English uses one word, where, for two different questions: "where are you?" (what place are you in?) and "where are you going?" (what place are you heading to?). Swedish splits them into two words and forces you to choose. var asks about a location — being or staying somewhere. vart asks about a direction — movement toward somewhere. Because English collapses them, learners grab one Swedish word and use it for both, producing Vart är du? ("whereto are you?") or Var ska du? when they mean "where to?" This page drills the split and the one question that resolves it: is something moving?
The rule: the verb decides
Don't think about the English "where." Think about the verb:
- Stay-put verbs — vara (be), bo (live), ligga/sitta/stå (lie/sit/stand), finnas (exist), arbeta (work) → location → var.
- Movement verbs — gå (go/walk), åka/resa (travel), komma (come), springa (run), flytta (move house), ska (be going to) → direction → vart.
| Question | Verb type | English |
|---|---|---|
| Var är du? | be (location) | Where are you? |
| Vart ska du? | go (direction) | Where are you going (to)? |
| Var bor de? | live (location) | Where do they live? |
| Vart flyttade de? | move (direction) | Where did they move (to)? |
Error 1: location asked with vart
The most frequent slip — using vart to ask where something is. There's no movement, so it must be var.
❌ Vart är du?
Incorrect — 'are you' is location, no movement; use var.
✅ Var är du?
Where are you? (location → var)
❌ Vart ligger stationen?
Incorrect — 'lies/is located' is a stay-put verb; use var.
✅ Var ligger stationen?
Where is the station? (ligga = location → var)
Why: vara, ligga, and bo describe where something sits — no destination is involved. The "to" test fails ("where to is the station?" is nonsense), so it's var.
Error 2: direction asked with var
The mirror error — using var with a movement verb, where the destination matters.
❌ Var ska du?
Incorrect (if you mean where to) — 'ska' here points to a destination; use vart.
✅ Vart ska du?
Where are you going? (ska = heading somewhere → vart)
❌ Var åker ni i sommar?
Incorrect — 'travel' is movement toward a place; use vart.
✅ Vart åker ni i sommar?
Where are you travelling this summer? (åka → vart)
Why: gå, åka, ska, flytta all imply a target you're moving toward. The "to" test succeeds ("where to are you going?"), so it's vart. English hides the "to," but Swedish makes you mark it.
Error 3: the embedded (indirect) question
The split survives inside a larger sentence — Jag vet inte var.../vart... The verb in the sub-clause still decides, and learners often default to var here because it "feels" like the basic word.
❌ Jag vet inte var jag ska gå.
Incorrect — the sub-clause verb 'ska gå' is movement; use vart.
✅ Jag vet inte vart jag ska gå.
I don't know where to go. (ska gå → vart)
✅ Jag vet inte var han bor.
I don't know where he lives. (bo = location → var) — contrast: same frame, different verb.
Why: an indirect question keeps the same var/vart logic as a direct one; only the word order changes (no inversion: ...vart jag ska gå, not ...vart ska jag gå). Read the verb in the that-clause: ska gå (movement) → vart; bor (location) → var. The two sentences above are nearly identical in shape and split purely on the verb.
The same logic runs through other place words
Once you see that Swedish marks location versus direction, you'll find the same split in a whole family of place adverbs — and English merges each pair too. Learning them together reinforces the var/vart habit:
| Location (with var-type verbs) | Direction (with vart-type verbs) | English |
|---|---|---|
| här (here) | hit (to here) | here / (to) here |
| där (there) | dit (to there) | there / (to) there |
| hemma (at home) | hem (homeward) | (at) home / home(ward) |
| inne (inside) | in (going in) | inside / in |
| uppe (up, located) | upp (upward) | up there / up |
Jag är hemma nu, men jag kommer hem sent ikväll.
I'm home now, but I'll come home late tonight. hemma = location (är), hem = direction (kommer).
Kom hit! — Nej, jag stannar där jag är.
Come here! — No, I'm staying where I am. hit = movement (kom), där = location (stannar).
So var pairs with här / där / hemma / inne (the located forms), and vart pairs with hit / dit / hem / in (the directional forms). It's one system, not two unrelated facts.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vart bor du?
Incorrect — 'live' is a stay-put verb; use var.
✅ Var bor du?
Where do you live?
❌ Var ska vi äta ikväll? (meaning to what place are we heading)
Incorrect if you mean the destination of going out — 'ska' for going somewhere → vart.
✅ Vart ska vi äta ikväll?
Where are we going to eat tonight? (heading to a place → vart)
❌ Vart är mina nycklar?
Incorrect — asking the location of the keys; use var.
✅ Var är mina nycklar?
Where are my keys?
❌ Jag undrar vart tåget står.
Incorrect — 'står' (stands/is located) is a stay-put verb → var.
✅ Jag undrar var tåget står.
I wonder where the train is standing.
❌ Kom var jag är.
Incorrect — 'kom' is movement, but here you need the place-adverb pair: come TO where I am → hit, and 'where I am' is location → där/var I am.
✅ Kom hit, där jag är.
Come here, where I am. (kom hit = movement; där jag är = location)
Key Takeaways
- var = location ("in what place?"), vart = direction ("to what place?"). English "where" covers both.
- The verb decides: stay-put verbs (vara, bo, ligga, stå) → var; movement verbs (gå, åka, ska, flytta) → vart.
- The "to" test: if you could add "to" in English ("where to?"), use vart; if not, use var.
- In embedded questions the same rule holds — read the verb in the sub-clause (...vart jag ska gå vs ...var han bor).
- The split runs through a whole family: här/hit, där/dit, hemma/hem, inne/in — located form with var-verbs, directional form with vart-verbs.
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- var vs vart (and hit/dit/hem)A2 — English 'where' does two jobs at once; Swedish splits them. var asks about a LOCATION (Var är du? 'Where are you?'), vart asks about a DIRECTION of movement (Vart går du? 'Where are you going?'). The same split runs through här/hit, där/dit, and hemma/hem. The choice is driven by the verb: standing/being verbs take the location word, going/moving verbs take the direction word.
- Place vs Direction Adverbs (här/hit, var/vart)A2 — Swedish keeps a distinction English lost: it has separate adverbs for being somewhere (location) and moving toward somewhere (direction). här 'here' vs hit 'to here', var 'where' vs vart 'where to', hemma 'at home' vs hem 'homeward'. The verb's meaning — be vs go — picks the form, and var vs vart is the single most error-prone pair.
- 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.
- Common Mistakes: OverviewA2 — A map of the errors English speakers actually make in Swedish — V2 inversion failures, BIFF word order, de/dem/dom and sin/hans confusion, en/ett gender, the missing supine/participle split, dropped double-definiteness, do-support smuggled into questions and negation, and literal preposition transfer. Almost all of them trace back to a small set of English habits, so fixing the root habit clears whole families of surface errors at once.