Questions & Answers about Vad hittar flickan där?
Why is there no word for "does" in the Swedish sentence?
English uses "does" to help form questions, but Swedish doesn't do this. Instead, Swedish puts the verb directly after the question word. After vad (what), the verb hittar (finds) comes immediately next. Literally, the sentence is structured as "What finds the girl there?"
Do I pronounce the 'd' at the end of vad?
No, in everyday spoken Swedish, the 'd' in vad is almost always silent. You will hear native speakers pronounce it simply as "va".
Why is the word for girl written as flickan instead of flicka?
Flicka means "a girl", while flickan means "the girl". Instead of using a separate word for "the", Swedish attaches it to the end of the noun. Since flicka is an en-word that ends in a vowel, you just add an -n to make it definite.
Is där (there) related to the question word var (where)?
Yes! They are both location words. Var asks "where", där means "there", and här means "here". Notice how they all end in -r, which in Swedish usually points to a fixed, stationary location.