Swedish question words: vad, var, vem, när, hur, varför
The Swedish question words with examples, the var/vart distinction English speakers miss, and the hur combinations you'll use every day.
Once you can ask vad, var, vem, när, hur and varför, you can keep a Swedish conversation alive indefinitely: people love answering questions. Here are the question words, their traps, and the combinations worth learning as chunks.
The core set
The word order is the familiar one: question word first, verb second, subject third. This is the V2 rule doing its usual job, so there is no new grammar to learn here, just new words.
Var or vart: where, and where to
Swedish splits English "where" into two words, and mixing them up is so common that Swedes do it themselves:
- var asks about a location: Var är du? Where are you?
- vart asks about a direction, a movement toward somewhere: Vart går du? Where are you going?
Rule of thumb: if the answer would contain "to" in English (to work, to Malmö), the question word is vart. If the answer is a place you can stand still in, it's var.
The hur combinations
Hur teams up with other words to make question phrases you'll use constantly. Learn these as ready-made chunks:
- Hur mycket kostar det? How much does it cost?
- Hur många barn har du? How many children do you have?
- Hur gammal är du? How old are you?
- Hur säger man det på svenska? How do you say that in Swedish?
That last one, together with Vad heter det på svenska?, is your key to turning every Swede you meet into a free teacher.
Vilken, vilket, vilka: which
The word for "which" agrees with the noun's gender and number, the same en/ett system from the noun gender article:
- Vilken buss går till Uppsala? Which bus goes to Uppsala? (en word)
- Vilket hus bor du i? Which house do you live in? (ett word)
- Vilka dagar arbetar du? Which days do you work? (plural)
If that agreement feels like a lot right now, park it. Vilken covers you in most spoken situations while you learn, and the pattern will click once adjective agreement arrives at A2.
Hear a real exchange
A short first-meeting conversation built almost entirely on question words. Each line is one speaker's turn.
Swedish
— Hej! Vad heter du?
— Jag heter Amir.
— Var bor du?
— Jag bor i Malmö nu.
— Hur mår du i dag?
— Jag mår bra, tack!
English
Hi! What's your name?
My name is Amir.
Where do you live?
I live in Malmö now.
How are you today?
I'm fine, thanks!