Breakdown of Äter du inte brödet? – Jo, men jag vill ha smöret också.
jag
I
du
you (singular)
inte
not
också
also
ha
to have
vilja
to want to
äta
to eat
men
but
brödet
the bread
smöret
the butter
jo
yes (in response to a negative)
Questions & Answers about Äter du inte brödet? – Jo, men jag vill ha smöret också.
Why use jo instead of ja to mean "yes" here?
Because the question is negative! It asks "Are you inte (not) eating the bread?". In Swedish, when you want to answer "yes" to contradict a negative question or statement, you must use jo instead of ja. It basically means "Yes, I actually am!"
Why does it say vill ha (want to have) instead of just vill (want)?
In Swedish, the verb vill behaves like a helper verb. When you want a physical object like the butter, you can't just say jag vill smöret. You have to say "I want to have the butter" (jag vill ha smöret). You only use vill directly before another verb, like jag vill äta (I want to eat).
Why do brödet and smöret end in -et?
They are the definite ("the") forms of the "ett" words ett bröd (bread) and ett smör (butter). To say "the bread" and "the butter", you attach the -et ending to the noun.
Why does the question start with Äter du instead of Du äter?
To form a yes/no question in Swedish, you simply swap the subject and the verb. There are no helper words like "do" or "are" here. So du äter (you eat / you are eating) becomes äter du (do you eat / are you eating).
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