Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma.

The children want to help out at home.

Breakdown of Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma.

• vilja: to want
• hemma: at home
• barnet: the child
• hjälpa till: to help

Questions & Answers about Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma.

What exactly does barnen mean, and why does it end in -en?

The base word barn means both child and children in Swedish; it has the same form in singular and plural (an irregular plural).
To say the child, you normally use barnet.
To say the children, you use barnen.

So:

• ett barn = a child
• barnet = the child
• barn = children
• barnen = the children

The ending -en here is the definite plural ending that corresponds to English the in the children.

Why is there no separate word for “the” in the sentence?

Swedish usually adds the as an ending on the noun, instead of using a separate word like English.
In Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma, the word barnen already includes the meaning the children.

So Swedish does not say de barn for the children; it just says barnen.
This is why there is no separate word before barnen.

What is the difference between vill and vilja?

vilja is the infinitive form, meaning to want.
vill is the present tense form, used with all subjects (I/you/he/she/we/they).

Examples:

• Jag vill = I want
• Du vill = You want
• Barnen vill = The children want

So in the sentence, vill is the correct present tense form that follows the subject barnen.

Why is there no att before hjälpa? In English we say want to help.

In Swedish, att (to) is usually used before infinitive verbs, but not after so‑called modal verbs like vill, kan, måste, ska.
Because vill is a modal verb, Swedish omits att in this structure.

So:

• Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma. = The children want to help out at home.
  not
• Barnen vill att hjälpa till hemma. (incorrect in standard Swedish)

What is the difference between hjälpa and hjälpa till?

hjälpa by itself means to help.
hjälpa till is a particle verb and usually means to help out, to pitch in, or to assist in some ongoing task.

Nuance:

• hjälpa is more general: just providing help.
• hjälpa till often suggests joining in and contributing to some shared activity, like housework, preparations, etc.

So hjälpa till hemma sounds very natural for helping out around the house.

Can hjälpa and till be separated in the sentence?

Yes, hjälpa till is a particle verb, and the particle till can sometimes be moved or combined with other words, depending on the sentence.
In this simple sentence, they stay together: hjälpa till.

You may see variations like:

• Barnen vill hjälpa till lite. (The children want to help out a bit.)
• Kan du hjälpa till här? (Can you help out here?)

But you would not pull till far away from hjälpa in normal sentences.

What does hemma mean, and how is it different from hem?

Both are related to home, but they are used differently:

• hemma means at home (location, where someone is).
• hem is used more like home as a direction (to home / homeward).

Examples:

• Jag är hemma. = I am at home.
• Jag går hem. = I am going home.

In hjälpa till hemma, hemma means at home, so the phrase is help out at home.

Could the word order be Barnen vill hemma hjälpa till?

No, that word order is not natural in Swedish.
The usual neutral order is subject–verb–(verb)–other elements:

• Barnen (subject)
• vill (modal verb)
• hjälpa till (infinitive verb + particle)
• hemma (place adverbial)

So Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma is the normal order. Moving hemma into the middle like Barnen vill hemma hjälpa till sounds wrong.

How would you turn this into a yes–no question in Swedish?

To make a yes–no question, Swedish usually puts the verb before the subject.
So Barnen vill hjälpa till hemma. becomes:

• Vill barnen hjälpa till hemma?
  = Do the children want to help out at home?

The rest of the sentence stays in the same order: vill + barnen + hjälpa till hemma.

Does the verb vill change with plural subjects like barnen?

No, vill is the same for all persons and numbers in the present tense.
Swedish does not change the verb form for I/you/he/she/it/we/they the way some other languages do.

So:

• Jag vill
• Du vill
• Hon vill
• Vi vill
• Barnen vill

All use vill in the present tense.

How would you say this sentence in the past tense?

The past tense of vill is ville.
The rest of the sentence stays the same, because hjälpa till is an infinitive phrase.

So:

• Barnen ville hjälpa till hemma.
  = The children wanted to help out at home.

Is hjälpa till reflexive? Do we ever use sig here?

No, hjälpa till is not reflexive. You do not say hjälpa sig till in this meaning.
You simply use hjälpa till to mean to help out.

If you need to say help oneself (for example, to food), you would use other phrases like:

• Ta för dig. (Help yourself.)

But in the context of helping with work or tasks, it’s just hjälpa till.

How do you pronounce hjälpa and hemma?

Approximate guidance for English speakers:

• hjälpa: the h is silent; hj together sounds like y.

  • So it starts like yelp.
  • ä is similar to the vowel in English bed.
  • Roughly: YEL-pa.

• hemma:

  • e is again like e in bed.
  • mm is a double consonant, making the vowel slightly shorter.
  • Roughly: HEM-ma.