Interrogative pronouns are the question words that ask about a noun — who, what, which, whose. Swedish has a small, very usable set: vem (who), vad (what), and vilken / vilket / vilka (which), plus vems (whose). This page covers the words themselves and how to choose between them. The mechanics of building a full question — where the verb goes, inversion, -questions — are handled on Wh-Questions; here, focus on the pronouns.
vem: "who" (and vems: "whose")
vem means who. It is invariable — it never changes for number or gender, and Swedish does not distinguish who from whom the way careful English does. The same vem asks about a subject or an object:
Vem är det?
Who is it? vem as the subject — the bread-and-butter question.
Vem ringde du igår?
Who(m) did you call yesterday? Same vem, now the object of 'ringde' — no separate 'whom' form.
Vem av er har nyckeln?
Which of you has the key? vem av... = 'who among', a very common pattern.
The possessive form is vems — whose — formed by adding -s, just as Swedish nouns form the genitive. It sits directly before the noun it asks about:
Vems bok är det här?
Whose book is this? vems + noun, no article in between.
Vems är den röda jackan?
Whose is the red jacket? vems can also stand alone as a predicate.
vad: "what"
vad means what. It too is invariable and is used for open-ended questions about things, ideas, or actions — when no specific set of options is in view:
Vad heter du?
What's your name? Literally 'what are you called' — note Swedish uses vad + heta here, not 'vilken'.
Vad gör du i helgen?
What are you doing this weekend? An open question — any answer is possible.
Vad är det här?
What is this? Pointing at an unknown object.
A useful idiom: vad för (en/ett/...) means what kind of / what sort of. The för signals you want a description or category, not just an identity. The en/ett agrees with the noun (or can be dropped):
Vad för en bil har du köpt?
What kind of car have you bought? vad för en = 'what sort of', asking about type, not which specific one.
Vad för musik gillar du?
What kind of music do you like? With mass/abstract nouns the 'en' drops out.
vilken / vilket / vilka: "which" — and it AGREES
Here is the point English speakers most need to absorb. English which is a single frozen word — which car, which house, which books, all the same. Swedish vilken agrees with the noun in gender and number, exactly like an adjective or article:
| Form | Used with | Example |
|---|---|---|
| vilken | common-gender (en-word) singular | Vilken bil? |
| vilket | neuter (ett-word) singular | Vilket hus? |
| vilka | plural (any gender) | Vilka böcker? |
Vilken bil är din?
Which car is yours? bil is an en-word → vilken.
Vilket hus köpte de?
Which house did they buy? hus is an ett-word → vilket.
Vilka böcker har du läst?
Which books have you read? plural → vilka, regardless of the noun's gender.
So before you say "which," you must know the noun's gender and number and pick the matching form. This is extra work English never asks of you — but it is the same en/ett/plural agreement you already meet in articles and adjectives, so it is one consistent system rather than a new one.
vilken vs vad: choosing from a set vs the open question
English uses what and which somewhat loosely, but Swedish draws a sharper line, and using the wrong one sounds off. The rule:
- vilken asks you to choose from a known, limited set of options. The choices are already on the table — pick one.
- vad asks an open question with no predefined options. Any answer is fair game.
Vilken vill du ha — den röda eller den blå?
Which one do you want — the red or the blue? A fixed set of two; vilken selects among them.
Vad vill du ha?
What do you want? Wide open — no menu of options implied.
Vilken dag passar dig bäst?
Which day suits you best? The days of the week are a known set → vilken.
The same contrast governs the classic trap with names and identities. To ask someone's name you say Vad heter du? — but to ask which of several known films, songs, or teams, you use vilken:
Vilken film såg ni? — Den nya James Bond-filmen.
Which film did you see? — The new James Bond one. A specific film out of all films currently showing → vilken.
Vad är huvudstaden i Sverige?
What is the capital of Sweden? An open factual question, not a choice from a displayed set → vad.
If you can mentally point at a row of options and say "this one," use vilken (in the right form). If the field is wide open, use vad.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vilken hus köpte de?
Incorrect — 'hus' is an ett-word, so 'which' must agree as vilket, not vilken.
✅ Vilket hus köpte de?
Which house did they buy?
❌ Vilken böcker har du läst?
Incorrect — 'böcker' is plural, so 'which' is vilka, not the singular vilken.
✅ Vilka böcker har du läst?
Which books have you read?
❌ Vad film såg ni? (asking which of a known set)
Incorrect — choosing from the films on offer calls for vilken/vilket, not the open-question vad.
✅ Vilken film såg ni?
Which film did you see?
❌ Vilken är din namn? (for 'what's your name')
Incorrect — names use 'Vad heter du?'; this also wrongly applies vilken to 'namn' (an ett-word).
✅ Vad heter du?
What's your name?
❌ Vem bok är det? (for 'whose book')
Incorrect — 'whose' needs the possessive vems, not bare vem.
✅ Vems bok är det?
Whose book is it?
Key Takeaways
- vem = who (and whom — one form). vems = whose, made with -s, placed before the noun.
- vad = what, for open questions; vad för (en) = "what kind of."
- vilken / vilket / vilka = which, and unlike English it agrees with the noun: vilken (en-word), vilket (ett-word), vilka (plural). Always know the noun's gender and number first.
- Choose vilken when picking from a known set of options, vad for an open question — a distinction English blurs.
- Don't say Vilken är ditt namn? for "what's your name" — names use Vad heter du?
Now practice Swedish
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Start learning Swedish→Related Topics
- 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.
- Relative Pronouns (som, vilken, vars)B1 — Swedish gets by with one all-purpose relative word, som — it covers 'who', 'whom', 'which' and 'that' for people and things, as subject or object alike. The catch English speakers miss: som can be dropped when it's the object (boken jag läste) but never when it's the subject (boken som handlar om...), and Swedish strands its prepositions at the end (mannen som jag bor med) far more naturally than English does — while the pied-piping you'd reach for in English (mannen med vilken...) is stiff and bookish here.
- Demonstratives (den här, den där, denna)A2 — Swedish's two demonstrative systems and the trap that sits between them: the everyday two-word den här / det här / de här ('this/these') and den där / det där / de där ('that/those') take a DEFINITE noun (den här bilen), while the formal one-word denna / detta / dessa take a BARE noun (denna bil, never *denna bilen). The noun form FLIPS between the two systems — the exact contrast most resources never line up side by side.