"Vad önskar du dig?"

Translation: What are you wishing for?

[Sjodni]

Why is both du and dig included in this sentence?

[Bluthund]

Because önskar is reflexive. Literally you ask "What do you (=du) wish yourself (=dig)?"

[Timislove]

I wrote "What do you wish for yourself?" and was marked wrong

[vanessa.ma707837]

I tried that too

[KhzDonut]

Me too

[MaryBeth378619]

Because it is a rough translation. Polish it up to a good English sentence...

[HPFoley]

Since it's reflexive, if someone in the third-person wished for something, would one use önskar sig. For example, would, "The girl wishes for a dog," be Flickan önskar sig en hund?

[HelenHaine]

Yes, I also wrote, 'What do you wish for yourself?' and it was also marked incorrect

[IsaEricson]

Önskar isn't want - want is vill ha. It makes sense to ask what someone is wishing for if they make a wish on birthday candles for example. Also the purpose of this is just to learn the world for wish.

[ucapato]

But I could then say: "Vad vill du ha dig?" instead?

[devalanteriel]

No, vill ha isn't reflexive.

[kris650042]

One of the things I like about duolingo is that it does not always use canned exoected phrases. It makes it harder to guess and requires kearning the vocabulary and grammar.

[Dzyanna1]

"What du you want?" Is the colloquial English translation surely. No one says "wish for"

[ALarke]

But if you were to ask what someone wished on a birthday cake or shooting star you wouldn't say want. Its not as common a saying, but they do mean separate things in some instances.

[Fizzo83]

Was wünschst du dir, in German. Pretty easy ;-)

[tjack87]

Is it more common to say 'what do you want? Or what would you like? Im guessing a big reason why this is here is so we understand the word önskar and how its used?

[rasdor]

Is there any reason why "what do you wish for yourself" isn't accepted?

[JosVictorA7]

So would a sentence like "What do you wish for her?" look like? "Vad önskar dig henne"?

[Martin18022]

Presumably "Vad önskar du henne?"

[nporter7]

Is there a reason why "What do you wish?" would not be accepted? Is there a difference between WISHING something and wishing FOR something? (In English or Swedish)

[dogomolo]

Wish has several meanings: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/wish

Asking "what do you wish" is not as precise as "what do you wish for". Önska and önska sig are also different: https://svenska.se/tre/?sok=önska

[Marco_1026]

How about "What do you wish?" It is marked wrong.

[dogomolo]

See my answer here. Wish and wish for are different. Wish for is more precise.

[Patty13647]

why is "what do you wish for" incorrect? I'm confused. thanks.

[devalanteriel]

It's not - that's an excellent translation. You really should be marked correct for that one.

[Kunducs]

Would "önskar du sig" work?

[devalanteriel]

No, since sig is a third person singular pronoun. It would be like "what do you wish for herself?", so to speak.

[Kunducs]

Cool. Makes sense. Thank you.

[rogerbayst]

we have been through the "want" and "wish" stuff already- and I disagree with it, but you say that we should translate the Swedish literally so I did and I wrote "What do you wish for yourself" but it was still wrong. I think this is not correct.