When you report a question rather than a statement, two things change. First, the question becomes a subordinate clause and loses its inversion — the verb goes back behind the subject. Second, you choose the right subordinator: om ("whether/if") for yes/no questions, the question word itself for wh-questions. Underlying it all is one clean contrast that English speakers already command: om questions whether something is true; att asserts that it is true. This page drills the reported question and nails down om vs att.
Yes/no questions: report with om
A direct yes/no question has inversion — Kommer han? ("Is he coming?"). To report it, introduce the clause with om ("whether/if") and drop the inversion, restoring subject-before-verb order:
Jag vet inte om han kommer.
I don't know whether he's coming. Direct: 'Kommer han?' (inverted). Reported: 'om han kommer' — subject before verb.
Hon frågade om jag var hemma.
She asked whether I was home. Direct: 'Är du hemma?' becomes 'om jag var hemma' — no inversion, and the present 'är' has backshifted to 'var'.
Om here is the "indirect-question" om — "whether," the thing in doubt. It is the same word as conditional om ("if") but a different job: this om opens a question being reported, not a condition.
Wh-questions: the question word becomes the subordinator
For a wh-question, you do not add a separate subordinator — the question word itself (var, vad, när, vem, hur, varför) does that job. And again, the inversion disappears:
Jag undrar vad du menar.
I wonder what you mean. Direct: 'Vad menar du?' (vad + verb + subject). Reported: 'vad du menar' — vad + subject + verb.
Jag vet inte när tåget går.
I don't know when the train leaves. Direct: 'När går tåget?' becomes 'när tåget går' — the inversion is gone.
Säg mig var du bor.
Tell me where you live. Direct: 'Var bor du?' becomes 'var du bor' — subordinate order.
The full inventory of question words is on Wh-Questions; the general behavior of subordinators is on Subordinating Conjunctions.
The de-inversion is the whole point
Notice the single mechanical change running through every example: the inversion is undone. A Swedish question puts the finite verb in second position, right after the question word (or first, in a yes/no question). The moment that question is embedded as a reported clause, it becomes subordinate, and subordinate clauses follow BIFF order — conjunction/question-word, then subject, then verb. So:
| Direct question (inverted) | Reported (subordinate, no inversion) |
|---|---|
| Var bor du? | ...var du bor |
| Vad vill han? | ...vad han vill |
| Kommer hon? | ...om hon kommer |
om vs att: questioned vs asserted
This is the contrast that organizes everything. Both om and att introduce subordinate clauses, but they sit at opposite ends of a polarity axis:
- att = "that" — the fact is asserted, presented as holding. You're stating it.
- om = "whether/if" — the fact is questioned, its truth is open. You don't know, or you're asking.
English makes exactly the same split with "that" vs "if/whether," so the mapping is clean — yet learners reach for att too often, because att is the more frequent word. Anchor it on the axis: asserted (att) vs questioned (om).
Jag vet att han kommer.
I know that he's coming. ASSERTED — I'm sure of it. att = 'that'.
Jag vet inte om han kommer.
I don't know whether he's coming. QUESTIONED — his coming is in doubt. om = 'whether'.
The minimal pair makes the logic visible: with att, the coming is a settled fact you're reporting; with om, the coming is the very thing in question. Flip the verb to a doubt-verb (undra, "wonder"; fråga, "ask"; tvivla på, "doubt") and you'll almost always need om; keep a knowledge-verb in the positive (veta, "know"; tro, "believe"; säga, "say") and you'll usually need att.
Hon frågade om mötet var inställt, men jag visste att det var det.
She asked whether the meeting was cancelled, but I knew that it was. om for the question, att for the asserted fact — side by side.
Det beror på om du har tid.
It depends on whether you have time. 'depend on' inherently questions, so om — never att here.
Common Mistakes
❌ Jag vet inte att han kommer. (for 'I don't know whether he's coming')
Incorrect for 'whether' — 'att' asserts the fact. With 'don't know', the coming is in doubt, so use 'om'. (Jag vet inte att han kommer would mean 'I'm not aware that he's coming'.)
✅ Jag vet inte om han kommer.
I don't know whether he's coming. om = the open, questioned fact.
❌ Jag undrar var bor du.
Incorrect — a reported wh-question drops the inversion: var + subject + verb.
✅ Jag undrar var du bor.
I wonder where you live.
❌ Hon frågade att jag var hemma.
Incorrect — a reported yes/no question uses 'om' (whether), not 'att' (that).
✅ Hon frågade om jag var hemma.
She asked whether I was home.
❌ Det beror på att du har tid.
Wrong meaning for 'it depends on whether' — 'beror på att' means 'is because'. For the conditional 'depends on whether', use 'om'.
✅ Det beror på om du har tid.
It depends on whether you have time.
Key Takeaways
- Report yes/no questions with om ("whether/if"); report wh-questions with the question word as the subordinator.
- Every reported question drops the inversion and follows BIFF order: subject before verb (...var du bor, not ...var bor du).
- om = questioned (whether, open); att = asserted (that, settled). English "if/whether" vs "that" maps directly.
- Doubt/ask verbs (undra, fråga, tvivla, bero på) pull om; positive knowledge/saying verbs (veta, tro, säga) pull att.
- Don't default to att — when the truth is in question, it must be om.
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- Reported (Indirect) SpeechB2 — Turning someone's words into a report: the att-clause, the tense backshift in past reports (present to preteritum, perfect to pluperfect), pronoun and deixis shifts (jag to hon, här to där, imorgon to dagen efter), and the de-inversion that turns a question into a subordinate clause (var jag bodde, not var bodde jag).
- att-ClausesB1 — att is the complementizer 'that' — the word that turns a clause into the object or subject of a verb (Jag vet att han kommer). Like English 'that', it can be dropped after common verbs of saying and thinking (Jag tror (att) han sover), but the subordinate BIFF order STAYS even when att disappears. Inside an att-clause 'inte' sits before the verb. Keep att (complementizer) firmly distinct from och (and) and from infinitive-marker att.
- Wh-Questions (Question Words)A1 — Information questions in Swedish put a question word first (vad, var, vem, när, hur, varför...) and keep the verb SECOND: Vad gör du? Var bor han? När kommer tåget? There is no 'do' to add. And when the question word IS the subject (Vem ringde?), there is no inversion at all — the question word already fills the first slot.
- Subordinating Conjunctions (att, om, när, eftersom)B1 — The words that open a subordinate clause and force it into BIFF order: att (that), om (if/whether), när (when), då (when/since), eftersom and därför att (because), fast/fastän (although), medan (while), innan (before), sedan (after/since), så att (so that). All of them push the sentence adverb — especially 'inte' — to BEFORE the finite verb. Two notorious pairs to get right: när vs då, and the subordinator därför att (because, BIFF) vs the adverb därför (therefore, main-clause inversion).