Yes/no questions in Swedish, and the little word jo
How to ask yes/no questions in Swedish by putting the verb first, how Swedes actually answer them, and the word jo that English is missing.
To turn a Swedish statement into a yes/no question, you move the verb to the front. That's the whole mechanism. No helper "do", no extra words, no change to the verb itself. And when it's time to answer, Swedish hands you a word English speakers quickly start wishing they had at home: jo.
Verb first, subject second
Take a statement and flip the first two pieces:
- Du bor i Stockholm. You live in Stockholm.
- Bor du i Stockholm? Do you live in Stockholm?
Where English has to bring in "do", Swedish just leads with the verb:
- Är du trött? Are you tired?
- Har du barn? Do you have children?
- Talar du svenska? Do you speak Swedish?
- Dricker du kaffe? Do you drink coffee?
If you read the V2 word order article, this is the same machinery: a yes/no question is a sentence with nothing in front of the verb.
Answering: ja and nej
Ja is yes, nej is no. In speech you'll also hear the relaxed variants japp and nä, roughly "yep" and "nah".
Swedes rarely leave a bare ja hanging. The idiomatic answer echoes the question with a small tail built on det:
- Är du trött? Ja, det är jag. Yes, I am.
- Har du barn? Ja, det har jag. Yes, I have.
- Bor du i Stockholm? Nej, det gör jag inte. No, I don't.
The pattern: repeat the question's verb if it is är, har or a modal verb like kan (can) or vill (want), and use gör (do) for other verbs: Kan du simma? Ja, det kan jag. Exactly like English tag answers ("yes, I am", "no, I don't"), so your instincts transfer directly.
Jo: the yes that pushes back
Now the good part. When a question contains inte (not), answering it with ja becomes ambiguous, and Swedish refuses to be ambiguous here. To say "yes, actually, I do" against a negative question, the word is jo:
- Dricker du inte kaffe? Don't you drink coffee?
- Jo, varje dag! Yes I do, every day!
Ja would sound broken there. Jo exists precisely to contradict a negative: someone assumes no, and you correct them. French speakers will recognise their "si"; German speakers their "doch". English has no equivalent word, which is why "Don't you drink coffee?" "Yes." is genuinely unclear in English and never unclear in Swedish.
If the negative assumption is right, you answer nej as usual: Dricker du inte kaffe? Nej, jag dricker te. No, I drink tea.
You'll also hear jo as a soft conversation-opener in speech, but that's a habit to notice later. For now: negative question, positive answer, jo.
Hear it as a conversation
Three question-and-answer pairs. Each line is one speaker's turn.
Swedish
— Bor du i Stockholm?
— Ja, det gör jag.
— Talar du svenska?
— Ja, lite.
— Dricker du inte kaffe?
— Jo, varje dag!
English
Do you live in Stockholm?
Yes, I do.
Do you speak Swedish?
Yes, a little.
Don't you drink coffee?
Yes I do, every day!