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Questions & Answers about Får vi stanna hemma ikväll?
What does får mean here—can, may, or are we allowed to?
In Får vi stanna hemma ikväll?, får is mainly about permission/allowance: Are we allowed to stay home tonight?
Depending on context it can sound like may we (polite permission) or can we (everyday English), but the core idea is someone/something permits it.
Is får only about permission, or can it mean something else in Swedish?
Får has more than one common meaning:
- få (verb) = to get/receive → Jag får en present = I get a present
- få as a modal-like verb = to be allowed to → Du får gå nu = You may/are allowed to go now So learners often meet får first as get, then later as be allowed to.
Why is the word order Får vi... instead of Vi får...?
In Swedish questions, you typically use subject–verb inversion:
- Statement: Vi får stanna hemma ikväll. (We are allowed to stay home tonight.)
- Yes/no question: Får vi stanna hemma ikväll? (Are we allowed to stay home tonight?) The finite verb (får) comes before the subject (vi) in the question.
Why is stanna in the infinitive, and why isn’t there att before it?
After modal verbs (like får, kan, vill, måste, ska), Swedish usually uses the bare infinitive (no att):
- Får vi stanna... (not Får vi att stanna...) This is similar to English can stay (not can to stay).
What’s the difference between stanna hemma and vara hemma?
- vara hemma = to be at home (describes a state)
- stanna hemma = to stay home (emphasizes the decision not to go out / to remain) So Får vi stanna hemma ikväll? suggests you might otherwise go somewhere, but you want permission to remain at home.
What’s the difference between hemma and hem?
- hemma = at home (location/state)
- hem = home (to home) (direction/movement) Examples:
- Jag är hemma. = I am at home.
- Jag går hem. = I’m going home. In your sentence you need hemma because it’s about being/staying in that place, not moving toward it.
Is ikväll one word, or should it be i kväll?
Both exist:
- ikväll is very common in modern writing and looks like a single adverb meaning tonight.
- i kväll is also correct and sometimes feels a bit more “spelled-out.” In everyday Swedish, ikväll is extremely common.
Where does ikväll usually go in the sentence? Could it come earlier?
A very common placement is at the end, as in your sentence. But you can move it for emphasis:
- Får vi stanna hemma ikväll? (neutral)
- Får vi ikväll stanna hemma? (possible but can sound a bit formal/marked)
- Ikväll får vi stanna hemma? (puts focus on tonight, and can sound like you’re surprised/confirming) Swedish word order is flexible, but the end position is often the most natural for time adverbs in simple questions.
How do you pronounce Får vi stanna hemma ikväll? (especially å and kväll)?
A rough guide:
- får: the å is like an “aw” sound (similar to law in many accents)
- vi: like English vee
- stanna: stress on the first syllable: STAN-na
- hemma: HEM-ma
- ikväll: stress on kväll; the kv is pronounced together (like kv), and äll has an e/ä sound that doesn’t exist exactly in English If you want, tell me your accent (US/UK/etc.) and I can give a closer approximation.
How does får compare to kan in questions like this?
- Får vi...? = Are we allowed to...? (permission/authorization)
- Kan vi...? = Can we...? (ability/practical possibility, and sometimes also permission in casual speech) If you’re asking a parent/teacher for permission, får is often the clearest choice.
How would you make it more polite or more informal?
This sentence is already normal and polite enough in many contexts. Options:
- Slightly softer/more polite: Skulle vi kunna få stanna hemma ikväll? (Could we be allowed to stay home tonight?)
- More casual: Får vi vara hemma ikväll? (focuses less on “staying” and more on “being”) Politeness in Swedish often comes more from tone and phrasing than from special “polite” verb forms.
How do you negate it—how do you say Aren’t we allowed to stay home tonight?
Common options:
- Får vi inte stanna hemma ikväll? = Aren’t we allowed to stay home tonight? / So we’re not allowed to stay home tonight?
- Får vi inte... can be a genuine question or express surprise/complaint depending on intonation.
Can Får vi stanna hemma ikväll? mean a suggestion like Shall we stay home tonight?
Usually, no—får points to permission, not proposing an activity.
For Shall we stay home tonight? you’d more likely use:
- Ska vi stanna hemma ikväll? (Shall we/Should we stay home tonight?) So if the intended meaning is about permission, får is right; if it’s about making a plan, ska is more natural.