Learn Hardcore Swedish: Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa. - Sometimes she just wants to sit in silence and read.

Swedish has a “verb in second position” rule (often called V2). In a main clause, the finite verb (here: vill) must come in second place, no matter what is first.

Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.
1st element: Ibland
2nd element (must be the verb): vill
Hon vill ibland bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.
1st element: Hon
2nd element: vill

So both are grammatically correct. Starting with Ibland puts a bit more emphasis on “sometimes”, while starting with Hon sounds more neutral or more focused on her.

Why is there no att before sitta and läsa? In English we say “to sit” and “to read”.

After certain verbs in Swedish—especially modal(-like) verbs such as kan, vill, ska, måste—you normally drop att before the next verb:

Hon vill sitta = “She wants to sit”
Hon kan läsa = “She can read”

Because vill behaves like a modal verb here, you say:

vill sitta (not vill att sitta)
and when you coordinate verbs: vill sitta och läsa, you still don’t add att.

You do use att with many other verbs:

Hon försöker att sitta stilla. – “She tries to sit still.”
Hon älskar att läsa. – “She loves to read.”

So the rule of thumb: after vill, no att.

What exactly does vill mean here? Is it like English “will” (future)?

In this sentence, vill means “wants”, not future “will”:

Hon vill sitta = “She wants to sit”

Swedish vill almost always expresses desire / wish (“want to”). It is not a general future marker like English “will”.

For future, Swedish often uses:

ska: Hon ska läsa imorgon. – “She will read tomorrow.”
kommer att: Hon kommer att läsa. – “She’s going to read.”
Or just present tense with a time word:
Hon läser imorgon. – “She’s reading tomorrow.”

So here it’s clearly about what she wants, not about the future.

Where exactly does bara (“just/only”) go, and does its position change the meaning?

In the original sentence:

Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

Bara is placed before sitta, and it mainly limits the action:

She only wants to sit and read in silence (and nothing more energetic or social).

You can move bara, and the meaning shifts slightly:

Ibland vill hon sitta bara i tystnad och läsa.
Sounds odd; suggests the limitation is on “only in silence” (not in noise). More natural: … bara i tystnad earlier in the phrase.
Ibland vill hon sitta i tystnad och bara läsa.
Now bara focuses on läsa: she wants to only read (not scroll her phone, not talk, etc.).

Natural options and their focus:

… bara sitta i tystnad och läsa. – Only do this whole quiet-sitting-and-reading activity.
… sitta i bara tystnad och läsa. – “in just silence” (stylistic, somewhat poetic).
… sitta i tystnad och bara läsa. – Only read (not do anything else while sitting there).

So word order with bara is meaningful and flexible but can sound unnatural if you split things in odd ways.

Why is it i tystnad and not just tyst or i tystnaden?

tyst is an adjective: “quiet, silent”
tystnad is a noun: “silence”

I tystnad literally means “in silence”, just like in English.

Compare:

sitta tyst – “sit quietly” (adjective)
sitta i tystnad – “sit in silence” (noun phrase)

No article is used because tystnad here is like an abstract/mass noun:

i fred, i mörker, i tystnad
(“in peace, in darkness, in silence”)

I tystnaden (with the definite form) would mean “in the silence”, referring to a specific silence that’s been mentioned or is very concrete in context. For a general idea of “in silence”, i tystnad is the natural choice.

What is the role of sitta here? Could you just say Ibland vill hon bara läsa i tystnad?

You can say:

Ibland vill hon bara läsa i tystnad. – “Sometimes she just wants to read in silence.”

That’s perfectly correct.

Including sitta adds nuance:

Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

Swedish (like English) often mentions the posture or position for ongoing activities:

sitta och läsa – sit and read
stå och prata – stand and talk
ligga och titta på TV – lie and watch TV

sitta highlights the physical situation: she wants to sit there, quietly, and read. It paints a more relaxed, cozy picture than just “wants to read”.

Why is it hon and not some gender‑neutral pronoun? How does Swedish handle gender here?

Swedish personal pronouns for “she/he” are:

hon – “she”
han – “he”
hen – gender neutral (relatively modern)

In a simple example sentence like:

Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

using hon just means “a female person”. If you want a gender‑neutral version, you can say:

Ibland vill hen bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

Hen is increasingly common in writing and speech, especially when gender is unknown, irrelevant, or when referring to a non-binary person. But hon and han are still very widely used.

Why is the verb läsa in this form? Is it the infinitive, and how do I recognize it?

Yes, läsa is the infinitive form, equivalent to English “to read” (without “to”).

In Swedish, the infinitive of most verbs ends in -a:

läsa – to read
sitta – to sit
skriva – to write
äta – to eat

After vill, you use the infinitive (without att):

Hon vill läsa. – “She wants to read.”
Hon vill sitta. – “She wants to sit.”

So in the sentence you have a chain:

vill (finite verb)
sitta (infinitive)
läsa (infinitive, coordinated with sitta via och)

How would I negate this sentence? Where would inte go?

The most straightforward negation is:

Ibland vill hon inte bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

This means: “Sometimes she doesn’t just want to sit in silence and read” (she wants more than that).

If you simply want “Sometimes she does not want to sit in silence and read”, you can say:

Ibland vill hon inte sitta i tystnad och läsa.

Here, inte comes after the finite verb vill and before the infinitive sitta, which is the normal placement:

Hon vill inte läsa. – “She does not want to read.”
Hon vill inte sitta i tystnad. – “She does not want to sit in silence.”

Is there any difference between Ibland and other words like någon gång or emellanåt?

All can translate to “sometimes”, but they differ in style and nuance:

Ibland – the most common, neutral choice for “sometimes / at times”.
- Ibland vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.
någon gång – literally “some time / some occasion”; often sounds more like “at some point” or “once in a while”.
- Någon gång vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.
  Feels a bit more like “on some occasion(s), she wants to…”
emellanåt – more formal or literary, “from time to time / every now and then”.
- Emellanåt vill hon bara sitta i tystnad och läsa.

In everyday speech, ibland is by far the most typical choice in this kind of sentence.