Breakdown of Vad pysslar du och dina vänner med?
du
you (singular)
och
and
vännen
the friend
vad
what
din
your (singular; din/ditt/dina)
med
with
pyssla
to tinker
Questions & Answers about Vad pysslar du och dina vänner med?
Why is med at the very end of the sentence?
Just like in English ('What are you busy with?'), Swedish often puts the preposition at the end of a question when the question word (here, vad) connects to that preposition. This is the most natural way to ask this in spoken Swedish. Saying Med vad pysslar du? would sound very stiff and unnatural.
Why use pysslar med instead of just saying Vad gör du...?
While gör just means 'doing', the phrase att pyssla med adds a sense of being busy with an activity, tinkering, or working on a small project. It is a very common and slightly casual way to ask 'What are you guys up to?' in Swedish.
Why does the subject du och dina vänner split the verb pysslar and the preposition med?
In Swedish questions starting with a question word like vad, the verb must come in the second position (the V2 rule). So pysslar comes right after vad. The entire subject (du och dina vänner) then follows the verb, pushing the leftover preposition med to the very end of the clause.
Could I use sina vänner instead of dina vänner here?
No, because the reflexive words sin, sitt, and sina can only refer back to a third-person subject (he, she, it, they). Since the subject here is built around du (you, second person), you must use the standard possessive dina.
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