"Vi vil ha funnet ham innen desember."

Translation: We will have found him by December.

[heimaey]

It seems that in these instances "vil" is the equivalent of the English "will" but in the instances up to this point, I beleive, "vil" has meant "want" - is there a good way to tell the difference, that is to know when the distinction is?

[fveldig]

It means 'want' if the person(s) has a desire to do it, and 'will' if it's something that's certain to happen. I'm not sure if there are any good ways to tell the difference except by immersion.

To me 'vil' would translate to 'will' in more formal contexts, such as some newspapers or articles, while 'kommer til å' can be used in all cases. In most cases 'vil' translates to 'want to'.

[heimaey]

Thanks - this helps. I don't know why but I find this one of the most difficult parts of Norwegian.

[Nic698651]

There's a glitch with the slow audio, sounds like funde, not funnet.

[vTeele]

The translation of "innen desember" seems to be counted as correct both as "by December" and "within December". In English these mean very different things. How to tell the difference?

[Moongrovenly]

"Vi vil ha funnet" = "we will have found"
"Vi vil å ha funnet" = "we want to have found"

Is this right?

[skynightstar]

I don't think so, as 'å ville' is a modal verb which means it is not followed by the infinitive marker. e.g. ''Jeg vil ha kake'', not ''jeg vil å ha kake''.

[Fenny-The-Pooh]

And for the third time in this course, the words "funnet" is pronounced as "funde". Not a good thing when it costs credit!!