Vi vill bo nära centrum.

to live

Breakdown of Vi vill bo nära centrum.

• vilja: to want
• vi: we
• centrumet: the city center

Questions & Answers about Vi vill bo nära centrum.

Why is there no word for “to” before bo, even though in English we say “want to live”?

In Swedish, when a modal verb is followed by another verb, you normally do not use att (the word that often corresponds to to before verbs).

• vill = want (modal verb)
• bo = live (infinitive form)

So you get:

• Vi vill bo = We want to live
  not Vi vill att bo (that would be wrong here).

Other examples follow the same pattern:

• Jag kan simma. – I can swim.
• Hon måste gå. – She must go.

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What exactly does vill mean here? Is it like “want” or “would like”?

Vill is the present tense of vilja (“to want”).

• Vi vill bo… literally = We want to live…

Politeness is usually handled in other ways (tone of voice, extra phrases), not by changing the verb itself. So vill can cover both:

• neutral want: We want to live near the center.
• polite would like: We would like to live near the center.

If you want to make it sound softer, you might add something like:

• Vi skulle vilja bo nära centrum. – We would like to live near the center.

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