Swedish modal verbs: kan, vill, ska, måste, får, bör

Six short verbs carry most practical Swedish: can, want, will, must, may, should. Learn them and you can suddenly ask permission, make plans, refuse politely and express needs, which is most of what a day consists of. They all follow one grammar rule, and it's a rule of absence: no att before the next verb.

The six

modal	meaning	example
kan	can, is able to	Jag kan simma. I can swim.
vill	wants to	Jag vill sova. I want to sleep.
ska	will, is going to	Vi ska äta nu. We're going to eat now.
måste	must, has to	Jag måste gå nu. I have to go now.
får	may, is allowed to	Du får komma in. You may come in.
bör	should, ought to	Du bör vänta. You should wait.

In everyday speech, "should" is usually the softer past form borde: Du borde sova. You should (really) get some sleep. Bör reads as slightly formal, the tone of official advice.

The rule: no att

A modal connects directly to a bare infinitive. English inserts "to"; Swedish inserts nothing:

Jag kan simma. Not "kan att simma".
Vi måste vänta. Not "måste att vänta".

Negation slips in between the modal and the verb: Jag kan inte komma i dag. I can't come today.

The false friend: vill is not will

The most reliable modal mistake English speakers make in Swedish: vill means want, never plain future "will". "I will call tomorrow" is Jag ska ringa i morgon, not "jag vill ringa" (which announces that you feel like calling). English "will" and Swedish vill are the same old Germanic verb that drifted apart; Swedish kept the wanting, English kept the future.

Related and essential: wanting a thing (rather than wanting to do something) is vill ha: Jag vill ha en kopp te. I want a cup of tea. You met it at the café: Vad vill du ha?

Får: permission, and also getting

Får wears two hats. As a modal it grants or denies permission: Man får inte röka här. Smoking isn't allowed here. (That impersonal man får inte... is the standard phrasing on half the signs in Sweden.) As an ordinary verb it means "get, receive": Jag får lön på fredag. I get paid on Friday. Context separates them without drama.

Two comforts before the examples

Måste never changes: the same form is present and past, so jag måste gå works for "I have to go" today and "I had to go" yesterday. And like every Swedish verb, modals ignore person entirely: jag kan, du kan, alla kan.

Hear the modals

Five sentences you will actually need.

Swedish

Jag kan tala lite svenska.

Vill du ha en kopp te?

Vi ska åka till Gotland i sommar.

Du måste komma i tid.

Man får inte parkera här.

English

I can speak a little Swedish.

Would you like a cup of tea?

We're going to Gotland this summer.

You have to come on time.

You can't park here.