The Relative Possessive: Vars
When you want to connect two sentences by talking about someone's (or something's) possessions, you use a relative possessive pronoun. In English, this is "whose". In Swedish, it is vars.
| whose | vars |
How to Use Vars
Just like in English, vars sits between the noun you are describing and the thing that belongs to it. It introduces a relative clause that gives us more information about the subject.
When using vars, the noun that immediately follows it (the possessed item) stays in its indefinite form. You do not add a definite suffix (like -en or -et), because the word vars already makes the ownership specific.
| The dog whose owner is sleeping is barking. | Hunden vars ägare sover skäller. |
| The owner whose dog has black fur is nervous. | Ägaren vars hund har svart päls är nervös. |
One Word For Everything
A great thing about vars is that it is completely invariable. It never changes form! You use the exact same word whether the possessed item is an en word, an ett word, or a plural noun.
| I prefer the breed whose dogs are obedient. | Jag föredrar rasen vars hundar är lydiga. |
| The judge whose dogs are obedient likes the performance. | Domaren vars hundar är lydiga tycker om uppvisningen. |
Describing Features and Characteristics
You will often use vars to describe parts of a whole, such as an animal's physical features or the quality of a performance.
| The dog whose tail is long is starting the performance. | Hunden vars svans är lång börjar uppvisningen. |
| The dog whose performance is best gets the reward. | Hunden vars uppvisning är bäst får belöningen. |