Learn Swedish: Var cyklar flickan? - Where is the girl cycling?

In Swedish questions that start with a question word like var (where), the verb must always come in the second position. This is called the V2 rule. To keep the verb second, you have to swap the subject (flickan) and the verb (cyklar).

The English translation says 'is cycling', but there is no word for 'is' in the Swedish sentence. Why?

Swedish does not have a direct equivalent to the English 'is doing' form. The single present tense verb cyklar translates to both 'cycles' and 'is cycling'. You should never use är (is) next to another verb to say what someone is currently doing.

I learned that 'girl' is en flicka. Why does it change to flickan here?

In Swedish, you don't use a separate word for 'the'. Instead, you add an ending to the noun. Because flicka is an 'en' word, you add an -n to the end to make it flickan, which means 'the girl'.

Does var work for every type of 'where' question?

You use var when you are asking about a location, meaning where someone or something currently is. If you want to ask about a destination (like 'Where is she going?'), Swedish uses a different word: vart. Since we are asking where her cycling is taking place, we use var.