Learn Swedish: Vi vill ha sockret till kaffet. - We want the sugar for the coffee.

Socker (sugar) is an ett word that ends in an unstressed -er. When we make it definite by adding -et, we drop the e from -er to make it easier to pronounce. So, socker plus -et becomes sockret.

Why do we need ha here? Couldn't we just say "Vi vill sockret"?

In Swedish, vill is a helper verb that means "want to" do an action. If you want a physical thing like sugar, you cannot just use vill on its own. You must use vill ha, which literally means "want to have".

Why use till for "for"? Doesn't för mean "for"?

Prepositions rarely translate perfectly word-for-word. While för is used for "for" in many cases, till is used when something goes with, belongs to, or is added to something else. Since the sugar is meant to go into the coffee, we use till.

How do we get kaffet from the word kaffe?