Questions & Answers about Hej, vad gör du?
Why does the translation say "are you doing" when there is no word for "are" in the Swedish sentence?
Swedish doesn't have a separate "-ing" verb form for things happening right now (the present continuous tense). The standard present tense verb gör covers both "do" and "are doing". Because of this, vad gör du is the normal way to ask both "what are you doing" and "what do you do".
Is the letter d in vad pronounced?
Usually, no. In everyday spoken Swedish, the d at the end of vad is almost always dropped, making it sound exactly like "va".
Why is the word order gör du (do you) instead of du gör (you do)?
Whenever a Swedish sentence starts with a question word like vad (what), the verb must come immediately after it in the second position. This pushes the subject du (you) until after the verb gör (do).
Would the verb gör change if I wanted to ask a group of people what they are doing?
No, Swedish verbs never change their endings based on who is doing the action. If you are talking to multiple people, you simply change the pronoun to the plural "you" (ni), creating the sentence vad gör ni, but the verb gör remains exactly the same.
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