Indefinite Pronouns (någon, ingen, alla, man) | Swedish Grammar

Indefinite pronouns stand in for people or things you don't name precisely — someone, something, no one, everything, each one. This page covers them as standalone pronouns (words that replace a noun). Their use as determiners before a noun (någon bil, alla böcker) is treated under Quantifiers, and the generic man ("one / you / people") has its own page, The Pronoun man. The one genuinely tricky thing here is the negative pronoun ingen and when Swedish prefers inte någon instead — so we build up to that carefully.

någon / något / några: "someone, something, some"

The positive indefinite comes in three forms that agree in gender and number, mirroring the en / ett / plural split you already know:

Form	Used for	Standalone meaning
någon	common gender / a person	someone, somebody, any(one)
något	neuter / a thing	something, anything
några	plural	some, a few, any

Någon har tagit min plats.

Someone has taken my seat. någon standing alone as the subject — refers to an unidentified person.

Vill du ha något?

Do you want something? något = 'something / anything', neuter, used as the object.

Några av dem stannade kvar.

Some of them stayed behind. några = 'some (people/things)', plural, often with 'av'.

In speech you'll constantly hear the reduced forms nån / nåt / nåra — these are the same words, just colloquial spellings of the everyday pronunciation:

Har du sett nån av killarna idag?

Have you seen any of the guys today? (informal) 'nån' is the spoken reduction of 'någon'.

💡

The full forms någon / något / några are correct in all writing; the short forms nån / nåt / nåra (informal) are how people actually say them and are fine in texts and casual writing. Don't mix the spoken short form into formal prose.

alla / allt: "everyone, everything"

For the universal ("all") pronoun, Swedish splits by a different axis than English. alla = everyone / all (the people or countable things); allt = everything (the whole / mass):

Alla var där utom Erik.

Everyone was there except Erik. alla = 'everyone' (all the people), takes a plural verb.

Allt är klart nu.

Everything is ready now. allt = 'everything' (the whole lot, as a mass), takes a singular verb.

Jag har gjort allt jag kan.

I've done everything I can. allt as the object — the totality of a thing.

Watch the verb agreement: alla is plural (alla var), allt is singular (allt *är*). English "everyone is / everything is" hides this, so it's easy to slip.

var och en, varje, ingenting, någonting

A few more standalone pronouns round out the set:

var och en = each one / everybody (taken individually). Literally "each and one." It is singular and emphasises one-at-a-time:

Var och en måste bestämma själv.

Each one has to decide for themselves. var och en singles out individuals, unlike the collective 'alla'.

ingenting and någonting are the longer, often more emphatic standalone forms of inget and något — nothing and something. They are very common as objects:

Han sa ingenting på hela kvällen.

He said nothing the entire evening. ingenting = 'nothing', a strong standalone object.

Det måste finnas någonting vi kan göra.

There must be something we can do. någonting = 'something', emphatic standalone form.

The negative: ingen / inget / inga — and why it's really inte + någon

Now the heart of the matter. ingen / inget / inga mean no one / nothing / none, and they agree just like någon:

Form	For	Meaning
ingen	common gender / person	no one, nobody, none
inget	neuter / thing	nothing
inga	plural	none, no (ones)

The key insight: ingen is a fusion of inte ("not") + någon ("any"). No one literally is not + anyone. This is why you must never combine them — there is no double negative in Swedish. Ingen already contains the negation:

Ingen kom till mötet.

No one came to the meeting. ingen as subject — it already carries the 'not', so don't add 'inte'.

Jag har ingen bil.

I have no car. / I don't have a car. ingen = inte + någon, fused into one word.

The fully equivalent unpacked version is inte ... någon — and here is the rule that English speakers most need:

In a simple main clause, both Jag har ingen bil and Jag har inte någon bil are correct, and ingen is the more natural, idiomatic choice.
But in a subordinate clause (after att, som, när, etc.) and after certain auxiliaries, Swedish strongly prefers to unpack it into inte ... någon, because the negation inte has to sit in its fixed position after the verb, and the ingen fusion no longer fits the word order comfortably.

Compare:

Jag har ingen bil.

I don't have a car. Main clause — the fused 'ingen' is the natural choice.

Hon sa att jag inte har någon bil.

She said that I don't have a car. (subordinate clause) After 'att', word order forces 'inte' into its slot, and 'någon' carries the rest — 'ingen' is dispreferred here.

Jag har inte sett någon film i år.

I haven't seen any film this year. With the perfect (har sett), 'inte' precedes the participle and 'någon' follows — you don't say 'har ingen film sett'.

The mechanism is word order. Inte belongs in a fixed slot (after the finite verb in a main clause, but before it in a subordinate clause); when there's an auxiliary + participle or a subordinate-clause structure, splitting the negation off as inte and leaving någon with the noun keeps everything in its proper place. Ingen shines exactly when it can sit naturally as a subject or as the object of a single finite verb in a main clause.

💡

Rule of thumb: ingen for the simple main clause (Jag har ingen tid); switch to inte ... någon in subordinate clauses and whenever there's a helping verb + participle (att jag inte har någon tid, jag har inte sett någon). Never use both inte and ingen together — that's a double negative, which Swedish doesn't do. The full treatment is on ingen vs inte någon.

Common Mistakes

❌ Jag har inte ingen bil.

Incorrect — double negative. 'ingen' already means 'not any'; you can't add 'inte' on top.

✅ Jag har ingen bil.

I don't have a car. (or: Jag har inte någon bil.)

❌ Han sa att han har ingen tid. (ingen in a subordinate clause)

Incorrect — in a subordinate clause after 'att', Swedish prefers 'inte ... någon' so 'inte' sits in its slot.

✅ Han sa att han inte har någon tid.

He said that he doesn't have any time.

❌ Jag har ingen sett. (ingen with a perfect tense)

Incorrect — with 'har + participle', unpack to 'inte ... någon': the negation 'inte' precedes the participle.

✅ Jag har inte sett någon.

I haven't seen anyone.

❌ Allt var där. (for 'everyone was there')

Incorrect — for people use 'alla' (plural); 'allt' means 'everything' (a mass) and takes a singular verb.

✅ Alla var där.

Everyone was there.

❌ Vill du ha någon? (for 'do you want something')

Incorrect — for a thing use the neuter 'något'; 'någon' would mean 'someone'.

✅ Vill du ha något?

Do you want something?

Key Takeaways

någon / något / några = someone / something / some — agree by gender and number. Spoken: nån / nåt / nåra (informal).
alla = everyone (plural verb); allt = everything (singular verb). var och en = each one, individually.
ingen / inget / inga = no one / nothing / none, and it is a fusion of inte + någon. Never combine inte and ingen — Swedish has no double negatives.
Use ingen in simple main clauses (Jag har ingen bil); switch to inte ... någon in subordinate clauses and with auxiliary + participle (att jag inte har någon bil), because inte must occupy its fixed word-order slot.

Now practice Swedish

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Swedish→