Hon vill ha en karriär där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna.

She wants to have a career where she can help children and adults.

Breakdown of Hon vill ha en karriär där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna.

• ha: to have
• och: and
• en: a
• kunna: can
• vilja: to want
• hon: she
• barnet: the child
• vuxenen: the adult
• hjälpa: to help
• där: where
• karriären: the career

Questions & Answers about Hon vill ha en karriär där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna.

Why is it “vill ha en karriär” and not just “vill en karriär”?

In Swedish, vilja (vill) is a modal verb and normally needs another verb in the infinitive after it.

• vill ha = wants to have
• vill göra = wants to do
• vill bli = wants to become

You cannot say “hon vill en karriär”; that’s ungrammatical. You must say “hon vill ha en karriär” (literally she wants to have a career).

Why is it “en karriär” and not “ett karriär”?

Every Swedish noun has a grammatical gender, either en-word (common gender) or ett-word (neuter).

• karriär is an en-word: en karriär – karriären (the career)
• You cannot say ett karriär.

So “en karriär” is just like en bil (a car), en bok (a book), etc.

Could you say “Hon vill karriär” or “Hon vill göra karriär” instead of “ha en karriär”?

• Hon vill karriär – incorrect. You need a verb after vill.
• Hon vill göra karriär – correct, but slightly different in meaning.

ha en karriär = to have a career (neutral, just to have that kind of job life).
göra karriär = to make a career / to advance, to climb the career ladder.

So “Hon vill ha en karriär där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna” is more about the type of career she wants, not specifically about climbing in rank.

Why is it “där hon kan hjälpa” and not “var hon kan hjälpa” or “som hon kan hjälpa”?

Here där is a relative adverb meaning “where / in which”:

• en karriär där hon kan hjälpa …
  = a career where she can help … / a career in which she can help …

About the alternatives:

• var is mainly used in direct questions about location:
  Var bor du? – Where do you live?
  You don’t use var as a relative word in this way.
• som can also be used as a relative word:
  • en karriär som hon kan hjälpa barn i – literally a career that she can help children in.
    This is grammatically possible, but feels clumsier and less natural here.

där is the most natural and idiomatic choice in this sentence.

Why is the word order “där hon kan hjälpa” and not “där kan hon hjälpa”?

Swedish has different word order rules in main clauses and subordinate clauses:

• In main clauses, the verb is usually in second position (V2):
  Där kan hon hjälpa barn. – There she can help children.

• In subordinate clauses (introduced by words like att, eftersom, när, om, där), the order is subject before verb:
  där hon kan hjälpa … – where she can help …

In this sentence, där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna is a subordinate clause describing karriär, so the order must be subject–verb: hon kan, not kan hon.

Why is it “kan hjälpa” and not “kan att hjälpa”?

After modal verbs in Swedish, you do not use att before the infinitive.

• Correct: hon kan hjälpa, hon vill hjälpa, hon måste hjälpa
• Incorrect: hon kan att hjälpa, hon vill att hjälpa, hon måste att hjälpa

So the pattern is:
[modal verb] + [infinitive without att]
→ kan hjälpa, vill ha, ska göra, etc.

Why is there no article before “barn” and “vuxna”?

Here, barn and vuxna are used as indefinite plural, generic groups:

• barn – children (in general)
• vuxna – adults (in general)

In Swedish, indefinite plurals used in a general sense usually have no article:

• Hon gillar barn. – She likes children.
• De anställer vuxna. – They hire adults.
• Hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna. – She can help children and adults.

You would only add de if you mean specific, known children/adults:

• Hon kan hjälpa de barn och vuxna som redan är registrerade.
  – She can help the children and adults that are already registered.

How do I know if “barn” here is singular or plural?

The noun barn is special: its singular and plural indefinite forms are the same:

• ett barn – a child
• flera barn – several children

So barn by itself can be either one or many. You understand from context:

• Hon har ett barn. – She has one child.
• Hon har tre barn. – She has three children.
• Hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna. – It’s clearly plural, because it is paired with vuxna (which can only be plural).

If you wanted to be explicit about singular, you’d say ett barn.

What exactly does “vuxna” mean, and how is it different from “vuxen”?

vuxen is the base adjective “adult / grown-up” and is also used as a noun:

• en vuxen – an adult
• ett vuxet barn – an adult child
• två vuxna – two adults

vuxna is the plural form:

• As an adjective:
  vuxna människor – adult people
• As a noun:
  barn och vuxna – children and adults

In the sentence “hjälpa barn och vuxna”, vuxna is used as a plural noun = adults.

Why do we repeat “hon” in “där hon kan hjälpa”? Can we drop it?

No, you cannot drop hon. Swedish does not normally allow “subject dropping” the way some languages do.

Each finite clause needs an explicit subject:

• Hon vill ha en karriär – main clause
• där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna – subordinate clause, must also have hon

You cannot say:

• ✗ Hon vill ha en karriär där kan hjälpa barn och vuxna.

That is ungrammatical. The second clause still needs its own subject: hon.

Could you also say “där hon hjälper barn och vuxna” instead of “där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna”?

Yes, but the nuance changes:

• där hon kan hjälpa barn och vuxna
  = where she can help children and adults
  Focus on possibility / ability. The career gives her the chance to help them.

• där hon hjälper barn och vuxna
  = where she helps children and adults
  Sounds more like a factual description of what she (will) do in that career, a bit more concrete/ongoing.

Both are grammatically correct; the original with kan emphasizes that she wants a career that allows her to help children and adults.