. Natural variants:

att hon vill ha mer tid med familjen
att hon vill ha *mer tid just med familjen* (adding just for emphasis)

Things you cannot do in normal sentences:

att hon vill mer tid ha med familjen ❌
att hon mer tid vill ha med familjen ❌ (very marked/poetic at best)

So for everyday Swedish, keep:

hon vill ha [object] med [noun]

Could you say “En viktig anledning är för att hon vill ha mer tid …”?

This is a common learner mistake (and also heard in everyday speech), but in standard Swedish it’s considered incorrect.

The correct pattern is:

anledning är att … ✅
En viktig anledning är att hon vill ha mer tid med familjen. ✅

för att is used when it clearly means “because” or “in order to” in another type of clause:

Hon flyttar *för att hon vill ha mer tid med familjen.
– She is moving *because she wants more time with the family.
Hon jobbar hemifrån *för att få mer tid med familjen.
– She works from home *in order to get more time with the family.

So:

“En viktig anledning är att …”
Not: “En viktig anledning är för att …” (non-standard)

How do you pronounce “anledning” and “familjen”, and where is the stress?

Approximate pronunciation (Swedish standard, IPA and English-like hints):

anledning
- IPA: [ˈanːˌleːdnɪŋ]
- Roughly: ANN-lay-dning
- Main stress on the first syllable: AN-ledning
familjen
- IPA: [faˈmɪlːjɛn]
- Roughly: fa-MIL-yen
- Main stress on the second syllable: fa-MIL-jen

Word-level stress matters because Swedish rhythm and vowel length depend on it. In anledning, the a in an- is short, and the n is long; in familjen, the i is short, but the following l is long.