Breakdown of Vad brukar ni göra på måndagar?
ni
you (plural, subject)
vad
what
göra
to do, to make
på
on / at / for (wait for) / in (believe in)
Questions & Answers about Vad brukar ni göra på måndagar?
Why does the sentence use "på måndagar" to mean "on Mondays"?
In Swedish, to talk about a habit that happens on a certain day of the week, you use the preposition på followed by the plural, indefinite form of the day. So på måndagar literally means "on Mondays" and shows that this is a recurring routine.
Why is there no separate word for "usually" in the Swedish sentence?
Swedish uses a specific verb for this: brukar, which means "to be in the habit of". Instead of using an extra describing word like "usually", Swedish uses brukar as a helper verb, followed directly by the action in its infinitive (dictionary) form (göra).
Does "ni" mean the speaker is being formal with the person they are talking to?
No, in modern everyday Swedish, ni is simply the plural "you" (like "you guys" or "y'all"). The speaker is asking a group of people what they usually do. If you wanted to ask just one person, you would change ni to du.
Why does the subject "ni" come after the verb "brukar"?
This is because of the Swedish verb-second (V2) rule. In a question starting with a question word like Vad (What), that question word takes the first position. The verb brukar must be in the second position, so the subject ni gets pushed to the spot right after it.