Learn Hardcore Swedish: Jag vill att du påminner mig om mötet imorgon. - I want you to remind me about the meeting tomorrow.

Why do we need att after vill in Jag vill att du påminner mig …? In English we just say I want you to remind me without a word like that.

In Swedish, when you say that you want someone to do something, you normally use the pattern:

Jag vill att + [clause with a subject and a verb]

So:

Jag vill att du påminner mig.
literally: I want that you remind me.

Here att is a conjunction (like English that) that introduces a whole clause (du påminner mig om mötet imorgon). You cannot leave it out:

✔ Jag vill att du påminner mig …
✘ Jag vill du påminner mig … (ungrammatical)

If you don’t want a full clause, but just an infinitive, you do something else:

Jag vill påminna dig. – I want to remind you.

Here, there is no separate subject in the second part, so there is no att-clause.

Why is it påminner (present tense) and not something like ska påminna (will remind), when the English is “remind” / “will remind”?

Swedish often uses the present tense for future events, especially when there is a time word like imorgon:

du påminner mig imorgon
= you will remind me tomorrow

So påminner is present in form but future in meaning because of imorgon.

You can also say:

Jag vill att du ska påminna mig om mötet imorgon.

This is also correct. ska påminna makes the future idea a bit more explicit, but both versions are natural. The version without ska is very common in everyday speech and perfectly standard.

What is the word order inside att-clause: why du påminner mig and not something like du mig påminner?

Inside the att-clause, the word order is normal main-clause order: Subject – Verb – Object (SVO):

Subject: du
Verb: påminner
Object: mig

So you get:

att du påminner mig …

Swedish does not move pronouns next to the verb like German, and you don’t split them up:

✔ att du påminner mig
✘ att du mig påminner
✘ att påminner du mig (that word order is used in questions, not here)

Why is it påminner mig om mötet and not some other preposition?

In Swedish, certain verbs always take specific prepositions. påminna is one of them and it typically follows this pattern:

påminna någon om något
(remind someone of / about something)

So the structure is:

du påminner mig om mötet
= you remind me about the meeting

You generally cannot replace om with other prepositions here:

✔ påminna mig om mötet
✘ påminna mig på mötet
✘ påminna mig över mötet

It’s just a fixed verb–preposition combination you have to learn as a unit.

Why is it mötet (definite form) rather than just möte?

möte means a meeting.
mötet means the meeting (a specific one).

Swedish usually uses the definite form when both speaker and listener know which meeting is meant. English uses the separate word the; Swedish adds a definite ending:

ett möte – a meeting
mötet – the meeting

So in context, om mötet means “about the meeting (you already know about)”.

Why is imorgon at the end of the sentence? Could it go somewhere else?

Putting the time word imorgon at the end of the sentence is very natural:

Jag vill att du påminner mig om mötet imorgon.

In Swedish, time adverbs like imorgon, idag, snart often go at or near the end of the clause, especially if there are objects as well.

You can move imorgon for emphasis or style:

Imorgon vill jag att du påminner mig om mötet.
Jag vill att du imorgon påminner mig om mötet. (possible, but less neutral)

The original version is the most neutral and common everyday word order.

What is the difference between Jag vill att du påminner mig … and Jag vill att du ska påminna mig …?

Both are correct and both can mean:

I want you to remind me …

Nuance:

Jag vill att du påminner mig …
– Very common, neutral. Present tense used with future meaning (because of imorgon).
Jag vill att du ska påminna mig …
– Slightly more explicit about the future or intention. Some people feel it sounds a bit more formal or emphatic, but it’s also normal in speech.

In many situations, they are interchangeable and you will hear both.

Why can’t we say Jag vill du påminner mig om mötet imorgon without att?

Swedish needs att to introduce this kind of subordinate clause. After Jag vill, if you introduce a whole clause with its own subject (du) and verb (påminner), you must use att:

✔ Jag vill att du påminner mig …
✘ Jag vill du påminner mig …

Without att, du påminner mig … looks like an independent main clause or like a question pattern, which is not allowed here.

If you don’t use a separate subject, you use an infinitive construction instead:

Jag vill påminna dig. – I want to remind you.

What is the difference between påminna and minna? Why not use minna here?

påminna is the standard verb for to remind:

påminna någon om något – remind someone of/about something

minna exists, but it is much less common on its own and sounds more formal or old-fashioned. You usually see it in set expressions like:

minnas (reflexive form) – to remember
e.g. Jag minns det. – I remember it.

For everyday modern Swedish, to say remind, you should use påminna, not minna:

✔ påminna mig om mötet
✘ minna mig om mötet (possible but uncommon/old-fashioned)

How do the pronouns work here? Why is it du and mig, not dig or jag?

Subject and object pronouns are different in Swedish, like in English.

jag – I (subject)
mig – me (object)
du – you (subject, singular)
dig – you (object, singular)

In the sentence:

du is the subject of påminner → you (will) remind
mig is the object → remind me

So:

Jag vill att du påminner mig …
= I want that you remind me …

If you changed them:

Jag vill att du påminner dig … – I want you to remind yourself … (different meaning)
Jag vill att jag påminner dig … – I want that I remind you … (odd in Swedish and unusual in English too)