Breakdown of Vem tillhör pyjamasen i sovsalen?
vem
who
i
in
tillhöra
to belong to
pyjamasen
the pyjamas
sovsalen
the dormitory
Questions & Answers about Vem tillhör pyjamasen i sovsalen?
Since this lesson is about 'vems' (whose), why does this sentence use 'Vem' instead?
You could absolutely ask Vems är pyjamasen? (Whose are the pyjamas?) and it would mean the same thing. However, this sentence uses the verb tillhör (belongs to). Because we are asking 'who' the pyjamas belong to, vem acts as the object of that verb, so we use the standard pronoun vem instead of the possessive vems.
Where is the Swedish word for 'to' in 'belong to'?
The Swedish verb att tillhöra (to belong to) already has the 'to' built into its meaning. It takes a direct object without needing an extra preposition, so you do not need to add a word like till here.
English uses the plural 'pyjamas', so why does pyjamasen act like a singular word here?
Unlike English, Swedish treats a set of sleepwear as a standard singular noun: en pyjamas. By adding the singular definite suffix -en, we get pyjamasen (the pyjamas). If you were talking about multiple pairs of pyjamas, you would use the plural form pyjamasarna.
What is the subject of this sentence, and why does it come after the verb?
The subject is actually pyjamasen, while vem is the object. Swedish follows the V2 (verb-second) rule here: because the question word vem starts the sentence, the verb tillhör must take the second position. This pushes the subject pyjamasen to the spot immediately after the verb. A literal translation would be: 'Whom belongs the pyjamas?'
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