Questions & Answers about Igår var jag sjuk.
Why is it var jag instead of jag var?
Swedish uses the "verb-second" (V2) rule, meaning the verb must be the second piece of information in a statement. Because the sentence starts with the time word igår (yesterday), the verb var (was) has to come next, pushing the subject jag (I) to the third spot.
Is var the same word used for "where" in Swedish?
Yes, they are spelled and pronounced exactly the same! var means "where" (as in var är du?), but it is also the past tense of att vara (to be), meaning "was" or "were". You can always tell which one it is based on the context of the sentence.
Does var change if the subject is "we" or "they"?
No, it stays exactly the same. Unlike English, which switches between "was" and "were", Swedish verbs never change based on who is doing the action. You will use var for jag var (I was), vi var (we were), and de var (they were).
Would the word sjuk change if the sentence was about more than one person?
Yes, Swedish adjectives change to match the number of people or things. If you wanted to say "We were sick", you would add an -a to the end of the adjective to make it plural: Vi var sjuka. Because jag (I) is just one person, we use the singular base form sjuk.