Questions & Answers about Vem städar rummet nu?
English says "is cleaning", but there is no word for "is" in the Swedish sentence. Why?
In Swedish, there is no separate "is doing" form (present continuous). The present tense verb städar covers both "cleans" and "is cleaning".
Since this is a question, shouldn't the verb come first?
In yes/no questions, the verb does come first. But in a question with a specific question word like Vem (Who), that question word must come first. The verb (städar) takes the second spot to follow the standard Swedish Verb-Second rule.
Why is the word for "the room" rummet and not rumen?
Rum (room) is an ett-word. To make an ett-word definite (to say "the"), you add -et to the end, which gives us rummet. If it were an en-word, you would add -en instead.
If I think multiple people are cleaning the room, do I use a different version of Vem?
No, Vem works for "who" whether you are asking about one person or multiple people. The verb städar also stays exactly the same, since Swedish verbs do not change based on who or how many people are doing the action.
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