av (of, by) and Possession | Swedish Grammar

The little word av is one of the busiest prepositions in Swedish, and it is a magnet for error because English speakers reach for it whenever they want to say "of." That instinct is usually wrong. English packs an enormous range of relationships into the single word "of," and Swedish unpacks them across three different devices: the -s genitive for possession, the preposition av for partitive, material and agent, and the preposition på for intrinsic attributes. This page teaches what av actually does — and, just as importantly, where you should not use it.

av as the passive agent: "by"

When a sentence is turned into the passive, the doer of the action — the agent — is introduced with av. This is the Swedish equivalent of English "by" in painted *by Anna. Note that this is "by" in the sense of agency, not the "by" of location (which is *vid or bredvid).

Tavlan målades av en ung konstnär.

The painting was painted by a young artist. av introduces the agent — the one who did the painting.

Boken är skriven av en kvinna som ingen kände till.

The book is written by a woman nobody had heard of. skriven av — the agent of a passive.

Bron förstördes av en storm förra vintern.

The bridge was destroyed by a storm last winter. av marks the cause/agent in the passive.

This use of av pairs naturally with the passive, whether it is the -s passive or the bli/vara passive — see The bli-passive. The agent phrase is optional: Swedish, like English, very often leaves it out (Tavlan målades "the painting was painted"), and in fact a passive without an agent is the more common reason to choose the passive at all.

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If you can rephrase your English sentence as "...was VERB-ed by X," then X gets av in Swedish. This is the one "by/of" case where av is reliably correct.

av for material and composition: "(made) of"

To say what something is made of, Swedish uses av. This is the "of" of substance and composition, and here English and Swedish line up cleanly.

Bordet är gjort av massiv ek.

The table is made of solid oak. gjord/gjort av + material.

Hon hade en halsduk av ren ull.

She had a scarf of pure wool. av names the material the scarf is made from.

Muren byggdes av sten som de hämtade från ån.

The wall was built of stone they fetched from the river. av + material.

A caution that trips up English speakers: when "of material" simply describes a type of thing, Swedish very often prefers a compound instead of an av-phrase. A wooden house is ett trähus, not ett hus av trä; a stone wall is en stenmur. Use av when you are stating what a specific object is made from; use a compound when you are naming a category of object. See Compounding for when to fuse the words instead.

av for partition: "of (a whole)"

To pick out a part of a larger whole — some of, many of, half of, the rest of — Swedish uses av. This is the partitive av, and it is one of the safest uses.

Många av dem hade aldrig varit utomlands.

Many of them had never been abroad. många av + the group it's drawn from.

Jag åt bara en bit av kakan.

I only ate one piece of the cake. en bit av — a part of a whole.

Hälften av klassen var sjuk den veckan.

Half of the class was ill that week. hälften av — partitive.

av locked into verbs

A large set of verbs simply governs av — the preposition is part of the verb's lexical entry and carries no separately predictable meaning. You memorize these as units, the way you learn verb + preposition combinations generally.

Verb + av	Meaning	Example
bestå av	to consist of	Teamet består av fyra personer.
leva av	to live on / make a living from	Hon lever av sin pension.
tröttna på / vara trött på	(contrast: "tired" takes på, not av)	Jag är trött på regnet.
dö av	to die of/from	Han dog av en hjärtattack.

Frukosten bestod av bröd, ost och en kopp kaffe.

Breakfast consisted of bread, cheese and a cup of coffee. bestå av — fixed government.

De levde av vad havet gav dem.

They lived off what the sea gave them. leva av — to subsist on.

The big one: "of" is NOT always av

Here is the insight that saves you from the most common av error. English "of" hides a three-way distinction that Swedish makes overt:

Possession / belonging → the -s genitive. Anna's book / the book of Anna is Annas bok — never boken av Anna. Whenever "of" could be rephrased as a possessive ('s), use the genitive -s, not av.
Part / material / agent → av. A piece of the cake, made of wood, painted by Anna — these take av, as above.
Intrinsic attribute → på. The colour of the car, the size of the room, the end of the film — an inherent property or measurement of a thing — is very often expressed with på, or with a genitive/compound, but almost never with av.

Watch the colour example, which is the textbook trap:

Bilens färg gillar jag inte.

I don't like the car's colour. The -s genitive: bilens färg, treating it as 'the car's colour'.

Vilken färg är det på bilen?

What colour is the car? With på: färgen på bilen — the colour 'on' the car. NOT 'färgen av bilen'.

And the "end of X" case, where av genuinely is idiomatic (because it is partitive — the end is a part of the film):

Jag somnade före slutet av filmen.

I fell asleep before the end of the film. slutet av — here av is correct, because the end is a part of the whole.

So the same English frame "the X of Y" lands in three different Swedish constructions depending on the relationship: Annas bok (possession), slutet av filmen (part of a whole), färgen på bilen (inherent attribute). There is no single rule that picks for you; you have to read the relationship.

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Before you write av for "of," ask: is this possession? If you could say "Y's X" in English, use the -s genitive (Annas bok), not av. Save av for parts, materials and passive agents.

Common Mistakes

❌ färgen av bilen

Incorrect — an intrinsic attribute takes på (or the genitive), not av.

✅ färgen på bilen / bilens färg

the colour of the car.

❌ boken av Anna

Incorrect — possession is the -s genitive, not an av-phrase.

✅ Annas bok

Anna's book / the book of Anna.

❌ ett hus av trä (for 'a wooden house' as a type)

Incorrect as a type label — Swedish compounds this: trähus. (av trä is fine for 'made of wood' about a specific object.)

✅ ett trähus

a wooden house.

❌ Teamet är av fyra personer.

Incorrect — 'consist of' is the fixed verb bestå av, not 'vara av'.

✅ Teamet består av fyra personer.

The team consists of four people.

❌ Tavlan målades vid Anna.

Incorrect — vid is locational 'by/near'; the passive agent 'by' is av.

✅ Tavlan målades av Anna.

The painting was painted by Anna.

Key Takeaways

av covers three "of/by" jobs: the passive agent ("by": skriven av), material/composition (gjord av trä), and partition (många av dem, slutet av filmen).
A set of verbs govern av lexically — bestå av, leva av, dö av — learned as fixed units.
English "of" splits three ways in Swedish: -s genitive for possession (Annas bok), av for part/material/agent, på for intrinsic attributes (färgen på bilen).
The classic error is using av for possession or for an inherent attribute. If "of" means "'s," use the genitive; if it names a property, reach for på first.
For "of material" used as a category, prefer a compound (trähus, stenmur) over av.

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